[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by Jay

nothing around the area that i live in ( Richmond town )

Wrong. Ajmat stays there and his Honda’s rear screen is smashed. Car was parked inside his building compound and covered.

Originally Posted by Zappo

And yet, this was not so even 10 years back. The original natives complain that they are aliens in their own city. They can't afford the city anymore... nor do they know this glistening, burgeoning and cramped city with its alien culture. Where have they all gone?

It’s a very different angle Zappo. Not as simple as it made out to be. Instead of sympathasing, one needs to experience the harsh reality. I, for instance living here for last fifteen years and closely observing the change.

It’s much more deep-rooted and any discussion on this subject will create massive out burst.

We’ve seen the mayhem. We’ve experienced the result. Everybody here in this forum has right to express their views.
There are lots to discover in the near future. Naturally discussing authority/politics would lead to a different track. Requesting everybody to refrain from doing so.

Originally Posted by Zappo

On a different note, microsoft campus is said to have suffered huge losses. They are still counting. Many other companies have already switched over to their BCP (business continuity plan) and are worried about how they will answer their clients. Bad days ahead!

40 million $ according to newspapers today. Not counting government and public properties.

[navin]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

NAVVVIIIIN I didn't know that my posts are so dumb!!!

tifosikrishna, you got it right!!!!

Rudra, I have twisted (ok very twisted sense of humour).

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Wrong. Ajmat stays there and his Honda’s rear screen is smashed. Car was parked inside his building compound and covered.

hey Rudra where exactly does Ajmat stay because it depends on the exact location too, next to richmond town there is a place called Shantinagar... any where near to that and yes may be such incidents may have taken place as a part of the crowd there one can say resembles the kind of crowd that went on a rampage ( job less, good for nothing )... but otherwise nothing was noticed and like i told you, i had my friends visit me from different parts of the town and they too did not report of sighting any violence on the way.... yesterday night i saw people putting up Rajkumar's poster in a circle next to Shantinagar and flowers being placed there....

[ajmat]

[quote=Jay]hey Rudra where exactly does Ajmat stay because it depends on the exact location too, next to richmond town there is a place called Shantinagar... QUOTE]

Am back and here goes

I stay off Richmond Circle. We keep cars in the compund and in the visitors car park on the side. On Thurs afternoon, a mob came - armed with stones, iron rods and started attacking out building.

The swift was covered and escaped. These guys were pretty forceful, one rock went through an Optra rear screen and shattered the windscreeen. Another hit a Coroalla, bounced off and shattered a building window. My Vtec was parkedo nthe side, luckily it was covered. They used an iron rod and smashed the rear window through the cover (that has a small L shape tear).

All in all - 2 zen, 1 800, 1 Corolla, 1 Esteem, 1 Optra and my Vtec.

Got a call from the neighbours who kindly got hold the keys and moved my car inside.......and then a secon mob came past but seeing damaged cars, they moved on!

Thank God the BMW 740 was not there

Car due to go in to Windshield Experts tomorrow for a new rear screeen - Rs 5000

[Wheeliej]

The violence was totally pathetic. They should have air-lifted the body in a helicopter from Kanterrva stadium to studio and if the state was short of cops (due to elections in some other parts of the state), they should have deployed the army. It is totally ridiculous for the CM to say 'i know who did it, but i cant/wont say'. I wonder sometimes whether we truly live in a democracy. The so-called fans are nothing but a bunch of hooligans. Re. the holiday, am sure we will have to make up with work on some other day. Why target public / private property just because someone died/was kidnapped? no reason to vent your anger on other people and their property? yes, we are all sad that dr. rajkumar died, but to use that as an excuse to hurt others and damage property, burn buses is inexcusable and totally devoid of logic. these guys who claim to be dr rajkumar's fans are just plain sick. dont they realise that these are the same guys who will need to use the buses that they so easily burned. it was totally pathetic to hear about the policeman (trainee) being mercilessly beaten and stoned.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Zappo

They can't afford the city anymore... nor do they know this glistening, burgeoning and cramped city with its alien culture.

Great point Zappo. You hit the nail right on the head. It has very little to do with Rajkumar's death. Its mostly a vent for frustration. Happened already twice. The Cauvery water roits as well as KFC controversy.

Do you see anybody breaking down the slums, ghetos and hutments....no!!! its all the posh areas that are being destroyed.

@Surprise....its happened in US too...the famous LA riots..but not due to death of a celeb. Here celebs are forgotten after they are past their prime.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Great point Zappo. You hit the nail right on the head. It has very little to do with Rajkumar's death. Its mostly a vent for frustration. Happened already twice. The Cauvery water roits as well as KFC controversy.

Do you see anybody breaking down the slums, ghetos and hutments....no!!! its all the posh areas that are being destroyed.

@Surprise....its happened in US too...the famous LA riots..but not due to death of a celeb. Here celebs are forgotten after they are past their prime.

Actually MPower... the painful fact is that most of us do not want to face reality. Even if we try to state this in the public people obviously take you to be a symapthisizer of the hooligans. They think you are giving the whole thing a political overtone.

And yet the fact is that as history has proved again and again just using force to try and quell these incidents are no solution at all. At max they only put things on the hold for a temporary period at that instant. The fury and vengeance only flares up from another side sooner than later. People never question the obvious. Why is it that you did not see any IT or ITES guy in those hordes of mob devastating the city? You can be sure that even in the polished gentry there are lot many who have a destructive trait in them. And yet the people whom you see are those stereotypical jobless, uneducated types. Also, they only target posh residential areas, cars, malls, MNC office complexes. Did you see them setting fire to the slums? Or chasing and killing those slum-dwellers? No.

A solution can be found only when you take each strata of the society with you. Govt needs to address these areas to overcome such situations. If you marginalize a part of the society in your quest for higher growth and development you have to face their wrath as well. Unfortunately in India the chasm between the haves and have-nots is only getting wider by the day.

I am no symapthisizer of those hoodlums. As it is I had an embarassing time explaining things to my no-nonsense but very worried client on thursday what is going wrong in bangalore and whether this may affect us in Hyderabad. If it would have been possible I would have voted to have them wiped off to escape such damages in future. However I am pragmatic enough to know that as a wishful thinking. The solution lies elsewhere.

[ajmat]

Folks, the 24th is his birthday - expect anything !

[v1p3r]

2 days of complete paralysis. Wow, Incredible India.

Rudra, at the cost of incurring your wrath or displeasure, at the least, may I comment on the feeling of the natives.

I can well understand the resentment the local population have towards the "outsiders". I notice that the population that moves into BLR wastes very little time in denigrating its ways. Not a day goes by without a crib or rant against something or the other. Funny, because these people come to Bangalore to escape their hometowns, which do not afford them education/employment as they wish.

On the other hand, violence of any kind, especially wreaked on others' property, is totally unacceptable.

IMHO, the CM had to only make a single phone call to the commander of the KKG sub-area of the Army. A dozen APCs, twenty Stallions with jawans armed to the teeth, and you'd see all the "fans" scurrying back to their addas. And maybe they should have airlifted the body to Kanteerava Studios, rather than the rath.

[sivadas]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Great point Zappo. You hit the nail right on the head.

I doubt.. Atleast not in this case. If that is true, these idiots(I would love to use more harsh word, but...)should have spared BMTC/KSRTC buses. And it was horrible to see policemen being chased like dogs by these mad people.
My friend's wife had to walk few kilometers holding her son since one group of so called Raj Kumar fans did not allow her to collect her two wheeler which was given for service (this happened near Eastend near Jayanagar).
One thing is very sure, these people were not fans of RajKumar; but could be of Alcohol.

[Ram]

Has the violence finally abated ?
Is there going to be an aftershock on his birthday 24th ?

Here in Mumbai, the deaths of world-famous stars like
Raj Kapoor, Kishore-Kumar, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, even the great inimitable Sunil Dutt
who had a political following too, even of icons like Dhirubhai Ambani produced hardly a hiccup to normal life and business.

Many of my contemporaries and friends here lament the flight of Infotech to Bangalore from the city of its birth: Bombay. This city still has a global work ethic. It nonchalantly bounced back from the traumatic experiences of the bomb-blasts and the floods where hordes died.

What makes Bangalore so different from other Indian super-metros and lesser cities?

[Godfather]

Originally Posted by ram

Has the violence finally abated ?
Is there going to be an aftershock on his birthday 24th ?

Here in Mumbai, the deaths of world-famous stars like
Raj Kapoor, Kishore-Kumar, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, even the great inimitable Sunil Dutt
who had a political following too, even of icons like Dhirubhai Ambani produced hardly a hiccup to normal life and business.

Many of my contemporaries and friends here lament the flight of Infotech to Bangalore from the city of its birth: Bombay. This city still has a global work ethic. It nonchalantly bounced back from the traumatic experiences of the bomb-blasts and the floods where hordes died.

What makes Bangalore so different from other Indian super-metros and lesser cities?

Yep the violence has finally gone down.. Shops and other institutions are finally opening up..
Cant say about the aftershock on his birthday but by now i guess the government and the police will be ready for it..
bangalore is no different from the other metros bro but then again Dr Rajkumar and his family practically ruled over bangalore.. His followers were the Mob...
I am just glad to say that this is over... one less thing to worry about now.

take care

[man23ish]

Originally Posted by ram

Many of my contemporaries and friends here lament the flight of Infotech to Bangalore from the city of its birth: Bombay. This city still has a global work ethic.

Add me to the list of lamentors for the down-fall of Bombay in the infotech arena.. And at the risk of politicising the matter, the credit should go to the shiv-sena government of the early nineties.. I remember reading in the news somewhere that Investors coming to mumbai, were so much peeved off the govt attitude in maharashtra that they started looking elsewhere. Dabhol Power Corporation added Fuel to the Fire. And thats when a smart Chandra-Babu Naidu, saw and seized the opportunity by laying out a red-carpet to investors in Hyderabad and we saw the rise of Hyderabad. Bangalore followed suite during the time of S.M.Krishna..

Also, please remember those infamous incidents when people coming from UP & Bihar to attend the Railway Recruitement Board examinations were beaten black and blue by shiv-sena people in Mumbai and packed back in the same trains to their home-towns.

And the case of the Koli fishermen v/s the sales skills of the UP people, employing bangladeshi fishermen in Mumbai.

Originally Posted by ram

What makes Bangalore so different from other Indian super-metros and lesser cities?

Well, you've got to see it in the right perspective. Bangalore 10 years back was totally different than what it is now. TI, Motorola and Tektronics, were amongst the first MNCs to set-up shop in Bangalore influenced by a good work-force, low-cost of living and setting up a business and an exquisitely relaxed weather. One of the important criteria could have been to poach the amazing talents from India's finest defense labs by paying more money.. Add to that the non-chalant, relaxed attitude of the localites and you have all the right ingredients for a creative relaxed mind. Bangalore was never supposed/meant to be a cosmopolitan, but a peaceful, lovely small virgin town.

Fast forward to year 2006, when you have the who's who of tech-business setting up shops in bangalore, swanky highways and fly-overs. Glittering Malls and Dazzling Restaurants, prices and expenses rocketing up. Almost everybody trying to make a quick buck or two. (Evidence: Look at the rise in house rents and property prices). Suddenly, you have the old inhabitants of bangalore living in areas like Malleswaram, Sadashivnagar, R.T Nagar, Gandhi-Nagar, Rajaji Nagar, etc feeling insecured and simmering with anger and hatred and indifference towards swathes of migrating population. So much so that these population can barely afford to live in their own city. These people just need a trigger to vent their anger and they would be looking at the smallest provocation to repeat the incidents again.

And mind you, we should not see the case in Bangalore in isolation. The same thing can happen anywhere in India. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Noida being the most susceptible followed by Pune, Gurgaon and other places.

I believe the central government is all too aware of these sentiments and their aftermath and is encouraging setting up of SEZ's across India. The advantage of setting up an SEZ is that you don't disturb the existing culture of a town/city and that the planning of a township from ground-zero is much easier though a bit more expensive. I believe that with the new SEZ offered to Reliance near Navi-Mumbai should turn the tide back to where it originated from. I hope somebody from the Government of Maharashtra is following this thread..

I left mumbai in disgust a few years back and landed up in another soup called bangalore. I still miss those good old days in Mumbai.

We need to think about a holistic approach to this problem, and I agree with Zappo that one cannot just resort to use of force to tackle this problem. Use of force would become fodder for an even more dreadful event in the future.

Cheers,
Manish

[man23ish]

Also, let me add to my previous post that its not just in Bangalore or Mumbai where people get upset with the shift in momentum. Look at the BPO backlash in countries like the US and UK. Also look at the resentment our software engineers face in the US of A. And you get the picture.

It is the immobile static work-force who cannot change along with time/situation that gets violent. The violence happens because there is a lot of potential activity underneath the surface, which eventually results in a destructive kinetic activity. (Applying Laws of Physics here..)

Somebody, (Read Government, NGO's, Politicians, Entrepreneurs..) need to direct this potential energy towards useful constructive activities. If this is not done sooner, we may have more destructive backlashes as the one just witnessed..

[Samurai]

Did anybody notice Dravid and Uttappa wearing black bands in the last ODI?

http://www.indianexpress.com/iep/sunday/story/2520.html

Now it is said that the mob violence had nothing to with Rajkumar fans. Some political elements used his death as a premise to start a major riot to embarass the new CM. Looks like it worked. The smiling rioters in the TV looked happy & drunk and not sad & stricken. These guys couldn't have been real fans, they looked too young to be Rajkumar fans, a typical fan has to be 30+ knowing Dr.Rajkumar hardly worked in the last two decades.