Silicon City's new avatar as "Sleaze City"

Thanks to its cosmopolitan culture and its friendly citizens, Bangalore means different things to different people and has many avatars - Pensioner's Paradise, Garden City, Silicon City and so on. Now, it has another acronym: Sleaze City.

If you think the description is rather uncharitable, just take a walk down the city's hotspots, Brigade Road and MG Road on any day after 7 pm. As the sun goes down, the street slowly fills up with groups of women provocatively dressed in gaudy makeup, and openly soliciting customers. While they strut the stuff, business is brisk and you see little conferences staged in the footpaths where desperate looking men with a sheepish look in their eyes quickly negotiate the rates with women who on their part seem very professional in their approach. On many an occasion, these conferences happen in the very presence of a cop stationed by the side of the footpath, who looks like he couldn't care less.

The situation gets particularly hot during the weekends when the women come in hordes and also fill up some of the well known pubs that double up as an extension counter of this business. For those who are looking for some high-profile entertainment, the place to look for is the crowded shopping malls like Garuda, Forum, etc.

Says a long time Bangalorean who's wired in to the happenings on the other side of midnight. "People feel the increase in flesh trade is due to the closure of nightclubs but probably there's a deeper reason. Perhaps it's because of the consumerist culture that's become synonymous with our way of living, the increase in the disposable surplus income in the hands of the youth and consequently the demand in the market."

The trade is so lucrative and the market so captive that according to reliable sources in the film trade, even actresses are jumping into this business for easy money (and perhaps some cheap thrills?). For instance, says this source, a heroine who recently acted opposite superstar Upendra and a highly successful actress are also "available" for a price (not a hefty price going by the prevailing in the market). Why actresses? Because they are used to a comfortable life style and once their career begins to slide, they enter this business to maintain their hi-fi lifestyle. The idea is to make some quick money and then marry a rich businessman and settle down in life.

In keeping with its image as an IT City, many escort services do roaring business on the Net advertising their "services rendered" by their "associates" to the utmost detail, calculated to titillate the voyeuristic minded folk. While some of the services are indeed spurious, many others offer "genuine" service, says someone who has a deep knowledge about the city's activities after sundown. These services are generally routed through touts, operate mostly in star restaurants and charge stiff prices promising "value for money".

If this trend continues, the day is not far off when Bangalore will become "hotter" than Mumbai's famous Grant Road. The cops and the "customers" may find this cool, but should the rest of us be silent spectators to this ugly transformation? Or has the problem gone out of our hands already and we are looking at something that's inevitable…?