Bengaluru founder trolled for post on flooding and Kannada: ‘Not going anywhere’

Bengaluru-based startup investor Ritesh Banglani was at the receiving end of trolling over a social media post on Tuesday on the city’s flooded roads after the heavy rain.
“I’m in a traffic jam in the middle of a frigging river. But hey, at least the signboards are in Kannada,” said Banglani, co-founder of venture capital firm Stellaris Venture Partners.
The investor shared a photo from inside a car, of a flooded road in Bengaluru.
The post did not go down well with a section of X users who hit out at Banglani for bringing the Kannada language row in the issue of the city’s poor state of affairs whenever it rains heavily.
“Priorities bro, priorities. Instead of protesting for the poor infra, some people here were protesting for the language,” X user Abhishek said.
“You should go back to your own state instead of splashing around for free in this country’s rivers, and then complaining,” another user, Megha, said.

Ritesh Banglani, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi, hit back at those who attacked him, stressing that Bengaluru is as much his home as it is for anyone else.
“I’m as Bangalorean as you, and have as much right to the city as you do, including the right to criticize the administration. I can have a house here, raise my family, run a business, vote in elections but I guess i can never become a ‘local’,” he said in a detailed post on Wednesday.
“…I’m not going anywhere because this is my home as much as it’s yours.”
(Also Read: Bengaluru streets turn into rivers as heavy rain causes waterlogging)
Schools in Bengaluru were shut for the second straight day on Wednesday, people worked from home after the Karnataka capital saw the heaviest rains in nearly three decades. Large parts of the city were brought to a standstill on Monday as well as Tuesday after heavy downpour flooded roads.
North Bengaluru, which was the worst in the latest spell of rain, recorded rainfall of 186 mm (7.3 inches) on Monday, the highest in a single day recorded in the city since 1997.
(Also Read: Bengaluru rain havoc: 20 flights delayed, 4 diverted to Chennai. Yelahanka hit hardest by night downpour)