In Indiranagar, no music for ears,only noise and misery

For 60-year-old Vinoo Thimmaya, commercialisation of the once purely residential locality of Indiranagar is not just a civic issue. It is a disruption of his day-to-day life and a quagmire of noise, garbage and piles of petitions.

Thimmaya is not alone. Almost every other resident of the erstwhile pensioners’ paradise is fighting a silent battle against the loud, shrill and disturbing ‘growth’ of commercialisation in Indiranagar.

“Over the past few years, the commercialisation of this layout has been very disorganised and with rampant disregard to all civic legal requirement,” says Thimmaya.

For him, the main issue is with the large-scale presence of bars and pubs that have sprung up over the past two to three years. “Right next to my residence are two pubs / bars and the menace caused by them is something that cannot be tolerated. The music blares loudly, beyond the legal decibel limits. The shouting, singing and screaming go on way into the night,” Thimmaya rues.

But the noise pollution is not just from the music that these establishments force the residents to bear. “Once the pubs shut, for another hour or more (till around 3 am) the patrons, in an intoxicated state continue drinking, smoking and chatting loudly outside my house compound,” he says.

It is obviously the after-effects of the unplanned, mismanaged and often illegal growth of the neighbourhood. “I have reached out to the authorities for a solution but these establishments continue to be a menace.”

The suffering residents are now united in their fight for a well-deserved peaceful and calm life. “Till even 15 years ago, Indiranagar was not the high-class locality that it has turned to be today. Most of these properties are not inherited but a result of the middle-class’s hard earned money. And now, after an entire life of hard work, when we wish to live peacefully, no one has the right to come and disrupt it so mercilessly,” notes Jayalakshmi Sri Guha, a resident of Indiranagar for 40 years.

Jayalakshmi talks for almost 60% of Indiranagar residents who are senior citizens. She asks why should any of this, the sounds and nuisance, be tolerated in residential areas. “We have fought and fought for a serene neighbourhood. Every second day there is somebody screaming, shouting and drinking on our streets. If we ask them to stop, they question us if this road belongs to us. Unfortunately, this is where we have ended up,” she laments.

Residents ask one common question: How can these establishments that have hijacked the residential areas be so audacious? They are convinced that the authorities and the establishments are hand-in-glove. That is why no court order or police action deters the illegal pubs and bars. Thimmayya asks, “The police have always come to our rescue from the blaring music. But how many times can we keep calling them?”

“Nothing is quite anymore,” notes Sarita, a home maker from HSR Layout who often visits her siste in Defence Colony, Indiranagar. “The tall buildings and the high bass music have left the residents troubled beyond words. My sister now plans to move closer to my place because of the loud noise,” she says.

The onus lies on the party-goers to behave themselves. “One night, as I was walking down the by-lanes with my little nephew, I witnessed the unruly behaviour of drunk youngsters. It was disheartening. They were creating a nuisance on the streets with homes. They will party, disturb the people, create garbage and leave. But what about the people who live here, where will they go?” Sarita asks.

The people who live here, now, simply wish to continue fighting till the authorities wake up and smell the rotten air of negligence, apathy and lawlessness created by their own inaction.