Bangalore, this urban monster in the making…
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Bangalore’s character is changing everyday, for the best… and the worst. Its current reckless development is turning the city into a mutant urban giant and we don’t know yet if it will end up as a beast or a beauty. As always in India, those changes are not changing the entire city and the entire population and its habits. The old isn’t swept away and modernity is always standing next to tradition, even if not always in harmony. It’s been more than five years that we’ve been living here and we’ve witnessed the city changing before our eyes.
Initially, that development and those changes were really exciting. Coming from sleepy and museum cities of Europe, we were fascinated by all this energy, those big projects coming up like the metro, the new airport, flyovers, new buildings etc… Today, we’re wondering. Is this development any good? The city is losing its charms and the pollution is increasing (we had a tough reminder on that recently).
The “green city” of India tagline is less and less relevant (even if big parks remain and there are still impressive trees on some roads) as the expanding city and the emerging middle class have resulted in a boom of new cars deployed in the city. And the process is accelerating. Of course, infrastructures can’t keep up with this pace, resulting in more and more traffic. Still, some projects have finally seen the light and we celebrated last year the completion of the metro phase 1 (two lines) after years of delay. This elevated metro has already changed the face of the city giving it a “world-class city” touch. Bangalore has even been ranked as the “most dynamic city” in the world.
So, quite fascinated by this city in the making and theses new landscapes, I started a photo series long time back about the main junctions of Bangalore by night. I haven’t done as many as I intended too yet but it’s a work in progress and I wanted to share the first ones I have. I’m trying to capture here the modern beauty of this urban development, sometimes scary…