KARNATAKA RAJYOTSAVA : Bangalore down the Ages

[JUSTIFY]This is the perspective of a visitor turned resident.

My earliest memory of Bangalore is a visit with my parents and sister when I was 8 years old. We were put up with friends on Sampige Road. My memories are now rather hazy and consist of an old house in Malleshwaram with an older ajji living with her dil (her son was dad's colleague, working in Pune), filter coffee, masala dosas at New Krisha Bhavan (NKB) (trust a foodie to remember even the restaurant she visited at 8 :-D), the bamboo grove in Lalbagh and a trip from here to Mysore Brindavan Gardens.

Life brought me back to Bangalore when I was in college and we came on a "study tour"of Bangalore-Mysore-Ooty (sounds more like a honeymoon circuit if you ask me :rotfl). I don't remember anything of the places we visited in Bangalore in connection with the study tour. But I certainly remember plenty else. We were put up in (guess where?) - NKB. What I certainly remember is the fact that we were let loose one evening on MG Road and told to go wherever we liked to eat and gather back at some point by a given time. The evening passed by just walking up and down MG Road. Suddenly I noticed a car go by, with a very fair, sharp nosed woman driving past, standing and waving to everyone. Guess who? Indira Gandhi. I told my friends - they just thumbed their noses at me saying I was crazy. After 15 mins, the same car with the same woman passed by once again. When she passed by a third time, they finally agreed that it was indeed Madame Gandhi doing the rounds of MG Road. Then came dinner time. I don't remember where it was, but I think it was St. Mark's Road we must have turned on and gone looking for a place to eat.

Now young Satchi (not me) was a prude :hide:. Alcohol was a strict no-no. All who consumed alcohol were bad. Places that served alcohol were to be strictly avoided. So a group of 5-6 of us went looking for restaurants and each one was vetoed by Satchi because they were "bar cum restaurant" :spin By the end of it, we managed to get in somewhere, nibble at something. Suffice to say, Satchi is lucky to be alive today to tell the tale. If looks could have killed, her friends would have turned her to ashes that evening :rant. So we returned to NKB and snacked on some stuff that we had with us.

The years went by. I landed a temporary position in a reputed institute in Bangalore. (And how I "landed" the job. The very first day, I slipped down the stairs and injured my ankle badly). I was in a shared accomodation on 9th Main, Margosa Road, Malleshwaram. (I don't know what it was about "Mallu" that beckoned me each time). Then I met my BH and in the next 3 months I became an established resident of Bangalore.

It is now 15 years since I have been living here. How the place has changed. My early memories of Bangalore are of a lush, green city, of independent houses, a gentle people who knew exactly what they were talking about when it came to food . I have memories of a Bangalore where even the roads outside the gate of each house would be washed early in the morning and rangolis drawn outside. Beautiful temples which were so clean and sacrosanct. Restaurants where the waiters would start giving one strange looks by 9.30 p.m and pointedly turning chairs upside down on the table and washing the place, people giving dhoop to commercial establishments as dusk fell. A city where rickshaw drivers were decent and polite. Buses which used to be precariously tilted on one side with people hanging out of it.

15 years down the line many things have changed - some for the better, some not so. Bangalore has become cosmopolitan city with people all over the country coming in and contributing to the vibrancy of the place. It has become a world-city, a hub of the IT industry. Life has changed and become very hectic. Traffic has become a nightmare. Malls have sprouted up all over the place. The greenery is the biggest casualty in the name of "progress".

Kannadiga food has always been a favourite with me. That is one thing that has withstood the test of time. Add to this we now have a wide variety of world cuisines at our service enriching the gastronomic experience Bangalore has to offer.

Bangalore has indeed come a long way from being a sleepy retired person's paradise. In some ways the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. Hopefully a time will come soon when we find a balance and life will return to even keel. [/JUSTIFY]

 

Hi Kantha,

Glad to hear that this post reminded you of your ancestral home and the Chennai of yore. Yes, not only Bangalore, all places including my own hometown have changed so much.

 

Very true Vijima, and these changes have happened so soon - just over the last 10-12 years - that they are very noticeable and hit us in the eye. Glad to know that you were with me on my trip down memory lane.

 

Thanks VJ. Wish you a Happy Karnataka Rajyotsava day.

 

That is a good one Vid. You were really lucky to have lived in Mallu as it was a few years ago. I still love the place. Only many places are now unrecognizable. :-(