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X orders more coffee. He has made his point. But who is in charge – surely there must be someone in charge? I ask. Before plunging in to fix this corner themselves, X and V have done some basic asking around. The question they had was simple – So who’s really in charge of the street in Bangalore? They found that there was no single person or authority. And that is why the streets are such a mess. There is a maze of authorities in charge of different aspects of Bangalore’s civic infrastructure, each of which is a law unto…

Can you show me the photo of the rat, V asked. Bangalore is a great city for rats, he remarked – it’s almost like the city is designed for them! It didn’t seem the best topic for conversation in a restaurant, but by now I had got quite immune to such stuff. Once you work in muck, talking about it is easy. X went on – The place we fixed is Rat Heaven. Let me tell you why. He took out a pencil and started sketching. Do you have any idea what lies beneath the footpath? He began explaining. Here’s…

Part 1 of Chapter 11: Steal Proofing Part 2 of Chapter 11: Installing garbage bins can be a design challenge for city planners! Part 3 continues... Before and after photo of a spotfix in Banaswadi. Pic: The Ugly Indian X took some photos of the Spot, got them printed at another Spot neighbor, Tru-Images, a digital studio down the road, and created a small portfolio of five photos – one photo of “Before”, one photo of “After” and three photos of “During SpotFixing” (featuring the Wipro employees, the drivers, and Veliyamma). The studio owner was very happy to see the…

Part 1 of Chapter 11: Steal Proofing Part 2 continues... These are the realities of the Indian street that are often ignored by city planners and those who want a better city. Seemingly simple things that work overseas (like trash cans) don’t work well in India. McDonald’s tried its best on Brigade Road, Bangalore – and installed some 30 large fibre-glass dustbins, costing about Rs 2,000 ($40) each, and branded with their Golden Arches logo. They lasted barely a few weeks. Some were vandalized, some caught fire from tossed cigarette butts, many were stolen, and soon none were left. Many…

X and V are not finished yet. The basic rescue act is over and the initial impact has been made. Their mission is to find a permanent solution to a decades-old problem, not just beautify a street corner for a feel-good photo-op. It would be a failure if the dump just shifted to the next orphan spot, to the next point of least resistance. V & X are very conscious of this, and have worked out a plan. For a start, they have made friends with all the security guards in the area. All commercial areas have security guards – who are…

What do you do when you see a garbage dump near your home or slabs misplaced from the footpath drains, and don’t see any civic agency going anything to solve the problem? Just go out and do it yourself! This is the motto behind a Bangalorean movement called The Ugly Indian. Citizens inspired by The Ugly Indian movement working to fix a drain. Pic: The Ugly Indian The Ugly Indian is an apolitical, anonymous group of citizens who feel strongly about the visible filth in Indian cities. The movement, aimed at solving problems at public spaces with direct action and…

Monday morning, 950am Damn – why is the bus stuck here for so long at Mekhri Circle today?I had left home at 9am with the intention of reaching the Spot by 10am, but looks like I will reach only by 11. Bangalore has this brand new bus system, the G-10, that has made commuting from far-flung suburbs to city centre so much easier. But it seems like everything collapses when a VIP is in town, as all the main roads of Bangalore leading to the airport are blocked this morning. This is ridiculous – why should the overcrowded city be…

  I had seen V & X for the first time on Thursday, the day before their ‘hit’. I was walking down Church Street after a coffee at Koshy’s and was heading towards Blossom Books, when I saw these two guys photographing this ugly garbage pile outside the Times of India building. One of them was literally standing in the pile and holding up a shopping bag he had extricated from the dump, and the other was photographing it.  I did look at them but did not stop – assuming they were from the media; the city’s garbage woes are…

Bengaluru is very quiet on a Sunday morning. The city centre area wakes up slowly, recovering from a busy Saturday night – even Ramanna opens his tea shop at eight. The mood is relaxed, and everyone is looking forward to a day of rest and relaxation. Many of the security guards, immigrants from the eastern reaches of India, normally work 2 shifts – or 16 hours on the trot, so Sunday morning is a big release. V and X shoot the breeze with this small group, whom they have now got to know fairly well. Hindi is the common language…

  V and X are not the only ones trying to fix Bangalore’s filth problem. Unknown to them, there are several citizens out there, trying – in their own small way – to fix the mess on the streets outside their home or office. We are not talking here about NGOs or civil society organisations, of which Bangalore has plenty, but regular citizens. There is P, a software engineer, working on weekends at defeating an ugly garbage dump right in front of a huge technology park near the Koramangala Forum Mall in which his MNC employer occupies two large buildings.…