Sunday, December 11, 2011

Bangalore, the great melting pot!


Technology has shrunk the world and made it a smaller place. People are migrating from their home towns to other towns and cities and even other countries to study or to work or simply to settle down into their retired lives.

As for me, I’ve been rooted to Bangalore ever since I first came here in 1960 as a five year old. The previous five years were spent in a dusty mining camp in Gujarat where I was born. The only languages I knew then were Gujarati and Tamil. In Bangalore, we stayed in a small rented house in what was then known as Civil Station in the Cantonment area. My neighbours were Telugu and I was able to pick up some basic Telugu, forgetting most of my Gujarati in the process. My first few years primary school flew by without my acquiring any new language skills. My middle and high school years were more productive; I learnt how to read, write and carry on a conversation in English. Hindi was my second language and I became good at it. For two years we also had Kannada as the third language and I learnt to read, write and speak basic Kannada during these two years. So, by the time I finished school, I had learnt four languages.

Bangalore’s salubrious climate, its warm and gentle people, its peaceful atmosphere, its educational institutions, its many public sector industries and, in recent times, its IT industry, all combined to make the city a powerful magnet. People from all parts of the country came to this wonderful city (and are still coming). Virtually every language spoken anywhere in India (and indeed a few of other countries) can be heard on the streets of Bangalore. Our auto rickshaw drivers, bus conductors, shopkeepers, darshini owners and employees, are all linguists. They are also helping to form Bangalore’s own Pidgin English. Just tune in to any of the FM radio stations and you will hear a masala of Kannada, English and Hindi that can only be called Bangalorean!

This great mixing is taking place not just with the languages, but with food as well. You can go to any of Bangalore’s darshinis and ask for Gobi Manchurian with your South Indian meals! Or you can choose to go with a “silly” paneer, but beware; the chilly power in the paneer can knock you silly! The famed local sweet Mysore Pak takes on a foreign flavour in a new avatar called Chocolate Mysore Pak! Then there’s a branch of a well-known local chain of darshinis in my locality where they serve a memorable stuffed capsicum curry, though the manager there insists on calling it “stupid” capsicum!

Of course, if you are one of the “driven” types, you can sample the “gobi motor”, the “motor masala” or the “aloo motor”! Dumbstruck, are you? Wait till you check out the “dumb biryani”!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My encounter with Bhoot Jolokia!




11-11-11

My encounter with Bhoot Jolokia:

One small bite...

1. The first couple of seconds, nothing happens
2. Then a sort of warmth starts at the point of contact and spreads, increasing in both reach and heat
3. By the fifth second the inside of my mouth feels like it caught fire and my tongue is getting scorched
4. By the eighth second the hiccups start
5. Speech becomes difficult
6. The heat spreads to the brain (“bheja fry”?) and stays there 
7. It is a while before sanity returns

Thankfully, I escaped with just a heat stricken tongue as the bhoot retreated

I looked at my watch; it was 11:30pm, so all this must have started at 11:11:11

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I could have been ...

I could have been ...
... a banker, but the idea just did not interest me.
... a miner, but I did not dig the job.
... a photographer, but the idea did not click.
... a chauffeur, but I did not have the drive.
... a parachutist, but I let the idea drop.
... a building contractor, but I preferred sight-seeing to site-seeing.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Bangalore-Singapore

One of our former Chief Ministers was fond of telling everyone he met that his wish is to turn Bangalore into another Singapore. Well, that wish may not have been fulfilled, but our fair city is certainly earning other sobriquets!



Bangalore has become the hot new destination for the world’s leading music groups and bands, so much so that it would not be out of place to call it "SINGapore".


Some time ago, when we received a herd of lions as guests at our own Bannerghatta Zoo, Bangalore seemed to have turned into a real "Simhapura" (which was what Singapore used to be called in earlier times).


Now that the rains have started and our few remaining good roads are beginning to crack up, our city can be temporarily renamed "SingaPOUR".


Meanwhile, the numerous agencies that have been entrusted with the task of improving our infrastructure laying optic fibre cables to network the city, to repair the roads, to build flyovers, to chart out the course of the Meandering Metro and generally to make a mess of this once beautiful city, haven’t quite completed their task, and have left yawning gaps all over the place, prompting the name SinGAPore for our great city!


And with so many reports of persons going missing every now and then, can we call our city MISSINGapore?


So what’s your take on this city?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Winged Visitor

This winged visitor decided to make a stopover at my place on Sunday. He alighted on a kuruveppilai (kadipatta) branch, rested awhile, then flexed his wings, caught the breeze and floated away!



Monday, June 13, 2011

Cereus! Brahma Kamalam!!


This flower, Cereus (Brahma Kamalam in India), blooms late in the night and its life is very short.

Friday, April 15, 2011

APRIL SHOWERS

April Showers

Dark clouds loom, threatening (doom?)

The bright summer sun (at once),

Blacked out like the wink of an eye.

A gust of cooling wind kicks up the dust.

The scent of moisture invades the air,

Like a distant promise coming near.

A flash and a boom (as if in sudden anger);

And then the downpour!

Cleansing everything in its path.

The morn after, new life sprouts forth

In the glisten of a tender leaf,

The chirp of an early bird.

Oh, summer rain!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Wikly Updet



C H I N T A - M O N E Y
(Thoughts For The Day)


All that glitters has a silver lining
Chevaux Coumarz, thinker

The hand that cradles the rock can’t count the money
old jungle saying

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the ground
old jingle

HOWZZATT? If you don’t draw blood first time, call for the third vampire
Dracu’s law


Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Mythical Bird

An attempt at Mithila sketching.