Sept24 B’lore-Mysore Walkathon
These four blogs capture what I saw, whom we met, thoughts and lessons from this four-day walkathon along with my nephew Retd Lt. Col. Chandrashekar, from Bangalore to Mysore covering 151 KM. Spread over four days and three nights, halting at Bidadi, Chanapatna and Mandya, it was an insightful and enjoyable experience.
- Visualising K-Shaped Growth Model
Starting at 5 am on September 9th, we reached Bidadi around 2 PM, a distance of 36 KM passing through the old ring road between Magadi Road and Mysore Road. What struck me during this stretch of walk was more than 300 eateries big and small doting the landscape catering to every section of our society. Though less in number, but equally striking is the grandeur which could be mistaken for five-star hotels were educational institutions, mainly schools found every few hundred meters. As our walk coincided with the Monday morning school rush, we saw school children arriving in vans, autorickshaws, two wheelers and cars both the entry level models and the more premium brands. I mentally contrasted this with the single block government schools, many of them without compound walls where students walked and a rare few who bicycled to school.
The diversity in eateries and schools that we saw amplified the K-Shaped economic growth model where the rich get richer and the poor, poorer by vividly contrasting it. Further, it also explains why the world class Blore-Mysore expressway coexists with the third-world state of service roads and pavements that runs right through the borders of the expressway.
Is this the only way forward, or does a more amicable alternative exist?
