Monday 4 November 2013

The Real Bangalore

I just finished reading White Tiger a few days back and even though the book was nice, the one thing that really annoyed me was how people who are not from Bangalore look at this city. For the rest of India and the world Bangalore is this big cosmopolitan IT city. For the people who moved here in the last ten years after the IT boom, Bangalore is the city of opportunity, growth and traffic.
But for us? The kids who grew up here, we love this city for entirely different reasons.
Somethings only we will understand about this city. Unfortunately though, everything here except the weather has changed.


1) Airlines Hotel wasn't a smoking zone for aimless college kids, it was a place where families would come for breakfast every Sunday, and that one waiter would recognize your car and come running to serve you.
The swings were next to the kitchen and the hotel had a saloon called Cauvery and a super market.
2) Megabowl, next to the HAL airport was the place we loved. For the bowling and the fake Ice skating.
Also Aamir Khan had come there twice!
3) Golconda Chimney was the only decent place in Marathalli. And eating there, in the open terrace are was the best thing ever a kid because we could see all the planes from HAL fly over us. (they were so close!!)
4) Eden park off Cunningham road was famous for its mini bowling and food.
5) The Ice Cream Shop war was between Richie Rich and Lakeview.
6) Vidhana Soudha was open to public and all kinds of people would come there to sit on the grass with their families and eat roasted corn and hot kalepuri with nuts. And laugh at tourists who would get scammed by Polaroid photographers.
7) Fun World was our actually awesome! No other city had such a good amusement park within city boundaries. Every kid who went there would walk out with that soap bubble thing they sold outside.
8) Plaza theater showed 3D movies, like chotta jadugar and chotta chetan!  Now its a metro station.
9) Mr. Gullu and Mr.Chetty made chat and snacks themselves in Gullu's Chat and in Chetty's Corner.
10)Nothing could beat Bowring Stall's (when it was actually next to Bowring Club) kulfi and mango milkshake. 
11) Kempfort was every kid's paradise. I'm not sure if they actually sold any sarees in the ground floor. 
12) Sapphire's was like mini paradise. 
13) Most exciting periods of visiting KempFort and Kid'sKemp was meeting the cartoon characters outside.
14) The only KFC outlet in India was on brigade road. They were Blue themed that time. A zinger was less than 50 bucks. They served something better than the zinger for vegetarians called the paneer burger. They gave free kitchen tours to children. And hosted a Christmas party with Chicky and Santa every year. The Chicky dance!!!
15) Gangarams Book Store.
16) You or your friends would've definitely had at least one birthday party in the only Pizza Hut that time on Cunningham road.
17) Famous places on Brigade road- Wimpy's, Quality, KFC, Pizza Corner, Rex, 5th avenue  Victory Dry Cleaners, Sapphire's, Mota Arcade (and that simulator place inside)
18) You could count the number of international schools on one hand.
19) Your Cottonian friends would tell you stories about Ebeneezer.
20) Imperial had better kebabs than Empire
21) Kids would go to Bangalore's only proper mall, Shopper's stop only cause it had an escalator.
22) Rex and Symphony Theaters were related!
23) NASA and Purple Haze were the places we always wanted to visit as adults!
24) Single Screen Theaters- Naga, Ajanta, Cauvery, Lido, Rex, Galaxy, Symphony etc
25) St. Marks Road was a one way in the opposite direction


These are few things I remember as a child who grew up in this city.
And we love this city because we have memories attached to each of these places.

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