The Bangalore that was…

Reading Mika’s blog has sent my thoughts racing… So, borrowing the topic, but only to express my bit on it… 

I’ve been Bangalored for 28 yrs and 4 months… Being away from it in the past four months, I feel the loss … But I guess I had started missing the city that was, long before.

My memories date to the Bangalore that was a little more of Cubbon Park and less like City Market in its ambience and quality… THe Bangalore when:

• People used to queue up near Chinnaswamy stadium for a cricket match, the night before.
• Utility Building was the only tall building in the entire city (perhaps state)
• The most expensive supermarket was Spencers (where now Foodworld stands)
• When you could see a Hindi movie only in Majestic and KG Road and Plaza and Rex and Symphony and LIdo dished up ONLY English movies;
• When Rex was the most expensive theater which cost 20 rupees for a balcony ticket (this was just 10-12 years ago)
• Indiana and Woody’s and Macs were the only places that served burgers
• There were no parking tickets… Most people walked or rode the bus
• When the BMTC was called BTS and buses were actually blue and white (that was lonnng ago)
• When the minimum auto fare was Rs 2
• When Commercial St and shops in Shivajinagar were open till late in the night
• When Ulsoor Lake was a tourist spot and had houseboats and rowboats
• When Parade Grounds was called parade grounds, (They call it Cariappa Park) and was one half beachlike  sand (free from all ‘fort’ification) and the othe half, a forest-like thick  undergrowth
• When North Bangalore was actually called Cantonment
• When Cubbon Road was uninhabited except during a cricket match
• When Ulsoor and Cambridge Layout were the Eastern borders of the city
• When you could watch the setting sun, uninterrupted by concrete structures
• When Jayanagar complex was a ’somarikatte’ (lazy man’s seat) haunted by only aging citizens
• When Jayanagar bus stand and adjacent cemetry marked the southern tip
• …Malleshwaram actually had Margosa and Sampige trees
• When it used to get eerie and lonely by 5 in Koramangala village
• When we could get watermelons for 2 rupees and Kwality icecreams for 5
• When Barton Center was not Barista but Barton Court, a posh British hotel
• When there were atleast five bookstores to every dozen other shops on Brigade Road
• When you could just stand, walk, run, howl on the streets without being looked over, laughed at or dismissed
• When every neighborhood had a library and everybody you knew was a member there
• When ‘1912′ (the erstwhile the hip pub 180 proof  ) was actually a bookshop that sold writings on theology and religion
• When its neighbour (now Barista) was actually HMV house, the biggest music store of the time
• When Wearhouse and Weekender sold the trendiest western wear
• When Bombay Stores was EGK, belonging to a prestigious photo studio that you visited for  exclusive photos only;
• …which housed the most hip cafe in town – Chit Chat (anybody remembers??)
• When Macs fastfood was the place you wanted to hangout with your friends
• When Ragigudda was a lonely hill with a temple on top, where you go mostly to race up the hill, slide down on the smooth sheer side or for a view from the top;
• when you did get to see bullock carts in J P Nagar transporting people to and from nearby villages to Sarrakki village (I phase), the market hub.
• When HSR Layout was in Agara Lake which started almost close to silkboard and ended at Belandur
• When people knew about the Jayamahal Palace (its not to be confused with the Bangalore Palace)
• When Coles Park and Cubbon Park and many others had a regular bandstand playing
• When you had Red Post Boxes as tall as a man and you would try to stick your hand inside and see if you could touch the base… 
• When City Market had a separate market just for woollen clothes! where you would be taken, measured up and asked to choose the wool and color you wanted (They had every shade!)
• When Gandhi Bazaar had more bakeries and spice and herb (grandhige) and nicknack stores than Roti Ghars and fastfood joints
• When VB Bakery was the most famous one south of M G Road
• When all activity on Hosur Road ended with the old Christian cemetery
• When you had petty stores in a box that sold almost everything, that could be shut up and locked
• When almost everybody read Deccan Herald
• When Brindavan was the fastest train to Chennai
• When Basavanagudi and everywhere else was free from flyovers and apartments
• When there were double decker buses to wander around in
• When Vasanthnagar and Queen’s Road were part of Miller’s Tank Bund
• When Russel Market had the best toy shops
• When Commercial street had an antique clock and pen shop (somewhere where Health and Glow is)
• When Dispensary Rd/ Dickenson Rd was a long row of the best tailor shops where you stitched your suits, frocks, trousers, skirts and shirts
• When Kamaraj Road was actually Cavalry Road and Kanteerva Stadium was a dried up tank bed converted into a track field of sorts
• When you could hop from house to house, terrace to terrace
• When all the kids would be out on the streets the minute there was a power cut
• When the power cuts used to increase as the exams got nearer
• When we voiced our opinion a lot more… and helped our neighbours a bit more
• When we had good, wide, traffic free roads!

… I’m exhausted! But it would be great to see more from every other Bangalorean on being ‘Bangalored’ :)

Hazy shades of winter…

Its that time of the year when you feel overwhelmed by bittersweet memories… sigh at the sight of the barren twigs holding up against the grey, colorless sky… rush feverishly to bathe in that elusive patch of sun… 

 I never felt it as much as I do this year… a sadness tinges my being as browns dominate the colors of nature, as I realise that I would not see a green blade of grass or a bright, flaming tree of fiery red leaves for a long, long time…

The inexplicable, sinking feeling as we dash through the freeway and the dead leaves are hurled at me in a challenge by the cold, harsh wind… the dead leaves… 

The freezing drizzle stinging my withered cheeks where once, the ever-welcome raindrop used to rest, cool and fresh, filling me with fresh life. I see the bent oaks and maple, with all its dead leaves,  having given up against the cold. 

Hazy patches of winter! Oh don’t! Give me back my cheerful breeze and sunny rays… days of hope, light and color!

Just one of those days…

Why do some days have to be like this!!! Days when whatever you try to do, even blink, means one more step towards lurking disaster???!!@#$$*Tuesday was just one of those days! Maybe I should have read the telltale warnings in the teacup (Literally, when I almost dropped it in the sink)!! But a tearing hurry to get to the physiotherapist at the unearthly hour of 8.30 in the morning must have blinded my usual alert mind for forebodings from the other world. 

Having made it to my appointment just on time, thanks to a ‘Schumacher’ in the making at the helm of the Nissan, I grew quite complacent and sloppy by the hour. Tuesdays being the busiest of my usually reticent life in the US, the next of my appointments was at 2.00 pm. I cooked with great speed as I was hell bent on being on time… You see, I had unfailingly landed at least ten minutes late for every meeting I had with this particular lady and I didn’t want to continue with the record! Managing without much mishap for most of it, I was actually thrilled that I’d made good speed. Wow! I was impressed!

I guess I’d spoken too fast. Deciding to oil my way too dry hair before I shower, I tried to squish some coconut oil onto my palm. The oil had frozen over in the cold weather. I looked at the steaming insides of the microwave which had just finished cooking the rice… Well, it would help to warm up the oil. I shoved it in and waited a few minutes. It was not quite ready yet. So, I set it to heat for 30 seconds, and squished it hard on my palm once again to test it. The outpouring was so sudden…the oil gushed out like an unstoppable fountain for another ten seconds before I could stop the flood! Reflex action; I lifted my palm to my head and all the oil was on my hair! I smarted, thinking that it was all for the good, though it was a tad too much! Anyways, I had been intending for days to soak in the oil to get rid of my itchy scalp that had wilted in the chills of winter.

 

Omigosh! Looking at the clock, I realized, I had to make a dash to the shower and back, and then grab a bite, if I had to be on time for the meeting! A quick shower didn’t help scrub of the oil, but I wasn’t thinking too much about it! I had to rush, rush, rush! I put on a shirt…not the right color to go with my black pants! I found one and just when I buttoned it up, one of them gave way!!! Drat it! I hunted for a safety pin, but that showed. By now, I had no time to change into a new shirt. I hid it in a sweater that would never be removed till I got home and sprinted to catch the 1.50 bus! Too late! It just went by! The next one would take ten minutes! Waiting impatiently, I noticed the drizzle getting heavier and visibility dipping to zero. I sighted the bus after what seemed to be an interminable wait, and stepped forward. My heart jumped out of my wet skin! The bus went past me!!! Did I have to wait again?? I heard a sudden screech… The driver had spotted me a little late!!! Thanking my stars, ran for the meeting.

Getting out of the meeting, my mind was racing… I had to get back, cook dinner and head to the craft studio… I intended to finish some of my clay pieces before my painting class. I had barely three hours to wind up things! I quickened my step to the bus stop, to see my bus leaving it, in the distance. I couldn’t have made it even if I had to dash for it!! It was just a matter of ten minutes, and I resigned to my wait. “I’d been missing a lot of these buses today”, I thought. I heaved a sigh as the next one came on time. I got off at my stop and headed home, irritated to be holding an umbrella to my head… (They always test my patience!) I entered my block and realized what I had done! I had left the house keys behind, as Prashant was still at home when I left! I called him, hoping he would be free to come from college and open the door. Nope, he had to stay put in college, and I could pick it up from him. And I had done this just 12 hours after I got ‘reprimanded’ for losing things and irresponsible behavior!! Yeeeeeeeow!!! (Don’t ask me for more gory details!)

 

I rushed back, hoping that the bus which dropped me off would be on its way back to college. Yikes! I missed it by a whisker again!!! I couldn’t believe my luck (I mean the lack of it). I debated about the 30 minute walk to his office, but decided it would be wiser to take the bus. Anyways, I had to get off and walk ten more minutes from the bus stop to reach his department. I waited for the fated bus, praying that the driver would spot me this time, and finally got off at the right stop. The campus was still vibrant with fall colors and the walk was good, except that the wind was trying to snatch my umbrella, and deciding I was no match, folded it and enjoyed the walk in the rain.

Its uncanny but true… I missed the bus on the return journey as well and I just threw myself to the cares of fate. But it didn’t seem benevolent towards me this particular day. I got wet and cold and felt the coconut oil freeze on my hair by the time I was inside a bus. The driver happened to be the lady who had dropped me home not too long ago (all this happening in the span of an hour). And she had to say, “Didn’t I just drop you!!” That was the moment I went over the edge and life afterwards has not been the same.

(Postscript: I came home, remembered I was yet to have lunch; that was the only thing I had time for before my painting class! Mr Iyer decided that I had missed enough buses and spotting me walking to the dreaded bus stop, offered a lift in his chariot. I had managed to get a woolen skull cap, mostly to hide the oil slick on my pate, and stuck it on throughout my class. I messed up my chrysanthemums at class, that too right after my teacher had complimented my painting skills, and eventually gave up doing anything. It was just not my day! 

I’m still suffering the sniffles and chills to date and yes, it was indeed eventful… I misplaced things, dropped all sorts of indelible stains behind, missed every single bus I had to catch, made it to three appointments, and still, got back in one piece…all in a day’s time!)