Pinch Me!

It has been a while since I have been in Bangalore for a reasonable duration. It was Chennai during Dec-Jan. A nice trip to Vishakapatnam (I would highly recommend that town, go forth and move there and make it another Bangalore, please...), Orissa and then longish trips to Lucknow, Kanpur and a brief but nice stop in Goa on the way back.

Something has changed in Bangalore. It seems to be getting better. Am in a dream? Or is it that as further time has elapsed since my regular agony of commuting through Hosur road to Electronic City I seem to be in a better mood in general to deal with Bangalore traffic?

Day before I had to drop someone to the railway station at 8 in the evening. Peak hour. But it took only 35 minutes for the 12 kms! Amazing isn't it? H.D.Kumaraswamy is making all the right noises of hauling up the recalcitrant bureaucracy, is he really serious about it? Is it showing effect?... I am still not able to believe this...

Well it is not an isolated case. For all the hype about the turn around of the Indian Railways, it does seem really true. I have been using the railways heavily in the recent past. I had shuddered to think of traveling in sleeper class to the badlands of UP. But it was indeed not so unpleasant. Trains run reasonably on time (The Farakkah Express was only 4 hours late, it was usually expected to be around 12 hours, so massive progress there). The food from the pantry car is actually hygienic and tastes reasonable. I did not fall sick after having more than 10 railway meals in a span of a week. I was stunned when the fellow from the pantry car came to me with a feedback form! The stations are clean. What is going on?

Are we seeing a new vigour in public administration or am I just day dreaming?