The Ringside View

My attempts at writing have always been stacked up in old diaries and scraps of yellowing paper.Time,neglect and phylum insecta however, always ensured that the gibberish i scrawled, never would see the prying gaze of an alien eye.Years later, i still scribble once in a while - this time in word documents stored in some obscure folder somewhere in the innards of my C drive.I am unearthing some of them and opening them up for the interested.To get what i call - The Ringside view.

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Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Nice place to be.

Bangalore was an idyllic city to grow up in – it was quiet. It was pleasant. It was all that a young kid of 5 would ever want. Ok. Agreed it was not on the waterfront like the ancestral home where we went during summer vacations. And there were no mango trees with drooping branches full of honey sweet treasures. There were not even elegant coconut trees to peer out of from the bedroom window. But yet, it was a nice place to be.

Middle school happened and then high school. You cribbed about the fact that yours was not a metro city. Why can’t they just give us DD2. Dad brought home a new TV and it had 12 channels. That DD1 would come on all 12 was another matter. It’s a time when your horizons expanded. When what sent your pulse racing was not visits to Cubbon Park but the arterial roads that lead to it; with all the nice cinemas and pretty girls. Bangalore was still a nice place to be.

You amble into college and there’s an option now for everything. There’s an option to wear what you want, an option to attend classes or not. There’s even an option to crawl out of class, but of course after your roll call is called. The PYT in the neighboring class is super hot. Her dad owns a firm in Kormangala somewhere they said. Computers and all that. Unnoticed, the city grew; throwing opportunities for hundreds like father of the PYT. The fact that he’s a millionaire now is a matter inconsequential. What of course is consequential was that Bangalore was still a nice place to be.

High rises happened and then even higher rises happened. More glass, more concrete and more carbon fumes. At traffic intersections, you look at your friend sitting pillion and say ‘Fucked isn’t it’. ‘Mighty well’, he replies. 64 sittings in examination halls and you get a graduate cap, a scroll and a job to boot. Not ironically, its computers and all that. You sit sipping Latte with friends and discuss the death of the old world charm. But its coffee table banter all said and done. The city after all is yours. It’s metamorphosed alright but the spirit is the same. Will be the same. And you know that when you turn that corner, there is that school which you walked to as a kid, or the hotel where dad took you for that golden brown dosa. This is where we come to the crux of what I actually wanted to discuss – my personal Bangalore favourites. The best place to take your woman out (on a budget or otherwise) to the best place to have filter coffee. Join me for all this and more, in a blog coming shortly. (Yippee!!!! And this is where we stop for a commercial break and ads for Complan and Maggi 2 minute noodles would come streaming in).

And btw, Bangalore is still a nice place to be :)

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11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

good one dude.. hope the sequel also includes your tips to avoid getting stuck for hours in traffic :)

September 11, 2007 10:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I sooo totally agree with you about Bangalore being a nice place to be. Over the last couple of years, I've had to explain to people the charm of Bangalore, and seriously, there are few other things that I'm passionate about. Write sequel soon!
- Lals.

September 12, 2007 12:13 AM  
Blogger Preeth said...

@anony -> Thats gonna be tough. I think it's gonna end up being totally gastronomic.

@Lals -> Even when its getting hazaar fcuked vis-a-vis old Bangalore you can't help likin it. Am I just being homesick here?

September 12, 2007 12:13 PM  
Blogger Pri said...

sequel sequel sequel

September 15, 2007 10:05 PM  
Blogger Pri said...

and the rains
and the old theaters
and the 2 week surprise holidays when veerappan kidnapped annavaru
and the trees. omg the trees.

i recently moved to houston and the first thing that made me instantly comfortable were the trees. they reminded me so much of bangalore. just big huge trees on either side of the road that form an arch in the middle. so pretty.

September 15, 2007 10:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

heheh :) so true.. i ve lived 1 year in banglore and the remaining 25 years of my life in other cities, and I still want to return to bangalore :) once the metro comes up, the city's character will change for sure - hopefully for the better

September 16, 2007 4:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Liking is an understatement for what we all feel for Bangalore. I go into raptures every time I tell people about Blossom's and Koshy's and Cubbon Park and... ayyo, I can go on and on and on! It's not homesickness da, it's just plain LOVE!
Write sequel soon.
- Lals.

September 16, 2007 7:17 AM  
Blogger Preeth said...

@Pri -> But Pri, it rains now with a 'I want to compete with Cherrapunji' types vengence I hear. The old theatres are all gone. The Galaxy and the Plaza and the Lido.And all swanky multiplexes have sprung up like bloddy mushrooms.And Annavaru no longer there for getting kidnapped, so that we can get weeks riot holidays. Pretty sure, no school would close if Shivraj Kumar got kidnapped :) And the trees, well...

@jayesh -> Even tho public transport is sure to benefit from the metro, the old charm of city travel is sure to take a hit. I know its a resisting change attitude but then..

@Lals -> Jus completed sequel and then read your comment. I myself feel let down somehow. My version turns out a bit too posh dont you think. Many simple pleasures missed, me thinks.

September 16, 2007 10:21 AM  
Blogger Pri said...

heeee yes but if puneet rajkumar got kidnapped im sure they would close. i would fly down and go on strike if they didnt.

September 17, 2007 3:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great Post! What -- those theaters are all gone?? Come on. I was looking forward to going there on my return. I guess I have stayed too long from B'lore then. Man, seriously tell me more about our good old Bangalore. Atleast for us dumb people who had the heart to leave the city and the people. Seattle feels a little like home with those rows and rows of trees and the rain -- oh yeah the weather too. But home is where the heart is and I heart Bangalore. No one -- literally no one who doesn't hail from B'lore can understand the pure love and the memories that good ole Bangalore holds for us all. Keep it coming more often, we'd like to hear more.

P.S: We have a sizeable crowd in Microsoft who are from Bangalore and I am forwarding this post to them. ~ Maria.

September 18, 2007 1:12 PM  
Blogger Preeth said...

@Maria -> Lido,Galaxy,Opera - all stand in shambles awaiting court cases and an uncertain future. Plaza has stopped playing movies as well, though the ice cream parlour outside it still stands as though in the hope that the glory days will come back again.So much for the good old theatres.However, if you are lucky you can still watch a movie at Rex.Wonder for how long though.

September 19, 2007 3:46 PM  

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