Chakravyuh in HSR Layout And they call it as Open Street

Since the day I came here to Bangalore, I knew the people here are a completely weird, quite miser and foolishly patriotic about their dialects and regions. But every day it finds a new way to amuse me. I haven’t imagined existing of such culture. These people don't have any sense of celebrating any festivals, standard of living, lacks delicious cuisines but they do talk about their culture and support their teams and hero with immense passion. And I just love to mock them on their red faces having helplessness.

        This IT city is completely dependent on the large crowd from outside south india. Its we people who can afford high rate BMTC volvo becoz V cannot travel along with sweaty scums in air tight filled non-ac buses making them profitable transport corporation in the country, pay high house/flat rents becoz we can not live in close boxes called PG where shit are being served on the name of north Indian dishes etc. When you are looking for a house on rent, landlords will raise eyebrows, turn up their noses when you tell them that you are bachelors or spinster but never hesitate in asking hefty money and on top of that expectations is like only 2 people should stay in 2BHK.

       Today's version is another stupendous act by people of HSR. And yes it is going to be memorable day of my life. I woke up early in the morning as per my standards, i.e. 10 am on weekends and freshened up. I asked Tharkie to get ready and finished my glass of milk by that tym. Today is day for my BIKE. Yes I planned to buy SUZUKI GIXXER SF. We took bumblebee ( Pulsor RS 200) out on HSR roads and figured out that children are playing cricket on 5th main, but we ignored the fact and moved ahead and then one policeman asked us to return as the roads are blocked today. We didn't get why does so ? So I jumped off from the bike and asked another policeman to which he replied that he is also new to this place and is not sure of why he is here. And then there came one aged local native bastard in between and started instigating other policeman  saying that, these people knows everything and acting as naive. He said its there in newspaper and news channels everywhere and u don't know whats happening in HSR. Me and Tharkie was like completely blank. What nonsense did this grumpy old man say. At that time, i really wanted to push that guy to ground & slap him and make him bleed. But controlled my emotions as he was elder to me and old too. We were cluelessly thinking why this main road is blocked. May be some marathon kind of stuff is planned on this route for which they might have broadcasted the plan in air in Kannada news channels. And as we don't know this language so we are unaware of this piece of information. So started finding alternate routes and figured out road blocks are every where. Everywhere same response from police. So we parked our bike aside and went to one fellow standing in security and enquired whether #ModiJi is paying visit today in HSR. Why there is so much drama. Then he removed the clouds over the mystery that today great people of HSR Layout has asked for vehicle-free zone. There  is an intiative of  OPEN STREETS in HSR.

Open Streets: What does it mean?

             Open Streets is an initiative to temporarily close streets to vehicular traffic so as to encourage citizens to walk, cycle, and use the streets for recreation. It has its roots in Ciclovía, where citizens of Bogota in Colombia blocked cars from a few streets in favour of runners, skaters and cyclists, on Sundays and public holidays. The Open Streets movement gathered momentum in the 2010s in the US and Canada, with several cities adopting vehicle-free days on certain streets.

              In India, Gurgaon has had its own version of Ciclovía called Raahgiri Day - every Sunday, a network of roads is closed temporarily to cars and opened for people. But here in HSR, Son of Rascals have requested  the government to block the complete HSR with no passage left for people with vehicle. Like a SQUARED PLANNING police was protecting all the posts and we became Arjun and Abhimanyu to get the passage through them. Its like curfew. Police vans are using loudspeaker to warn us and demanding us to move back at few places. As my bike is waiting for me, we have to done this. So we started wandering from one blocked street to another blocked street in order to find any loop hole or a polite and kind policeman. Finally we got success, we escaped to ORR, we compared the deals in two three showrooms, booked it in BTM and gave them token money with an assurance of delivery by Friday. Hence half and important work is done. 

                Now the new task was to get back into HSR along with bumblebee. We can’t left bumble bee anywhere like orpan when his owner is almost 3000 km  away in Ladakh. So we once again start searching for a place for successful intrusion. Everyone was abusing the administration for such a pathetic planned event. All the vehicle owners are cursing the system, that atleast few streets can be spared for easy movement. We have to bang our head from one street to another in search of flaw of service. And at one place we got kind hearted policeman, we requested him that we will drag the bumblebee till our house. And that’s how we figured out the way to our home.

It’s completely ridiculous, completely insane. Who organizes event like this creating chaos everywhere ? It can happen only in this city. So guys only I know how I broke the “Chakravyuh” twice in a day. Booking  my bike completely frazzled me. But yes in the end there was a satisfaction that the foundation stone for my bike has been laid. On a funny side, It like “Humne Gaadi kya li, mohalla me chakka Jaam ho gya” :P