bangalore

a bangalore rickshaw with the strange breast like backrests for the driver

study trip to bangalore this time. same class different place. last years amritsar was gorgeous. this year… well.. lazy.

the journey to bangalore-- the highlight was the impromptu movie that the kids decided to make- or was it a tv serial? 'naye krrish ki khoj'.. where chachi sawant, the old krrish and a bitchy judge were choosing who is to be the new krrish, and the contestants were a ektaa kapoor heroine, thakur from sholay, himesh, bobby darling and more. mad mad fun.


'krrish ki khoj' - the judges

'krrish ki khoj' - the contestants

we lived in a seedy joint near the railway station with lilac colored rooms and a five storied atrium organizing the interior. i shared a room with ninad on the second floor with a used condom decorating the window sill much to our disgust. besides that the hotel was all right really. mahaveer it was called and being close to the railway station and the theaters at least when you got out of it there was a chance of getting a rickshaw- which is more than one can say about some of the other parts of the city.

the 'atrium' in the hotel

ridhima on the fountain

meeting in the basement

rupali and ninad in the lilac room



film posters and cut outs - a man, a hot chick and another man with a building between his thighs

bangalore as a mini new york - on cubbon park. vijay mallya as donald trump

gateway to an older community in whitefield

the first two days we spent in a bus with the kids driving around the city, looking at some of the different landscapes that the ‘it revolution’ is leading to. the whitefield and infotech ring towards the east, the inner city markets, mg road (of course), some of the older suburbs like malleshwaram and russel market. after the first two days the students chose their own paths to follow; and we were free (almost). some chose flower sellers in kr market, some peripheral villages in the power loom industry, some film posters and cut out makers, metro lines, policies and imaginations for the new city, etc. they are compiling it all into a book. it might be interesting.

kr market

kr market below the mysore road flyover

tipus palace oustide the old town

'rural restaurant' at malleshwaram

scrap dealers - russell market

russell market

russell market and the church

whitefield - hi tech city

bangalore is about three cities – i think. it was once a divided city in terms of the native town and the cantonment- but now has a third city coming up in the east- the city of glass clad buildings, malls and residential complexes with names like ‘palm meadows’ and ‘italiana supreme’. in the development of this third city the older two have been ripped into and overturned. but yet in the landscape of the city very little violence is seen. its as if it has all been repressed under clean and green roads. and it is beautiful – though a little - how should i put it- tedious. this domesticated city makes it perfect for the moral and aesthetic value system of the large middle class who crave the sanitized and pristine prettiness of the city, and soak in the aura of it being the most ‘western’ city in the country. it is. it must be nice to live in.

rupali, ninad and me spent our three days lounging in tourist destinations of the city. on the first day the garden of lalbaug where we sat at the foot of the enormous tree, walked on the edge of the lake, took photographs of the crystal palace, until we found suitably tribal performers dancing folk dances among the trees. horticulture and anthropology side by side, in the confines of the park. while some of the dancers were obviously proficient, others looked like they were picked up from some random village and asked to recreate dance steps of long forgotten rituals and were inventing them as they went along. i liked the fact that none of them were in costume. they were wearing the cheap terrycot checked shirts and trousers that are really the clothes of rural india now.

lalbaug

bull temple

then there was the vishvewarya museum of science and technology. one old fashioned modern building with mosaic floors and ceiling fans. after a long time i found a museum that actually made me excited about the subject matter- from the lower floor with the amazing mechanical toys inviting you to touch them and play with them to the top floor with the sophisticated but tactile electronics gallery. there were kids all over the place as it was a saturday and the building was thankfully untouched by the characterlessness of the infotech bangalore. the balls on the tracks doing their crazy antics was probably the highlight of the trip.

vishweshwarya science museum

the next day was rupalis birthday and unfortunately for her the most mind-numbing day of all. the bangalore palace is a bizarre tudor styled atrocity in a large lawn with horses where you pay 100 rupees to browse through the leftovers of a dynasty who must have licked many a white ass to ride horses and kill elephants for footstools out of the elephants feet. chandeliers and 350 cameras along with many a naked woman’s portrait on the hand painted walls… wallpaper from china, weighing machines like horses for jockeys.. the palace was under renovation and the unrenovated rooms with their piles of dusty furniture were far more interesting than the recreation of the grossness of the past.

bangalore palace

an elephants foot as a stool

for some reason that day we decided to also go to forum mall at koramangla… stupid move. sunday at a mall and that too that mall. people all over the place watching and staring. terribly overcrowded and nouveau riche brand of tacky. well ironed t-shirts and jeans with sneakers on and baby in tow. there was something so yuppy about it that it made me quite unhappy- such a world away from the lanes and markets of cottonpet and chickpet that we had visited two days before.

koramangla mall

on our final sightseeing day in the city we settled for a long morning read in the enormous cubbon park. huge trees, dappled light, a cool breeze and the clear sunlight. the public space of the old bangalore- so much more than the atriums that claim to be those of the new. i was reading the new booker winner – the inheritance of loss- because one has to.. it really is not as bad.. so far.

cubbon park - monday morning

after that we all went our separate ways to meet our respective friends. me to richards town to meet vidura where i saw the first trailer of his chinese indian film and then bharat with whom i had a coffee at café coffee day. following a failed attempt at a class late night kannada picture show i took a rick to venkas where i met his wife and sweet children. i ate too much tomato ki subji there and was puking all night so that the next day i had to abandon any plans beyond going to the indian institute of science to walk down the same tree topped avenues as my father had.

iisc - main building

ninad at iisc with knowledge coming out of his ears

we had also met gada and gaurav in bangalore at pecos’- one of the few remaining pubs in the city. i couldn’t meet either shibani or mihika though i spoke to each once or twice.

bharat, gada and gaurav at pecos with jimi hendrix and bob marley looking on

vidura


venka, sarita, mohit and medha

back in bombay now after a go-air flight that dropped us unceremoniously into the speed that is mumbai, while the kids are off to hampi and then goa. they’ll be back on the weekend and then college begins again. it has not been a bad month.

rickshaw

bangalore airport