Bangalore...erm..pardon me....Bangaluru...

This vacation I’d been to Bangalore. Guess what! It was explosive! The city was just thrown at me when I least expected it. Bangalore’s persona radiated wavelengths of a ‘mega polis in making’. The city was like a point of focus where different urban cultures converged. It was a world of people, a mosaic of humanity, rather. The potential of this budding city seems to lie with its population, particularly, the younger part of it. But somewhere tucked away in the shadows of this metropolis I felt the vibes of that part of the city which was like a beautiful girl in distress and her crying eyes were bringing down the mascara with it. This was the heart of darkness of the city where slum is the kingdom and beggars were the rulers. This was the unfortunate diversity that belonged to Bangalore. But if you are amidst the high tide, this city is really hip n’ happening

The naked mountain

I feel a sense of guilt to tell you that I was born majestic. Yes, it is the remorse of the invincible when he is brought down to his knees.

There was once a time when I raised to the top of the world, Stood my ground firm against all odds. I ruled the world adorned with the crown of snow cap symbolizing my supremacy. Naked of any fear as I was, they called me ‘the naked mountain’.
The chilly snow storms that banged my back were not more than a mere puff of air. The mighty oceans froze at my foot. My family grew leaps and bounds over my widely stretched arms.

My magnificence grew over centuries until one day when I felt a crawling on my chest.
I saw moving dots. Then came some more dots following and more and more…
They were the creatures that were trekking to ‘conquer’ me. I pitied their courage. A few days passed and the creatures were on my peak. They poked a flag over my head and declared I was conquered. Me? Conquered? These people must be nuts! Or were they?

Days passed as I dozed off in the coziness of the cold. When I woke up, I saw a faint grey fog passing me by. I traced the trail back to the long chimney of an establishment under me. It was them, those who claimed I was conquered. They were back and were in huge numbers now. They set up this so called ‘factories’ to exploit the resources under me for their survival. Well, a little generosity from me wouldn’t hurt. After all, what harm could those puny creatures bring to me? I allowed them to drill through me to get oil from my depths. With every passing day, the smoke from the factories thickened and I felt my inners being drained out. It started getting warmer day by day. Was warmth really a hurdle for a mighty like me to reckon with? I surely didn’t think so then, as I didn’t comprehend what awaited me.

It was not long before a huge settlement of various power plants sprouted up everywhere around me. My once snow white bottom turned into the colony of humans. As their intrusion progressed, the temperature shot up steadily. They then built paths under me for their vehicles to tread over. The emissions from their vehicles further aggravated the rising heat. Then, my snow clad peak started wearing off as it trickled down in the form of streams. My thick snow cover was reduced to a skimpy smear over me. The smoke grew darker and grimmer with every passing day. The toxins and heat they unleashed drained my cover into a flowing stream of chemicals that further wore me down. These poisoned waters drained into my rivers, their rivulets and finally into the sea, thus, contaminating nature. The outrageous heat melted me down completely. The hot gases never ceased heating up. When I was exhausted possibly of every available resource, I was rendered alone. My peak was no more and all exuberance was thawed out. The whole world seemed to have been scorched. I looked around only to find my snow kingdom mercilessly taken down by the ‘warming’ demon. Yes, they did conquer me and I still am the ‘naked mountain’, only this time, naked everything that I thought was mine.