Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A city I once loved..

Once upon a time, when it was called Bangalore, this city had wide roads lined up with beautiful, giant, green trees. The trees used to be so thick that they used to block the sunlight to a large extent. The roads were wide - or maybe they appeared wide to a 10 yr old me, and the traffic used to be so little that they used to allow us to run across the road. The weather so cool, that fan used to considered a luxury - used by the rich during two weeks in the summer.

Once upon a time, you could go from one end of the city to the other end in less than an hour, and MG Road meant lots and lots of bookstores.

Once upon a time, we used to catch a double decker bus and sit on top and ride all the way to Majestic every time we wanted to 'go shopping'. There wasn't a mall every ten yards then, see?

Once upon a time, my mental images of Bangalore used to be covered with green trees and mist - lots of mist. Actual mist - not smog.

Once upon a time, Bangalore used to be called "the garden city".

And now...?

It took us two and a half hours to drive from Mysore to the edge of Bangalore (Mysore road) and another two to drive from there to Koramangla.

That's all I'm saying.

7 comments:

Abhi said...

You're in Bangalore? For how long??

Spica said...

I was in Bangalore. Last week.

Roshan George said...

I saw an abomination in Bangalore once. It was a plastic Ronald McDonald on a bench. It was terrible.

Vinod Pillai said...

@Roshan
Hey, I saw that in Jaipur too. You know what's worse? People were making their kids sit with him so that they could take photos. Bah.

Aaaaand don't even get me started on Bangalore.

Unknown said...

i spent 3 years there with mixed experiences.. but all that is left are the bad experiences... its a sick place with native public having a bad attitude towards outsiders..

Spica said...

RG: But that's everywhere!

VP: But that's everywhere too!!

It's only that they're no place in acendas to put such a bench. But they really should. Give us some place to sit during weekends. It's so bloody crowded.

Subash: Yeah, well, you know. I don't really blame them. It's like the IT companies came and took over their livelihood/land/way of life. A little anger is, but, natural.

Roshan George said...

@Vinod: Oh yes, that makes it even worse. Especially when the kids are fat.

@Spica: I haven't seen it in Chennai. Fortunately, people here have some taste.