Subir Roy: Stay small and beautiful

OFFBEAT

One of the easiest ways in which a Bangalorean can give himself an inferiority complex is by visiting Hyderabad. You start feeling sorry for yourself right from when you leave the airport, and the feeling multiplies by the time you are at the hotel. The roads are well-paved, smooth like Mumbai's, and decently broad, too.

They were not always so but through the better part of a decade, a concerted policy of sweetening the deal for property owners along the way has smoothened the process. What is interesting is that what was started by Chandrababu Naidu, is being continued at a faster pace by successor Rajasekhara Reddy. There is a culture of competence that is not held hostage to a single individual being in power.

You get the same feeling revisiting Mumbai, after the flood. Had you not read the papers and seen the ravages immediately after, you would not have known. The roads are back to the way they were, conforming to the standards one has come to expect from India's most professional city.

As the journey into the heart of town "" well, that is a bit inaccurate as the Hyderabad airport is right within the town "" progresses, the effect of sparkle, bright lights and gleaning shops, grows. You have to tell yourself that all cities look more bright and sparkling than normal when there is a big do in town and Hyderabad had just played host to the annual jamboree of the Asian Development Bank. But the inferiority complex becomes unshakeable when you find you have reached your mid-town destination in 25 minutes flat! Even if you made allowances for it being Sunday evening, there is a lot more to spare.

I needn't have worried overmuch though about the contrast with Bangalore, as I later found out. Early in the evening, with two hours to go before departure, my office colleagues confidently told me there was no need to rush. But just as well I got out then. It took more than double the time to get out "" an hour and five to reach the airport. What drove home the point was the assertion by the driver that this is routine on a weekday.

The two cities are in the same boat "" both eagerly building new airports way out of town with six-lane access roads that will bring down journey time to within an hour even in peak hours. But if you think that way lies deliverance, be warned. Right now many footloose high finance types are contemplating moving out of London and into Zurich. London is losing out because it takes well over an hour to enter and exit the city via Heathrow.

So which way lies nirvana? Just when you think you have licked the problem and can enter and exit your favourite town in under an hour, the target moves and you have to redo the sums again. The way out may be to remain determined not to let the city grow beyond a point. The globe-trotting software engineer who is supposed to have made all the difference to Bangalore is not so fussy about where he lives so long as he has the creature comforts. So the idea may be to replicate well-planned towns, housing no more than half a lakh in a radius of 50 kilometres or so with an international airport as a hub.

The key to saving a great city may lie in firmly not letting it grow beyond a point. Parisians have been telling those visitors who will listen, not to come to Champs Elysees for the next 20 years. That way the famous street will be able to recover its breath and not lose its character, which is all important.