Photo: Screenshot of the video posted by @baadalvirus
India’s unmanned moon mission vehicle Chandrayaan-2 may be just days away from making its landmark land, but one artist in the Indian city of Bengaluru also has a groundbreaking mission that involves the moon. Tired of the endless crater-like potholes that dot the roads in his city, street artist Baadal Nanjudaswamy decided he’d had enough and stepped up to do something about it instead of simply whining like the rest of us. So, he made a video of himself in an astronaut suit slow-mo walking around the craters as the camera zooms out to reveal the deep potholes on Tunganagar Main Road in North Bengaluru. He posted this hilarious video on Twitter, tagging local civic officials, and in just a day, it got over a million hits and an overwhelming response from all those who could relate to this #tooreal woe.
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Looking at the overwhelming public and media response, the civic authorities had no choice but to fix the situation by filling in the potholes. Within 24 hours, the potholes were filled up, said Bengaluru civic body spokesperson LB Suresh to news agency IANS. "Under the supervision of our chief engineer S Prabhakar, the potholes on Tunganagar main road have been filled. We responded at the earliest to the artist's complaint," he said.
While the local body in-charge, known as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), had announced that engineers would be fined if they failed to fill up the potholes, people continued to complain about hundreds of them making their lives miserable in the traffucked city. After working on several art installations that highlight these pesky potholes around the city, Nanjudaswamy’s efforts have finally paid off.
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