By Tara Narayan

IT RAINED furiously in Bangalore mid-May and the temperature came down to 25 degrees C and I noticed how one didn’t sweat and over a week all my prickly heat vanished. There’s little humidity in Bangalore-which-has-become-Bengalaru because it is a landlocked city at the heart of south India, growing and booming forever in outward circles, taking away more and more of the countryside. (Sigh) I lost something, whatever’s left of my heart and my friend, my mobile phone, while out at the Press Club of Bangalore one evening. Is there anything which says that if you lose something somewhere, you’re bound to return some time, some day?

Hey, I’m beginning to think of all cities in Bharatdesh I’m likely to love Bangalore the most, for it is THE garden city of India and doesn’t have the cold formality of Delhi or the stinky foetid air of Mumbai. But like I always say, I take a deep breathe of gratitude and thanksgiving whenever I get back to Goa from wherever and especially if it’s from one of our mega polluted cities! Although Bangalore has a lot to offer if you hire one of the air-conditioned Esteem cabs for the day (roughly Rs. 100 an hour) instead of one of very non-state-of-the-art autorickshaws, which actually are convenient to use, if in central Bangalore the heart of the original city on up hill and down hill terrain then it’s advisable to wear a mask to stop all the traffic pollution from getting into your lungs. As in Mumbai, even in Bangalore one may see two-wheeler riders with an assortment of “masks” on their face e.g. a large handkerchief or a dupatta tied effectively across nose and half the face dacoit-style, leaving only the eyes to dart around… can’t see the pretty face!

Don’t know why somebody hasn’t come up with a state-of-the-art city pollution mask for sale… something light, washable and easily potable? I’m looking for one for my out-of-Goa travels!

I was in Bangalore after some maybe 15 years and naturally a lot has changed. Mall culture has made it big time and everybody wants to see and kill time in one of the malls, may be Bangalore has more malls than Mumbai. What’s that supposed to mean except that there’s a much larger population of young people with many professionals back from abroad. Don’t ask me why I was chasing malls on my last day in Bangalore instead of the gardens!

For malls, I’m beginning to realise, are pretty much alike in their international branded goods and desi and phoren food courts and crowds of people. Most folk are just sight-seeing or window-shopping in the malls for none of the international brands come at prices less than Rs. 1,000 or so. At The Body Shop at Central Mall I noticed that a lot of the premium products had been reduced to a new price which was almost half the original and even then I thought “I’m not going to buy this Green Tea parfume spray for Rs. 500 no matter how tantalizing!” The Body Shop stuff is tempting for it is non-alcoholic based and much else which is eco-friendly.

CITY OF MALLS

THE Central and Garuda malls are the most popular I dare say, also the Forum further afield was such a crush of people. There’s also the Cosmos, Eva, Gopalan, ITPB, Leela Galleria, Lido, Lifestyle, Oasis, RMZ Infinity, Shree Garuda Swagath, Sigma …malls all. At one point while escalating up and down it hit me that malls are timeless places, they’re all so brightly lit that one loses track of whether it’s dawn, noon or midnight! A lot of modern-day eating out happens at the mall food courtyards but at the Garuda Mall food court my “everything in it” six-inch Subway sandwich came quite tacky and limp with over-tart chilled pickled jalapeno and cucumber in it, it made tongue curl and teeth grind…but at one distant corner someone was retailing refreshing sugar cane juice and I took the edge of my mouth with a glass of real thirst-quenching sugarcane juice. I tend to be old-fashioned in my drinking habits and can’t stand bottled aerated drinks or fun drinks Red Bull or Blue Tiger or whatever, and now there are desi power drinks too. I don’t know what kind of people shell out Rs. 100 plus, plus for these so called “power drinks”… the children of rich parents! Has anyone done a survey on how these quick-fix heady junk drinks affect health?

I’m trying hard not to become a modern-day mall rat in my old age! That’s what folk who’re hooked on to the mall culture being spawned in our mega cities are being called in popular parlance. I was certainly feeling like one after a late afternoon’s whirlwind tour of the Central and Garuda malls which are close to each other. What did I buy? Just a pair of beautiful baingaphally mangoes (Ratnagiri afoos is selling at Rs. 99 a box of half-a-dozen large ones); the hubby, of course, will not come malling with me for love or for money!

He was mourning over the recent demise of the India Coffee House, a popular venue of his college days in Bangalore. There’s talk though that it’s going to be revived for there’re enough feisty old-time Bangloreans who’ll fight to keep their old gold institutions alive Good luck to them. There’re hundreds of places to eat out in Bangalore and its new suburban outskirts and famous and infamous pubs galore where young hippy Bangaloreans like to let their hair down. Some of these pubs are rambling dhaba-like places e.g. Copacabana where we spent one evening watching every body guzzling the latest beers like water, with loud yoddling every time the Bangalore team won in the IPL matches being tele-screened at most venues… “Oh, don’t preach about glycerine in beer and how it’s going to harm our insides!” snapped a not-so-young-friend, “I get so stressed out working on the computer all day long that I need this weekend break.” Bangalore is full of computer nerds who don’t know what a picnic out at Cubbon Park is!

TRADITIONAL V/S MODERN

I COULD have stayed on in Bangalore to check out all the Udipi eateries, which are the only ones which open at 6 am and 7 am… next time round. The true Kannadiga will still swear by his native eateries and I’d choose MTR at Lal Bagh or Vidhyarthi Bhavan (offers an amazing range of fingerlicious dosa) near Gandhi Bazar Circle over any new-fangled five-star restaurant offering crayfish smothered in Thai basil sauce or pan-seared foie gras! A friend took us to the dim lit well-appointed Geoffrey’s Bar out at the Royal Orchid Hotel but one look at the menu prices and I said let’s get out if I can’t pay the bill there’s no reason why the friend should, even if he protested that he had a 30 percent discount business card. Nobody I know is going to pay Rs. 550 for 30 ml of Bailey’s Irish Cream. I said, no, thank-you. “Why are you leaving, Ma’am?” asked an exquisitely painted, silk and satin attired pretty young thing (PYT) bar girl and I rudely snapped, “Sorry, I can’t afford the prices here, can you?” and afterwards felt like a pretty old thing (POT), mean and cruel!

But this is to say there’s much more in Bangalore-which-has-become-Bengaluru to beguile the soul and I could retire to Bangalore for the rest of my life. The city’s moved on from pensioner’s paradise to mall rat’s paradise… but put it this way, the traditional and the modern flourish side by side mostly in harmony. If you’re going to Bangalore, be sure to pick up some useful guides e.g. there’s a “Time Out Bengaluru” monthly which delivers an up-to-date guide to what’s happening in and around town on a fortnightly basis; there’s a food glossy called “Food Lovers” which does restaurant reviews ultra modern, modern and traditional, tells you what’s healthy and what’s not and other things to do with eating out and eating in.

Other guides: The Eicher maps are superb; there’s “The Kingfisher Explocity” great food guide to eating out in Bangalore (value for money at Rs. 150); and “Ticket Bengaluru” is pretty much in detail. It’s “Peter Colaco’s Bangalore” which I hunted high and low for and finally found courtesy Bangalore’s most friendly bookshop i.e. Gangaram’s on M.G. Road (a genial Mr. Atmaram got in touch with Paul Fernandes, who illustrates for Peter Colaco, who in turn helped me to get a copy of the book). “Peter Colaco’s Bangalore” (piquantly illustrated) makes for insightful, involved, vintage class reading about how Bangalore city has become Bengaluru good, bad and ugly. Peter Colaco, of course, is one of Bangalore’s famous residents although he’s a pretty much reclusive resident nowadays… still writes an amusing weekly column for the Bangalore “Mid-Day”.

This is to say Bangalore is the garden city of India, and the foodie city, and I’d rather honeymoon and holiday here than in Mumbai!

All pics by Tara Narayan.