It gets dark and it sounds different when the Bangalore metro passes through a tunnel from the arts college towards the civil court. But before that happens, some worthy souls need to wade through slush and mud and steel, as one of them did in Bangalore, on Thursday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The Namma Metro photo portfolio
It is difficult not to get exasperated while negotiating the bottlenecks that the metro rail project in Bangalore creates every morning. But few, if any, have the time or the inclination to see what’s happening behind those green and white barricades, as here at Minsk Square, behind the general post office, on Monday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The namma metro photo portfolio
Photographers at tourist spots like the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal prod visitors to pinch their fingers in such a way as to make it seem as if you are lifting the gigantic monument. The cranes of the metro rail project do the needful for the cameras opposite the intrigue-filled Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Monday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The Namma Metro photo portfolio
Not a gold mine, just work afoot on the Namma Metro project at Minsk Square in Bangalore on Monday evening.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The namma Metro photo portfolio
Some of Bangalore’s hardest working men, workers on the Namma Metro project, take a breather near the Vidhana Soudha, the headquarters of some of Karnataka’s you-know-who.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The complete Namma Metro portfolio
As the world zooms around them, seemingly unaware and unmindful of their sweat and toil, workers of the Namma Metro project catch a breath at their worksite at the Kempe Gowda bus station in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
As a mini-City gets built in front of (and under) the temporary address of those who shamelessly glug water out of bottles when millions of those who elected them go thirsty, a Metro worker lugs a can to quench the parched tongues of his heroic colleagues toiling away silently.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The complete Namma Metro portfolio
It doesn’t look half as messy when it is ready to ride. But there’s more below the escalator than meets the eye, as workers on the Namma Metro project slog away on R.V. Road, in Bangalore on Tuesday.
Photographs: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
Namma Metro is here, but it is not the full thing; in fact, it is not even ten per cent of the full thing. It was just the trailer. While eager-beavers cheerfully go through the “metro experience” on the jampacked M.G. Road-Byappanahalli stretch, work continues in a langurous sort of way in Yeshwanthpur.
Photographs: Karnataka Photo News
Also read: After all, a metro station doesn’t open every day
After all, an airport doesn’t open/close every day
Pujaris, pudaris and the people on namma Metro
Namma Metro as a study of the Indian psychology
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
Be it Delhi then or Bangalore now, there is something about the metro rail that seems to do something to us as a people. There is a sense of pride, a sense of ownership, a sense of participation—a sense of the “public”, like we are in this together—that instantly and inexplicably bursts forth and brims over.
Just what is responsible for this is not very clear or obvious.
It could be as simple as the plain relief that it promises from traffic hassles. Deeper down, it could also be the sense of awe at the accomplishment of something so neat, efficient, gigantic and useful—all in our midst, at the promised time and, what’s more, by our own countrymen and women.
The sense of “Yes, we can.”
Make no mistake, rare is the Delhiite or Bangalorean who hasn’t cursed the inconvenience caused by the construction of the metro or the delays. But once it rolls out, we do some very un-Indian things: we stand in line, we observe the rules (and glower at those who don’t), we cheer at it, we take part and proudly pose for pictures to say, “We were there”.
Photographs: Karnataka Photo News
Also read: After all, a metro station doesn’t open every day
After all, an airport doesn’t open/close every day
Pujaris, pudaris and the people on namma Metro
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
Four years, six months and five days after work began on it, the first official train of Namma Metro rolls out, to the coconut shells of the priests, the wave of the politicians, and the throng of passengers and the press, through crowded M.G. Road and Ulsoor, in Bangalore on Thursday, 20 October 2011.
Apparently, it took 96,900 tonnes of cement; 33,400 tonnes of structural steel; 1,500 tonnes of hi-tension wire; 215,000 metres of electrical cables; 3000 workers and 300 workers for just the first 6.7 kms of the 108.66 route, spread over six stations, a distance that will be traversed in 14 minutes.
Photographs: Karnataka Photo News
Also read: After all, a metro station doesn’t open every day
After all, an airport doesn’t open/close every day
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
On the night of the morning before Namma Metro rolls out, the M.G. Road station looks all decked up and ready to go as young and old file past to be a part of history in the making.
Well, it certainly won’t be inaugurated by you-know-who.
Photographs: N. Manjunath & Bhakthar Babu/ Karnataka Photo News
Also read: After all, an airport doesn’t open/close every day
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
Illegal mining scams, denotification scams, land grabbing scams, site allotment scams….
For a State that makes much of its nela (land) and jala (water), it is no surprise that all the rapacious rats who have been caught with their half-pants down—B.S. Yediyurappa, H.D. Kumaraswamy, Katta Subramanya Naidu et al and, horror, the man who was supposed to read the rulebook to them, Justice Shivraj Patil—were literally living up to their “sons of the soil” appendage.
No surprise, then, that the temple of “god’s work”, the Vidhana Soudha, too should look shaken, ravaged and teetering on the brink, like any real estate project in town, as work proceeds apace on the Namma Metro project on Ambedkar Veedhi, in Bangalore on Monday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Also view: The complete Namma Metro photo portfolio
Even as Bangaloreans warm up to a new launch date, this time September, a Namma Metro train swerves towards KSCA stadium at Anil Kumble circle on M.G. Road, on a trial run in Bangalore on Thursday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
If a photograph is worth a thousand metaphors, this is it.
On the face of it, the cranes, the excavators and the barricades show the backbending work on the Bangalore Metro project that is going on quietly, relentlessly even while Bangaloreans blissfully whiz past it, unaware of the extent of the sweat and toil.
If you look at this picture differently, the mounds of soil, the deep trenches and the slush show how the mining scam is now at the doorstep of the temple of our democracy, the Vidhana Soudha, even while Kannadigas blissfully ignore its lasting damage.
The rape of the environment in Bellary, the role of the Reddys and other politicians in the loot, a complicit chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa (and a former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy), the shameless bid by BJP leaders such as Dhananjay Kumar to influence the Lok Ayukta to spare the CM, Justice Santosh Hegde‘s phone being tapped, an impotent BJP high command….
Nothing, it seems, shakes or shocks the Kannadiga any more as he sits down to watch his favourite murder-rape-kidnap megaserial after hogging a single idli-vade-sambar at the local darshini.
That is, after visiting his nearest mutt.
Which is why, perhaps, the tower named after a Kannadiga of unquestionable rectitude—Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya—seems to be hiding itself behind a christmas tree in shame and embarrassment, unable to watch what seems to be going on in the name of god’s work.
At the hands of god’s own party.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
Why on earth does Bangalore Metro look so ugly?
If only someone could do this to save our State
“No free left” for residents of a famous highrise
Remember the helmets when it rains (or shines)
At Anil Kumble circle, a sharp googly to KSCA
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
Lots of work overground for an underground rail
It is difficult for anybody who has seen or used the Delhi Metro to not wonder at how uninviting its Bangalore counterpart, or sections of it which are ready, is turning out to be. Admittedly, we are talking of two cities 2,500 kilometres adrift. And obviously Namma Metro is still a work in progress.
Still, the signs are all there that something is amiss (and these pictures, both shot in Bangalore on Thursday, provide some indication).
The obscene number of pillars, and the short span between them, as compared to Delhi; the slapdash job and finishing evident in the picture below; and the archtitectural mismatch that the Metro track presents with structures all around town, should leave an aesthete wondering.
Probably the topography and soil strength is different, requiring different strokes for different folks. Maybe the design and alignment of existing roads adds to the pressure. Maybe the Metro will look different in different parts of the City. Maybe by the time of the actual run, it will look neater, better. Maybe a few decent showers will clean up the mess.
Maybe.
But looking at pictures of the Namma Metro construction over a period of time, it is difficult to not wonder if, like the much-touted Bangalore international airport which has turned out to be a steel-and-glass cowshed compared to Delhi’s or Hyderabad’s new airports, is the Bangalore Metro showing similar signs of a ripoff in the name of public transport?
Photographs: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
If only someone could do this to save our State
“No free left” for residents of a famous highrise
Remember the helmets when it rains (or shines)
At Anil Kumble circle, a sharp googly to KSCA
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
Lots of work overground for an underground rail
As the Namma Metro project takes shape in front of our eyes, two contrasting images from two contrasting locations in Bangalore. The first, from in front of the pristine Vidhana Soudha in the heart of the City on a rainy day, with the statue of B.R. Ambedkar barricaded, as work goes on underneath. And the second, from the chaos in Yeshwanthpur, with a million railway and electricity lines seemingly criss-crossing the track overhead.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
If only someone could do this to save our State
“No free left” for residents of a famous highrise
Remember the helmets when it rains (or shines)
At Anil Kumble circle, a sharp googly to KSCA
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
On a day when the disgraceful nataka in Karnataka got even more disgraceful—with god’s own party showing how bereft it is of ethics and values in clinging on to power for power’s sake—a crane at work on the Bangalore Metro project appears to do what many right-thinking people might like to do.
Which is, lift the Vidhana Soudha and….
Photograph: Manjunath N./ Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
“No free left” for residents of a famous highrise
Remember the helmets when it rains (or shines)
At Anil Kumble circle, a sharp googly to KSCA
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
Like an amoeba that changes shape even as you watch it, the barricades of Namma Metro shift and move as you go past it. Suddenly, old familiar roads are no-go areas as the work goes on underneath. And so it is at Minsk square in Bangalore, on Monday, as vehicles whizz past CTO towards the promised day, with Cubbon Road closed.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
Remember the helmets when it rains (or shines)
At Anil Kumble circle, a sharp googly to KSCA
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
As the date for the rollout of Namma Metro nears, workers fix the roof at the Byappanahalli station, in Bangalore on Monday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
At Anil Kumble circle, a sharp googly to KSCA
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
Although there is a lot that is similar between the two, there is one key difference between the Delhi Metro and the Bangalore Metro. It is not something that is immediately visible in this bird’s eye-view of the line. Let’s just say that the clue lies in the colour yellow.
So, the answer is…?
Photograph: Santosh R.G./ Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio:
In the darkness of night, a ray of light at 19:12:30 hours
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
First they said the trial run would begin on Monday, 24 January 2011. Then they said it wouldn’t. But Namma Metro slithered silently along Mahatma Gandhi road, well ahead of schedule on Sunday, 23 January 2011 (top), after blue, white and red-helmeted technicians had attended to some repair work on the track at Ulsoor.
For the record, the top picture was shot at 30 seconds past 7.12 pm.
Photographs: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio:
The biggest day in the history of Bangalore?
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
How the nuts, bolts, rivets, cables, moats, etc, will look like under the wheels when Namma Metro slides into and slips out of the Ulsoor station for its trial run from Monday, January 24, 2011.
Is the launch of the Metro the most momentous event in the history of Bangalore? If not, which one? The opening of the Vidhana Soudha?
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
Do not try this at home (if you have a few bogies)
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
As D-day nears for Namma Metro to really become ours, new coaches arrive by road at the Byappanahalli metro base, to be picked up by cranes and placed on track (top). In the picture below are the new coaches stripped of their wrapper, and ready to roll out any day soon. Both pictures were shot on the eve of Makara Sankranthi 2011.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The Namma Metro photo portfolio
From the BEML end, right arm over the wicket
The giant violin-box hanging above ‘Parades’
It’s still not here, but it’s already kind of here
Yes, it’s for real, and it’s purple and off-white
4 cars, 3 SUVs, 8 bikes, and 16 autorickshaws
Oh God, what have they done to my M.G. Road
Saturdays, girlfriends, popcorn and other memories
Every picture tells a tale. Babu‘s can fill a tome.
Not a picture that will make it to Lonely Planet
Amar, Akbar, Antony. Or Ram, Robert, Rahim
Only a low-angle shot can convey its great girth
Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa tries on the traditional Assamese hat, the jaapi, at the inauguration of the State pavilion at the BJP national executive meeting, in Guwahati on Saturday.
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
***
The B.S. Yediyurappa photo portfolio
1) Is it an idol? Is it a statue? Is it a mannequin?
2) One leg in the chair, two eyes on the chair
3) Yedi, steady, go: all the gods must be crazy
4) Kissa Karnataka chief minister’s kursi ka: Part IV
5) Why did the chief minister cross the road divider?
6) Sometimes you are up, sometimes you are down
7) Dressed to thrill: Yedi-Chini bhai bhai in Shanghai
8) Survival of fittest is a great photo opportunity
9) Drought relief one day, flood relief the next
10) How a chief minister should drink tea. (Or not.)
11) Let the rebels know, the CM will not bow one inch
12) Even four pairs of hands can’t stave off the flak
13) Yediyurappa regime slips into yet another sandal
14) Behind every successful cyclist, there are a few men
15) Life’s a cycle. What goes up must come down.
16) A leg up for the one is a leg up for the other
17) The emperor’s new clothes has a loose button
18) Why does this poor, selfless soldier cry so much?
19) The great Indian rope trick adds inches to a giant
20) Even Alan Donald would quiver at such a glare
21) One sanna step for man, one giant leap for anna
22) A party of loafers, thieves, liars and land-grabbers
23) Three years in power = three rings, or is it four?
24) Say hello to the sarsanghchalak of the ‘ling parivar’
25) Why you didn’t this picture in today’s papers
Powered byIP2Location.com
Now on Sans Serif
