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Living it up in Bangalore
December, 2008
With sunset India's Silicon Valley Bangalore comes alive - rocking, happening, and buzzing. In what seems like a night out on town that began 150 years ago, the city’s shop-till-you-drop crowd is out at neon-lit arcades and plush sprawling malls picking up everything from glad rags to wedding jewellery and diamonds. It’s the cue too for old faithfuls to head to the old club and gymkhana, chill out at the many cheerful, youthful coffee shops, unwind after a tiring office day at pubs and eclectic lounge bars, and finally make a gourmet pit-stop for some outstanding, satisfying cuisine.
That joyful sometimes raucous celebration of life historians say began a long time ago, when Bangalore was a bustling garrison town. Busy as it was, the cantonment did not scrimp on exploring the array of exciting bars, clubs, cafes, and nightlife that had dutifully followed the EI Company.
The pre-eminent military base was replete with shakers and movers of the Raj. Visitors pulled up essentially for business - professionals connected with civil administration and city-planning, infra-structure and development, armaments and military advice. Then there were the savvy entrepreneurs. They came hoping to service or bag supply contracts for horses and saddlery, construction material from tiles and steel beams to bathroom fittings, essential and luxury goods, both for the military and civilians.
At the end of the day, with ink pot-quill, duster and paper and the red-tape on files, put away, the good times began ... a time at dusk when even the most dour-faced turned into the sultans of swing!
Bangalore of old –fun city numero uno!
A snobbish address of the day was Bronson’s Gothic-style West End Hotel, today’s Taj, close to government offices Attara Kacheri. The hotel set in a sprawling bungalow had a main building with rooms, a separate dining hall, billiard tables, livery and stables. The furnished rooms had English commodes, bath-tubs and running water. The West End, a ‘First Class’ hotel, came with a matching royal tag - Rs 12 per diem, meals included.
And those out for fun and leisure had a plethora of choices: sporting activities such as squash, tennis, billiards, cricket, football and rugby and golf at posh clubs and gymkhanas; boating, sailing and regatta; polo and horse-riding; and later, there was plenty of ops for elbow-bending, and shaking a leg at the club or the many dance halls that reverberated with the remixes and hot numbers of the day!
A popular hangout where singles mingled was the premises where the present Commissioner of Police’s office, Infantry Road stands today. It was then the Cubbon Hotel. It had suites of bachelor’s apartments, bar and a ballroom, dining hall, and carriages on the premises. The sports-minded went to the Bangalore Golf Club or for a chukker in the AGRAM Polo Grounds where there was every likelihood of bumping into a Second Lt. Winston Churchill of the 4th Hussars.
Bangalore’s glittering nightlife was largely concentrated in the South Parade, present day MG Road, and Brigade Road area. There was dancing at the convivial Baccalas (present Deccan Herald office). Nearby where other eclectic piano bars such as Adelphi Shades, Elysium and New Inn ‘where attractive women often waited at the tables for chance company.’ There were the other, demure lassies egged on by pushy mothers that took the steamer out of Ol’ Blighty, with matrimony on their mind. The ‘suitable boy’ was invariably an upwardly mobile young army officer from the ‘same church’.
Bangalore in the 21st century
Bangalore today is hi-tech. Even though the military presence and ambience pervades, it is very much a vibrant economic powerhouse of global importance with a sizable young hip population. For reasons other than fun, the city doesn’t sleep. Even as different parts of the world pack in for the night, the IT city begins its office day. Night is day for many Bangaloreans and vice versa.
So what does one do for fun and excitement in today’s Bangalore? From the net, locals and printed guides, visitors can draw up a plan for an outing. Invariably that would include:
Shopping ops at Malls, designer stores
They call it ‘shop-a-tainment’. Sprawling malls, many with more than half-a-million square feet space, offer shopping with fun and entertainment. There are food courts, multiplex cinema halls and designer, department and specialty shops. Right from casual clothing to designer labels to wedding ensembles and everything in between are located in Garuda, Forum, Spar, Metro, Sigma, Big Bazaar and such malls located in the city centre and on the outskirts.
Trendy boutiques offer cutting-edge fashion and super up-scale shopping for the woman with almost everything - casual, cocktail and party wear silk including one that specializes in fabric enriched with Swrovoski crystals and appliqué work. Factory outlets and downtown garment shops offer international fashion buys at unbelievable prices.
Bangalore has some of the country’s oldest and finest jewellery houses. Plush shops put out platinum, diamond, gold and silver jewellery of arty traditional and contemporary designs. Serious shoppers and antique browsers flock to them for rare finds.
Fine Dining
In recent times, a gastronomic coup of sorts has been achieved in the city. A range of new, rich culinary culture graces the table. Expensive and budget, these restaurants put out some superlative world cuisine in an ‘indefinable aura of chic comfort and camaraderie’.
Typical of this movement are Colonial, Olive Beach, Blue Ginger at the Taj West End, Fuga, I-talia, Bon South, Hard Rock Café, Rim Naam at the Oberoi, 13th Floor, Sunnys, The Rogue Elephant at Ambaara…
Take Ajit Saldanha’s Colonial on Walton Road. The bamboo and greenery and art collection catapults diners to a Kiplingesque era. The gourmet fare also celebrates those times - Afrikaaner, Peranakan, Burmese, Vietnamese, Australian, Anglo Indian and Tamil Christian delicacies. Check out Sandra from Bandra. Quite a dish, old chap?!
Another, Olive Beach rated as one of the ten best restaurants of India , has a soothing, elegant ambience fashioned out of an old English cottage. The thick rough walls and high ceiling, and outside, a beach like setting make wonderful venues for some of the finest cuisine that’s on par with the best around the world.
Then again moving away from the herd is the minimalist six-table, lurking in the shade of an ethnic fashion boutique, The Rogue Elephant at Ulsoor lake-St John’s Church Road. Gushes a PYT, ‘Their savory panna cotta and caramelized fig salad are to die for!’
In addition to chic dining - French, Italian, Latino and Mediterranean, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Mongolian, Pan Asian, and haute cuisine for those with deep pockets, there is a mind-boggling number of good, reasonably-priced restaurants - burger, pizza, and the ubiquitous idli-vada eateries known as darshinis. Arguably the world’s best masala dosa is produced in the city, at Vidyarthi Bhavan!
Bangalore’s eating out option includes regional specialties of Karnataka, Andhra, Bengali, Chettinad, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lucknow and Awadh, Rajasthani, Gujarat, Punjab …
Pubs & Lounge Bars
Bangalore has more than 400 classy and cool pubs and elegant lounge bars. From the quintessential English pub half or fully timbered, stain glass and period artefacts to laid back settings, great music permeates everywhere – R&B, hip hop to house to Bollywood to resident DJs favorites.
If you want to skip the bar and club scene, a fun way to spend an evening is to walk down MG Road or Brigade Road and rub shoulders with the locals, window-shop, check out music and book-stores or newspaper kiosks, snap pics of old buildings, watch young locals and visitors doing downtown.
Practically everywhere too are great places to just sit and chill. Coffee Day kinda place are all over, but the ever-green and popular Parade Cafe is the place for coffee and curry puffs. It is the haunt of art and theatre buffs, and sound bytes of intellectual wisdom freely float here. While in there, get Prem Koshy to talk on the framed pics of ol’ Bangalore adorning the walls!
Upcoming features and excitement in Bangalore
A series of amusement parks is coming up in the outskirts of the city. An innovative Film City on a 50 acre plot is on the cards. So is a Ripley’s Believe it or not Museum, a wax museum, a dinosaur world, funplex with virtual reality games, a 4d theatre, aqua kingdom with a Thai beach, and a cartoon city with car and boat rides, double-decker carousel, Jurassic world with rare species of fossils. Go-Karting on a 400 metre circuit are other attractions being developed to add to the heady excitement and fun of Bangalore.
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Adventure sport anyone?
Skydiving, rock climbing, paragliding, scuba diving, mountain biking, jungle walks, river rafting, rappelling and other such high-risk adventure sports are being planned on the outskirts of the city. A number of international experts have been roped in for drawing up a state-of-the art facilities. Interestingly insurance cover for the sport is also being built into the package.
For more information, call Mayuresh Kopote, ED, Indian Adventure Club on 94490 77022/90083 62005 or visit www.iacindia.org
The Bull that came to guard the crop,
or,
The Temple of the Celestial Bull
Nov 9. 2008
The southern Indian state of Karnataka is dotted with many barren rocky hills and interesting natural boulder formations in a surreal landscape. On the SH-17, near Ramanagaram where the block-buster movie Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975) was shot, spectacular cyclopean masses of delicately poised and balanced rocks greet the eye.
As students at Bangalore ’s BMS College of Engineering, we often walked past one such set of rugged rock formations on the heightened land where the Bugle Rock and Bull temple stand. Little did we realize then that the area’s name Basavangudi was derived from that temple.
The bare area strewn with boulders of all shapes and sizes has pleasantly changed. There are tall magnificent trees that form a beautiful canopy for an open air theatre. The chirping and chatter of birds fill the air through the day. Gardens, a beautiful park with a musical fountain have come up in recent times. Icons of Kannada littérateurs - Kumara Vyasa, Srikanthaiah, Bendre, Kuvempu, Kailasam, U R Ananthamurthy, Karnad, and a host of navya or modernists adorn the OAT.
To add to the literary setting on a recent Sunday morning visit we saw people absorbed in books. While many youngsters were pouring over notes and text-books, a pretty young thing was immersed in Thomas Hardy’s Two on a Tower.
Basavana Gudi or the Bull Temple
Further up on the hill is the historical Dodda Basavanna gudi popularly known as the Bull Temple . It is easily one of the city’s oldest tourist attractions. The Yelhanka prabhu or chieftain Kempe Gowda often referred to as the ‘founder’ of Bangalore is credited with building the temple in 1586.
In the temple, an imposing garlanded Nandi, the celestial vehicle of Lord Shiva, occupies pride of place. The bull has been carved out of a single granite block. It is breathtakingly real. The original colour of the bull, gray has turned into shimmery black. The idol has ‘grown’ from its original height of 4.57 meters to its present 6.2 meters, and length from 5.10 to 6 meters. In an attempt to limit its further growth iron rods have been implanted in the bull’s head.
Basavanna gudi is built in classical Dravidian style - of gray granite polished with a mixture of charcoal and groundnut oil. Its modern gopuram or dome that rises gracefully, loftily up into the sky is ornately decorated.
The temple draws a large numbers of visitors, vendors and pilgrims – something that has been happening for many hundreds of years. On special occasions musicians perform at the temple, and the place is packed with devotees. On the auspicious Shivaratri – the festival in honour of Lord Shiva and to celebrate His wedding to Parvathi, the temple sees unprecedented rush.
The legend behind the temple
How did the area get the temple? One interesting legend has it that the peanut growing fields in surrounding villages such as Mavalli, Dasarahalli, Avalahalli, Guttahalli and Kanakanapalya were invariably ransacked on every full moon night. The angry farmers seeing their cash crops ruined, long suspected this to be the work of a gang of serial robbers.
To nab the marauders, the simple farming community armed itself with crowbars and axes and lathis, and waited in the green patches on purnima, the night of the full moon. Just when their long vigil was about to be abandoned, due to sleep and weariness, the farmers heard rustling sounds. Alerted, one of the farmers swung into action and charged in the direction of the sound. The axe struck a large body. Not wanting to take chances in the dark, other farmers also joined in the attack. By then the pointed end of a crowbar had delivered the coup de grace. Hearing the commotion others from nearby homes came running to the scene.
To everyone’s horror they found that the rod had struck not a ‘giant of a thief’ but ‘a huge bull, golden in colour, eyes shining bright like jewels’. As dawn broke, the dead bull mysteriously disappeared. The stunned and stupefied farmers later learnt that the bull had come to the fields not to graze or gorge on the vegetation, but to actually guard the crop and chase away intruders.
In time, one of the residents saw a link between the murderous incident and the discovery of a granite formation with an uncanny resemblance to the slain bull on top of the hillock. The discovery had villagers from near and far rushing past the boulder swells and up the hillock to gaze at the majestic motionless Nandi. Facing the east, the calm and powerful bull seemed to be benignly gazing and overlooking the fields down below.
Without a second thought, the farmer who struck the murderous blow, and his comrades, trembled and fell to the ground, crying for forgiveness.
The legend further has it that when Kempe Gowda got word of the catastrophic full-moon incident, he visited the area. The anxious croppers who had gathered on the hillock told the chieftain of their apprehensions. They feared that their agriculture business was doomed. The wise and benevolent ruler immediately sympathized with their cause and fell on his knees and sought the blessings of the Nandi. There after he built an imposing temple. The simple farmers were reassured that their interests will be protected, and that there would be no threat to their livelihood. Thus encouraged, generations of farmers have been faithfully tilling the land and reaping the rewards: bumper crop after bumper crop.
Matter of faith
Now, half a millennium later, the ritual of thanksgiving, the kadalekayi parishe continues. Every year the first crop of peanuts is taken to the hilltop and with that begins much celebration and gaiety. Says 89-year old Narayani amma, whose family has been vending peanuts on the rocky slope for more years than she can remember, ‘For many years we have been getting timely rains, bountiful crops and good prices.’ After a reflective pause, ‘This is all because of the divine protection and blessings from above,’ she says pointing to the hillock where beyond the dense foliage is the Dodda Basavana Gudi, the temple of the Celestial Bull.
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