The term ‘Bangalored’ made its way into the English language as a verb, to describe Americans and Europeans losing their jobs to feisty startups and call centres that heralded the growth of the IT industry in the city in the early 2000’s.
Times have changed since and marketing executive turned author Sanjay Koppikar has used the word as the title of his debut novel. He says, “ Bangalored was not the result of a single story. The book was influenced by many issues. It is set in a fictional Bangalore that is dying, due to a host of factors, including the lack of adequate water resources. It also deals with the multiple issue plaguing the start-up scene in India in general and Bangalore in particular, including the lack of confidence by banks and customers alike, the attrition by employees towards bigger companies and the difficulties in dealing with the omnipotent bureaucratic red tape.”
Sanjay adds, “When these ideas come to fore, I decided to write a work of fiction, with all these elements playing a vital role. I felt that a non-fiction book talking about these issues will not find many takers. I did not want to write with a single story thread in mind. The book took me almost five years to complete. Many of the issues highlighted in this book are drawn from my personal experiences, though the book is not an autobiographical account.”
“I found it alarming after I discovered that Bangalore is probably one of the only mega cities in the world without a water resource nearby. No other big city has managed to survive without a major water resource nearby, right from the Harappan cities to the modern era. This issue has been talked about a lot. Most people do not care that the city may be rendered unliveable in a few years. This pushed me to write a book. Instead of boring people with endless statistics and charts, I decided to make it a fictional account of a person who returns to a Bangalore in 2020 and discovers a dead city. He tries to discover what happened to hasten the demise of this city. Getting money to start a venture, getting customers to believe in it and prevent your best employees from leaving for bigger firms are issues most start-ups in this country face. I bought in the water crisis to provide another strand to the story,” he says.
As a city, Bangalore must not be allowed to die. “I think it is important that as Bangaloreans, we take responsibility and make an effort in our own way to ensure that the city does not get killed in the mad rush for development.”
