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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com .)

Home to a crore-plus people, Bengaluru is many things to many people. From farmers who drive into the city as early as 2 am with truckloads of fresh produce every morning to moneybags who descend on the city eyeing the next big disruptive idea, the Karnataka capital is truly a mesmerising mosaic of ideas traditional and modern.Its history goes back to Kempe Gowda who founded it in the 16th Century but the small town prominently appeared on the India map more than two centuries ago when the British arrived here enamoured of its cool climes and made it their summer sojourn. Although much of the vegetation that the Garden City — the new self-mocking moniker is Garbage City, what with loads of undisposedof half-burnt waste that greets you at any street corner — boasted of barely two decades ago has made way for concrete jungle, it remains a fact that the city’s pleasant climate has been an abiding attraction for immigrants from far and wide.In fact, migrants are a recurring theme in Bengaluru’s lore — the British came in around 1790s when Tipu Sultan’s power was on the wane and set up a garrison base here. With them arrived hundreds of locals from neighbouring regions to run errands for the White masters. The next big wave of migrants hit Bengaluru in 1950s and 60s when major public sector undertakings — such as Bharat Electronics and Hindustan Aeronautics — pitched their tents here. Alongside these state-owned behemoths, the Indian Institute of Science and other leading institutions created a talent pool of skilled technology workers. From here it was easy for Bengaluru to take off in a big way and attract major multinationals known for cutting-edge information technology and electronic communications. Soon enough, globalisation turned the city into the world’s back office. In fact, globalisation came back to haunt the very mavericks who invented the outsourcing model when they later pejoratively described the flight of jobs to India as being “Bangalored”. The city which has an ecosystem that sustains engineering talent and entrepreneurial dreams reinvented itself as the Startup City in the past decade or so, firming up its position among global cities known for innovative technologies.Trials and tribulations often follow triumphs. The very success that Bengaluru has achieved has also given it its share of worries. The city’s civic authority and even the state government were unprepared for the mind-blowing, haphazard growth in the past two decades. Even now many wonder whether the administration has enough political will and imagination to beef up its creaky civic infrastructure. The problems are too many but the one too glaring is that the city does not have its own water resource and depends on the Cauvery whose water is pumped from a dam about 100 km away. A limit has already been enforced on the volume of Cauvery drawn to the city, prodding the political establishment to look at the Sharavathi, a river on whose course the picturesque Jog Falls is situated, about 300 km away in the Western Ghats.On the other hand, frothing lakes have been the cause of the city’s infamy. Bengaluru’s lakes had been designed centuries ago in a cascading way that a lake’s outlet fed the next — a fact that the British marvelled at. Post-Independence, the city’s planners have ignored these invaluable water sources and built residential colonies, stadiums and other urban infrastructure on lakebeds. The dead lakes show their ghost-like existence whenever city receives excess rainfall, exposing the ugly urban nightmares we wish never existed. It’s ironic that the city which receives good rainfall looks at the Cauvery for every drop of water while the existing lakes have become veritable cesspools.Messy vehicular traffic has been another major bane — so much so that it has given rise to sarcastic tweets on the pileup at the Silk Board junction in South Bengaluru. But a much-delayed metro train has taken some load off the road in the past eight months or so although first-mile and last-mile connectivity has been a damper. Buses and metro shuttles ferry about 48 lakh and 4 lakh passengers a day respectively now but the use of private vehicles has not shown any sign of abatement. Suburban trains remain very much on paper. A multi-modal urban mobility project is the need of the hour.Despite these irritants, the city’s allure endures. Hundreds of kids passing out of engineering colleges are beckoning investors with their market-disrupting solutions in hundreds of startups that have sprouted across the city. In fact, a few city-based startups have upended the competition to become leaders in their segments and made the world sit up and take notice.Hope this infectious ebullience helps the city soar higher.