A Tweet posted on November 30 by the user Rakesh Prakash showed people praying over a pothole in Bangalore city, Karnataka, India. They surrounded the pothole with flowers while two priests performed religious ceremonies.
#POTHOLE puja in #Bengaluru!
Frustrated by potholes & craters, citizens invoke gods. Puja on Campbell Road by Bharathinagar Residents Forum
Why can’t the tech-city fix its roads?@NammaBengaluroo @WFRising @Namma_ORRCA @BLRrocKS @tinucherian @ShyamSPrasad pic.twitter.com/ZQQAEKfzI5
— Rakesh Prakash (@rakeshprakash1) November 30, 2021
The elaborate ruse came as the city's inability to fix potholes became constant trouble for most of India's tech city residents. Residents of Bharathi Nagar in Bangalore decided to take matters into their own hands and prayed for a pothole in Charles Campbell Road.
Prakash said they are frustrated with the potholes and craters in the tweet. "Citizens invoke gods. Puja on Campbell Road by Bharathinagar Residents Forum," he added, scoffing at Bangalore's handling of the road problems.
"Why can't the tech-city fix its roads?" Rakash followed up his question by tagging the Twitter handle of some government agencies and other journalists.
The video quickly went viral and received a lot of attention from netizens. Others thought the stunt was a clever way to criticize Benagluru's failure to address the pothole problems while claiming to be India's top tech city. Other users began tagging Twitter handles of other city and government agencies.
One Twitter user approached the issue light-heartedly and called potholes a gem of Namma, Bengaluru, followed by ROFL emojis. At the same time, others took on a serious note and linked the pothole problems to a deeper corruption issue. "KA collects the highest road tax in India and has the worst roads conditions and road infra, even worst than remote villages," Twitter user Sudip said.
All the tax goes down the potholes blackholes.
KA collects the highest road tax in India and has the worst roads conditions and road infra, even worse than remote villages.
— sudip (@iam_Sudip) November 30, 2021
One user even called for city-wide prayers for all the potholes. "Even [honorable] High Court's calls are going unheeded; only Gods can help," the tweet said.
Correction, December 11th: The original title of this news was “Indians Try to Pray Potholes Away.” Upon reflection, the Atheist Republic team felt that this title was painting an irresponsible generalization and updated the title accordingly. Atheist Republic apologizes for this lapse in judgment, and will avoid such statements in the future.
