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by Srinath Perur Two things; the
first happened yesterday and the other quite some time back, make me write
this. I came across the word 'individual' in a novel I'm
reading and unlike the many times I have taken this word for granted, I
stopped and thought about it. I had always thought of 'individual' as just
another word for 'person', but this time I saw it more as 'a whole entity
that cannot be divided'. By slight extension, 'individuality' would mean
that which sets apart a thing from other similar things and makes it what
it is. Not earth-shatteringly profound, but sufficient for what's
coming.
The guy asked "So, you come from a place like Bangalore. Having stayed here for 4 years what have you given Warangal from B'lore's culture and individuality ?" That's got to be the
corniest question I've been asked to date and I'm sure the guy has corn
flakes for dandruff. It sounds great, but means hardly anything. I mean, I
was applying to become a software engineer, not a Miss World, a mayor or
an ambassador.
The
answer is Bangalore. We shall examine what sets Bangalore apart from other cities and try to pin down those vague and abstract threads that bind a city to it's collective soul. We will see how it is located in space, how it has travelled through time and who it's inhabitants are. By creating these and more artificial divisions, we hope to see how they are all linked into an individual. |
Other articles by Srinath How did Bangalore
get its name?
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| Srinath is a B'lorean currently doing his PhD in Information Technology at I I T, Mumbai. EMail:srnth@hotmail.com | ||
