There is a serious discussion going on within group of people, in a locality of Bangalore. It's house owner's association meeting. The focus is on the question 'how much rent has to be increased in general this year?' Some have come with their home work well done. Without looking in to any document, they are able to say the percentage increase. The top priority on everybody's mind is to increase the rent beyond 5 percent, that's specified by the government.
My friend in non-IT industry described this to me. He said "You IT guys have altered everything in Bangalore. Non-IT people cant even dream of owning house here. The deposits for rented houses are going up enormously. I have observed few IT guys, coming for rent. Neither they bargained rent,deposit with the owner, nor they asked with anyone what is the normal rent in this locality. They behave as if every now and then they ink crore rupees worth deals!"
An auto driver I met while travelling late in night told me his part of story. "Sir I am working 18 hours a day. My house is in the outskirts of the city. I sometimes sleep in the auto rickshaw itself. The call centre, IT cab drivers are eating in to our business. Whenever they have vehicle empty, they lure our customers with minimal fare. Atleast in the night I get one and half fare. It was not like this before IT people came here."
Lastly, my friend from teaching field told me" I have been searching for a girl to marry, since last one year. Most of the parents prefer a boy from Software background. What have we done man?"
Bangalore may have become silicon valley of Asia, but that has come with a price.
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