Five days in Bangalore

This trip to Bangalore was supposed to be unusual, in the sense that I was visiting primarily not to see the sights but to meet up with some eager old boys, and that is exactly how it worked out.

I arrived at the airport at about eight in the evening of Wednesday after half a day’s work in Kolkata. Subhadip and Kaustav, of the ICSE 2002 and 2012 batches respectively, turned up to receive me, and I was taken to the Treebo Hotel just behind Thalassery restaurant off Swamy Vivekananda Road near Hope Farms in Whitefield. Kaustav’s ‘PG’ is located in an adjacent street, and he had planned to stay with me for the course of my visit, looking forward to several long and leisurely chats, which we did enjoy.

Next morning the two of us visited Tipu’s palace halfway across the town, then strolled around Lal Bagh, as beautiful as it was in 1992, though the temperature shot up to 32 celsius, and the sun was blinding, as it had been at Pondicherry three years ago: so much for Bangalore’s balmy weather! Then we had a standard dosa-vada lunch at an Udupi eatery, and it was already late afternoon by the time we returned. A walk around a local lake to get away from the noise and dust for a bit, then a visit to Kaustav’s software park on ITPL Road, where I kept grinning to myself as the ‘high-tech’ entry procedure dragged on seemingly for ages, reminding me of Chaplin’s biting satire in Modern Times. Someone stole poor Kaustav’s spare helmet off his parked bike: future visitors from Durgapur beware.

On Friday Subhadip picked us up and we drove off to Mysore. The old capital is a much cleaner, quieter place. Did the customary tour of the Wodeyar Palace, followed by a trip to the Chamundi hills, which offered a pretty view of the city below after sundown. On Saturday we drove back at a more leisurely pace, stopping at Tipu’s summer palace first, then at the Ranganthittu bird sanctuary, which was delightful, a welcome drink of green coconut water in front of the Gumbaz and a quick peek at the stark hills near Ramnagara at Subhadip’s insistence, where most of Sholay is supposed to have been shot. It was 8:30 in the evening by the time we returned to the hotel, after negotiating several of Bangalore’s notorious traffic jams and stopping for tea, chicken samosa and elanji on the way. All three of us were dead beat by then. Subhadip hardly let me drive, ostensibly because he loves driving, but much more likely because he could not entrust his beloved car to me, or could not bear with my too-staid driving, or both.

Sunday was spent lazing. Abhishek Das of the 2003 batch came over to visit, as did Aritra Roy of 2007, and we chatted right till evening, breaking off only to lunch on Malabari biryani, though Kaustav took a half hour snooze, and I spent part of the late afternoon in a dream like state, lounging on the sofa and listening to the boys exchanging notes over their current job situations and lifestyle issues, interspersed with delightful reminiscences about their classes with me. At night, Subhadip ferried me to his flat and back, and we gorged on a sumptuous dinner rustled up by his wife and mother, eager hostesses despite all the varied pressure they are under.

On Monday I visited Nishant Kamath’s parents at their flat in a beautifully appointed gated residential housing complex off Budigere Cross. Seven hours passed by in a flash, chatting, drinking tea, coffee and a bit of wine, strolling around the  manicured campus, lunching on a mixture of cuisines, and learning about their joint cake-making venture which has become such a hit that they are having to refuse orders  now. Took a cab to Kempegowda Airport in the late afternoon for fear of getting caught up in a traffic snarl, then spent two interminable hours waiting to board the flight, which was mercifully on time despite an initial delay scare, and I was in Pupu’s house by 11:30 p.m. Delhi is much cooler and greener; the traffic, just as dense but considerably more orderly.  Being free (and guilt-free) to relax, I have stayed at home round the clock these last three days – except for brisk walks around the IIT/NCERT campuses or the Sarvodaya Enclave Park nearby – and finished a short history of Islam; currently deep into Wendy Doniger’s much reviled, but most erudite, monumental and highly readable ‘alternative history’ of Hinduism. Pupu’s bookshelves offer a delectable choice of books...

Thank you, all the boys. It was a pleasure. Now that I have a little more leisure to travel, if only in short snatches, I shall be glad to know which others might be equally eager to host me for a few days where they live. If there are good sightseeing options nearby, that would be a bonus, but I would like to visit essentially for the conversations. 

(Buddha carved out of a tree trunk, Lalbagh, Bangalore)

I might post other photos later.