A few days back I was watching a Ramesh Bhatt, Anant Nag and Shankar Nag starrer. I think it was based in the late 80s or the early 90s. I prefer these kind of movies to the Ambareesh-RajKumar starrers as they are more reality based, and are funny for the most part. These movies also show a lot of the old Bangalore. While seeing the movie I felt really sad that Bangalore has now lost its charm.
The roads were calm. Going to MG Road was the most happening thing. Free pepsi while shopping for clothes in Kids Kemp was so exciting. Kids Kemp at that point was a luxury. Most of my shopping was done at WearHouse on Commercial streets. The coolest shoes then were Bubble Gummers. Next came the Action(Light) shoes.
Most families would travel on the bike. Dad in front. Son on the tank. Mom sitting sideways in behind and the smaller kid inbetween mom and dad. To protect my face from the wind, I had to wear my "monkey Cap" before sitting on the bike. Ind Suzuki and CD100 were the most common bikes.
Bangalore airport was almost empty. An aunt or an uncle coming from the US required 2 cars from the extended to family to pick them up. Coming from "America", they had huge suitcases filled with stuff to distribute.
Chalukya Hotel and Vidyarthi Bhavan were regular places to hang out then. They no longer are. Not because they are not cool. Now you cannot just walk in on a weekend and expect a table. And Koshy's was a cool place to hang out. Marie and Parle-G were the only biscuits available.
Going with my mom to Janatha Bazaar Super Market was so exciting as the shop was so huge. Nowadays my mom cant get me to go to Spencers to buy something, but back then I used to volunteer.
Playing crticket with rubber balls was common. At Rs 8 a ball it was manageable. But at Rs 25 a Cosco tennis ball, who ever lost it HAD TO FIND IT. And now if I look back at all the circus we used to do find the damn tennis ball, I am lucky to be still walking.
And TV, Orson was the most popular TV back then. We had 12 channels. And my dad's remote was me. I was repeatedly sent to change channels which I would do with so much enthusiasm.
Now when I look at Bangalore, everything is so commercial. Its crowded and worst of all the old world charm of a lazy city is gone. I do understand that with India growing so fast cities do grow. But I am sure if better planned, some parts of the city could've been saved. Now you can hardly find places that can be considered rustic. The cosmopolitan culture is nice, but because of that, Our "Bangalore culture" is lost.
My parents enjoyed Bangalore at its best. I caught glimpses of it. The next generation will grow up in a fast moving metro hardly any different from the rest :(
On a related note, Mysore has stil at some level managed to retain the calm, serene feel. I just hope the next generation Mysorians don't lose it like our generation Bangalorians.
Macha, its not banglore has grown at an exponential rate but its that you n me have grown up old and we always find childhood days memorable.. i remember my dad telling me his childhood days were better than ours. :)
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