After much hype and excited anticipation, disappointed fans had to go home on Saturday, after the rains played spoiler to the first India-Australia ODI being played at the Chinnaswamy stadium. They could not watch the second half of the ODI,  specially their men in blue bat.

Just as it was unacceptable for the nearly 55,000 strong fans,  who had bought tickets and gone to watch the match at the stadium, to return home without getting value for their money, it was equally disappointing for those watching the match on big screens at clubs and other places in the city, or at their homes. 

Cricket, as they say, is a religion in the country and when a cricket match is being played in the city, almost the entire city had set aside everything else to watch the game. Although it is easy to blame the sudden rains for the match being called off, there were reports that the stadium was badly equipped to mop up the extra water from the outfield.  And this, in a global, hi-tech city that has only recently been declared as an A-I city.  The water just stayed there and the drainage system of the city was once again under fire.

But don't we as citizens have the right to question our authorities when we are dealt with unfairly?

It was almost as though resigned to poor infrastructure, bad drainage systems, terrible roads, that we bear with every weekday, a flooded stadium had no power to faze us over the weekend.

For most Bangaloreans, on a rainy day, simply returning home from work becomes a hazardous journey to undertake, when you could be thrown off balance by a brimming pothole, swallowed by a manhole or felled by a tree.

A mild shower is enough to flood main roads and even highways.  For instance  we objected only when the flooding of Hosur road a fortnight ago, held up traffic for nearly five hours.

But why are we silent when we are held up for nearly an hour on Hosur road every week day during peak hours, without fail, because an upcoming flyover has ensured that the road beside it is full of potholes and craters. And nobody has yet bothered to set this right.

If this is ok to happen on a major road leading to Electronic city, where most of our hi-tech IT companies are situated, showcasing Bangalore and India to the world, what is a stadium after all?
But is this acceptable? Given that the authorities are apathetic to the poor infrastructure of the city, but why are we as citizens silent too?