Uniquely Indian traits that produce civic indifference

I often wish Richard Sennett, that great and inspiring writer on cities and civic life in the western world, had a chance to live in Bengaluru for a couple of months.

- Janaki Nair

Maybe then he would have seriously revised some of his important, though sadly inappropriate, insights into what western cities can/have become. When he advocated, in The Uses of Disorder, an "unzoned urban place" that would promote visual and functional disorder, it was because he believed that predetermined planning deadened humans and restricted "effective social exploration". In other works, such as Flesh and Stone, he lamented that the demand for increased speed, efficiency, and comfort while travelling was to the detriment of the unexpected encounter, which would produce the capacity to empathise.

Don't get me wrong: I am a loyal fan of Sennett's writing and his critique of bland, sanitised gridded spaces that facilitate and enhance individualism. Maximising comfort, speed, and efficiency should not be the only goal of life in the city.