Yelläks /ˈyæl•eks/

Near the IISc are the Palace Grounds. Basically these grounds are wide fields where several functions like rock concerts, fairs or private parties by companies can be held. Whenever there is an event going on the roads surrounding the Palace Grounds are usually heavily affected result in a slow moving traffic and longer waiting periods. Affected passers are used to it and somewhat even expect it.

However on Monday a political party called Janata Dal organized a major political convention on the Palace Grounds resulting in a huge traffic jams and gridlocks even in distances of several kilometers around the grounds. In Malleshwaram, Mathikere and Yeshvanthpur (parts of Bangalore surrounding the IISc) absolutely nothing moved anymore. Employees and school children could not reach their destinations or sometimes reached home after midnight. Since the Indian drivers do not follow traffic rules, buses, cars, two wheelers etc. got stuck in a zig-zag pattern on intersections worsening the whole situation.

Radio Indigo followed its usual fashion: If something went wrong in the city, ask listeners to call in for an interview to air some complains. They did the same on Tuesday and wanted to know from the audience the thoughts about the political rally. As expected everybody was not very happy on what happened.

Also another constant to be observed: The people in charge in organizing the rally blame the people in charge in organizing the traffic. The first say that traffic jam has been caused by the police which allegedly took money to coordinate the traffic. The latter group says, there is a misunderstanding and the crowd joining the rally has been underestimated by the rally organizers. So as usual everybody in charge blames others in charge for the situation. And in the end? The party got its publicity at the expense of uneffected people. But more important: Nothing will be learned and especially nothing will change until it happens again. In that case the discussion will start all over again, maybe with some different groups about a different topic.