Swalpa adjust maadi!

BANGALORE: Swalpa Adjust Maadi — Bangalore’s formula for tolerance.We must have tolerance by all means, and surely Bangaloreans need no lessons in this. We are famously known to “adjust” to any situation even if our neighbourhoods’ peace is repeatedly shattered by loudspeakers, honking, tampered autorickshaw silencers or its streets littered with garbage.Utter the magic words “Swalpa adjust maadi”, and everything is perfectly okay. The Preamble to the Declaration of Principles in the United Nations Charter on tolerance says one must practise tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.Bangaloreans do, even if the neighbour has borrowed money and keeps coming back for more.We tolerate bad roads, we ignore peeing, spitting and littering on roads, we let people jump the line and put up with shrill news readers and horns. We have allowed our favourite by-two coffee to be spelt with a “k” and have seen our dosas being dished out in 99 different variants.Is there a limit to our tolerance? Soon, we may allow curry leaves and coconut gratings as pizza toppings and maybe accept enforcement of dress codes at women’s colleges.But are we really tolerant or philosophical or just plain apathetic? Not everybody is tolerant.Ever tried overtaking a minister’s car? He’d as soon overtake you and dare you to do it again.But, politicians, as we all know, are a different class altogether. When it comes to power, they’ll tolerate even their arch rivals, and it matters little even if their ideologies are diametrically opposite to each other’s. And like politicians, motorists too seem to lose their human qualities once they are astride their machines.A traffic light that takes a second later to turn green is greeted with blaring horns and revving automobile engines. Pedestrians are sent running for cover even before the motorists get their green signal.However, the average Bangalorean is said to be blessed with high levels of tolerance so much so that it is probably taken for weakness and the authorities seem to thrust projects like flyovers and underpasses at them. Once they begin the projects, there’s never saying when they will finish them, leaving the uncomplaining Bangalorean to accept the diversions and road blocks like they do with the vagaries of the weather gods.On the topic of weather, Bangaloreans tolerate any change of weather, even if it is without prior intimation. They go about their lives as if everything is fine with the world. And the secret behind the Bangalorean’s tolerance could very well be the city’s climate.He may not have the best roads, the traffic jams may be unending, and the power supply keeps getting disrupted. But who cares, he is blessed with the best climate.