When I tell people I reside in Horamavu, I usually receive a blank look. If comprehension dawns, I know they are thinking Hulimavu in south Bangalore. Then I explain that Horamavu is on the Outer Ring Road, near Banaswadi. Still no bells ring, till I mention nearby areas such as Kammanahalli and Ramamurthynagar.
When I moved here in 2000, the main road was a dusty kutcha track leading to Horamavu village while branching off into small bylanes along the way.
Since the area was once-upon-a-time predominantly vineyards that had been converted to layouts, all you would see were vacant plots of scrub land dotted by a few houses in the newly named colonies.
The residents of these far flung colonies, though bifurcated by a railway line, had managed to band together and form a society of sorts. There was a camaraderie that was brought about by a small urbanised population living in a rural setting and plagued by a lack of basic infrastructure such as water supply, a sanitation system and public transport. In those years, with little attention from the authorities, the fear of crime was so high that residents even formed their own groups to patrol the streets at night.
A dozen years
In a dozen years, Horamavu has grown exponentially. Having been incorporated into BBMP a few years ago, it is now no longer a gram panchayat. Predictably though, it is going the same way as all the new layouts that have sprouted on the edges of erstwhile Bangalore city. The price of land has shot up so much that most first buyers have sold their plots. New owners, if they are individual buyers, are making three and four-storey buildings for renting out, or making multi-storey flats if they are developers, both of which should not be allowed given the width of the crossroads. Not to mention the fact that we still do not have municipal water supply and that a sewage system is yet to be put in place by the BWSSB. As for transport, with buses being few and far between, and no connectivity at all to the Metro in nearby Byapannahalli , most residents depend on their own vehicles or autos.
On the personal front, the warmth of the earlier years is missing. With the increasing population, every colony has become an island. And even within these islands, neighbours barely have time for each other.
Wildlife
Except for the trees planted earlier by the residents' associations, there has been no effort by authorities to green the area. Is it any wonder that wildlife such as owls, bats, snakes and mongoose, once so abundant, have been hugely reduced?
In my 12 years here, I've had owls nesting in the compound, been visited by over a dozen snakes (cobra, krait, viper and rat snake among them), and have even witnessed a hare running at top speed past my gate.
The only advantage of living in Horamavu is that once you get away from the chaos of Horamavu Main Road, you can experience a calm that is difficult to find in a big city. But with the way Horamavu is ‘progressing', how long that will remain is a moot question.
