Rajkumar death: Bangalore population’s lack of spine exposed yet again

I can be called as a bona fide man to comment on Bangalore and Bangaloreans. I spent the best years of my life in the city for my graduation and post-graduation from the Bangalore University.

I have had a very good time out here in my five and half-year tenure as a strapping young student from Bihar who never saw so many neon lights in his life as the Commercial, MG and Brigade had to display. That was in the mid-nineties through 2000.

The best thing about Bangalore then was the free society, the pubs, the bars in every corner and the babes with the shortest skirts you would ever see. I fluctuated between New Papareddypalya to Puttanahalli in JP Nagar where a hyacinth-infested lake stifled many a bird (at least that’s what I believed). The favourite joints in both the places were Swamis’ eateries. The Papareddypalya Swami died (I learnt about that in 2004) and Puttanahalli changed beyond words. The Oxford Dental College and the Oxford Physiotherapy College were no longer what they were during the times of Vismadh and Jasmeet. Of course Bob and Mickey, the Papareddypalya refugees to Puttanahalli weren’t there as well.

The worst thing about Bangalore was that the locals who prided in calling themselves ‘Bangalore localites’. They believed that it was a godsend opportunity for them to milk the students from other than south India in whatever possible way they could for money. Little they did understand that there were many stories behind each guy/gal sent to Bangalore for studies and how their families arranged money. They were always on the lookout for the slightest opening that could be exploited for some quick cash.

“Oh you have a bike? No probs just surrender us the papers; take 15K @ 20% interest on the principal a month. Yes, we would definitely deduct the first month’s interest right at the time when we give you the cash. As long as we are there and you have something to pawn, never worry about cash.”

Young guys were taken in. They boozed, made merry and lost everything, often their educational careers as well. Even the private colleges were run by blood-thirsty vampires like the ones in Papareddypalya and JP Nagar. Yes, blood-sucking money-minded vampires they were, an overwhelming population of heartless, unsympathetic and thick-skinned bastards, who would not hesitate to pimp their own mothers’ asses.

In autumn 2000 I went there along with a guy whom I used to study with in Bangalore to get his mentally screwed brother checked in National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS). I had to wait in the specimen collection centre to get the result of his blood test when I blundered calling Mickey to pick me up from – the specimen collection centre! Well, he couldn’t help but tell me that he knew all the while that I would indeed end up in the ‘Specimen Collection Centre’ of NIMHANS one day!

[Nah, I ain’t a mental case or a specimen to be showcased in the NIMHANS Specimen Collection Centre.]

Anyway, during that time the ‘encountered’ brigand Koose Muniswamy Veerappa alias Veerappan abducted the Kannada actor Dr. Rajkumar. For the 11 days we had been there, there weren’t any bar open, no entertainment, nothing. We had to pay the ‘localites’ twice the amount for our booze during the stay. Then, when we returned without seeing any improvement on the mental status of the psycho, the bars suddenly opened. Rajkumar was released and he landed in Bangalore in a chopper; just like it happens in the movies he acted in. It wasn’t that the local population wasn’t quenched of their ‘spiritual thirst’ during the abduction drama; there was always the bootlegger round the corner, the CSD canteens and of course the Tamil Nadu border.

Ok, the old actor died, he was 77 and quite ripe to die given his lifestyle (that I am simply not interested to elaborate here). The chap whose release from an outlaw cost 100s of crores of rupees for both the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments, on whose release efforts by the public by the way of shutdowns of commercial establishments cost the exchequers of both the states by the millions and who at the end of the day chose to pay a ransom of 30, 00, 00,000 rupees (about 8 million US dollars then) is simply not worth any respect.

Acting on movies and in the process entertaining people is one thing, but engaging in criminal activities with a staged drama of getting kidnapped by a top outlaw with the intention of financially helping the brigand is another thing.

I don’t want to disrespect the guy who had a fan-base in the entire Kannadiga population, for all the members in the population don’t deserve rebuke.

What I want to bring to the attention of all of you here reading this as well as the Bangalore localites is the fact that despite priding yourself as the most advanced population in terms of silicon technology, do you have the count of how many cricket matches you chose to expose your uncivilized existence?

Rioting (causing deaths) on the death of a man whom you worshipped as the god you never had is a perfect example of the culture that I saw during my student days there, which is, deriving some sadistic pleasure out of others’ misery.

The ones who burnt the cars of people were simply jealous of the cars that glittered in their eyes. The government banned festive hunting, there, yet they continued doing so. Go to Shivagi Nagar or Kalasipalya, you would see how sadistically they thrash and prod the bulls into pulling massive amounts of loads.

This is in the city of animal welfare, information technology and numerous private institutions offering the ‘very best of education’.

The phenomenon of Bangaloreans getting berserk is not the main thing here, for they are yet to evolve to the level of civilized humans. The objection here is that despite exposing themselves like this, they still are shameless and audacious enough to call themselves ‘advanced’.

I am laughing now. Shame on you Bangaloreans.


[Please note that by the word Bangaloreans, I have meant an overwhelming majority of the local Bangalore inhabitants that include (apart from the Kannadigas) most of the 3rd generations of the immigrants from parts of the country other than the South and 2nd generations of South Indians settled there.]