The 'back' road to Whitefield

Visitors arriving by air to Bengaluru and taking a taxi from the airport to Whitefield are offered a choice -- would you like to go through the city road or the ‘back’ road. You wonder what “back” would mean; is ‘back’ being used as an adverb, verb, or adjective? Then comes “lesser traffic, sir.” That clinches it, and you do not care. You say, yes.

What he does not tell you, and which you discover soon, is that the back road is a back-of-the-beyond road. Lonely, bumpy, marred with crater type holes and sparsely populated You cautiously peer out to see some more vehicles moving, and it surely looks safe. You are in Bengaluru, and people here are nice; it is just the roads that are not, you reason.

You see familiar faces of actors on billboards and get further comforted. Especially of our man from Canada advertising TMT bars. And so are many other obviously local stars. You wonder if these overpaid souls even know that TMT stands for thermo-mechanically treated bars. You wonder why any builder will buy a TMT bar just because these worthies flex their photoshopped triceps and say that it is strong.

Your driver informs you that you have reached Budigere Cross. You have no clue who Mr Budigere is. He certainly does appear very cross. The roads are even more bumpy.

You get increasingly nervous, check your Google map, and are relieved that Whitefield is not too far off. Whitefield, that quaintly named place, is named after Mr White, the president of the Eurasian and Anglo-Indian Association, who got this land gratis from the Maharaja of Mysore for the establishment of an agricultural settlement. Except for the random itinerant expat posted in an IT company, there is no sign of any Anglo-Indian or Eurasian - and certainly no sign of any agricultural activity. Whitefield has become a IT hub, with everybody who is anybody in global technology having their presence here.

The roads in Whitefield are so bad that it would seem that all employees prefer to stay in the office, which is why, you reason, productivity has shot up, along with the fame of the not so white, Whitefield.

Whitefield has some wonderful gated communities that are oases of peace and beauty. But God help you till you reach there.