Coffee Nirvana

The journey was a flute that made her want to dance (Tagore) – Travel experiences of an Indian travel writer

July 20, 2009 • 11:34 am 4

India Travel Exhibition – Bangalore

India Travel mart at Bangalore Palace

India Travel mart at Bangalore Palace

The venue for IITM (India International Travel Mart) event could not have been more apt. Set in the spacious grounds of Bangalore Palace, the summer home of the erstwhile ruler of Mysore, it exuded both royal comfort and verdant gardens that many urban dwellers desire. The huge garden in front of the palace was picturesque and so were the brochures that enticed the visitors and revealed how enchanting our country really is.

At the entrance, facing the beautiful lawns, were different types of horse drawn carriages, the automobiles of an early era. The exhibition stalls were set behind the Palace. Tickets were modestly priced Rs 20/- per head.

Budget travels - Kerala homestays

The stalls were huge and with many props that showcased the states’ attraction. While Andhra predictably put up a prop of the Charminar, Gujarat had a 4-winged frame in which each frame acted as a collage of attractions of a particular city. Kerala enticed both the elite and the backpackers. A set of stalls marketed affordable homestays while there were others which sold us dreams of luxury on a houseboat.

Karnataka’s section was designed after the Patadakkal temple. The Karnataka brochure encapsulated the state’s map & its attractions – beaches, waterfalls, culture, heritage, wildlife and adventure tourism – along with lists of travel agents and tour operators for the state.

Karnataka

Karnataka

The staff at the Puducherry (Pondicherry) stall handed me a brochure that showed that the place was more than just Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. I knew that the city was mentioned in Sherlock Holmes stories but did not know that Man Booker prize winner -‘Life of PI’ – revolved around this city. A handy map of the city centre is also given in the brochure.

I also loved the stall Wandervogel who specialise in customised tours and adventure tourism in the North East and Ladakh.

There were also magazines like Travel Media, Safari Plus and World Travel to name a few. The international stalls in the exhibition were interesting – Jordan, Greece, Dubai and Thailand.

It was a head spinning time browsing at the various stalls. Busy Travel agents and tour operators flipped in and out of stalls. Small business operators, families and individuals like me were also a part of crowd. Looking at the number of people who thronged the exhibition, I wonder if  the recession’s over.

The diverse places, exotic holidays, adventures and leisure all contained in the handful of brochures, I walked out happily.

About the event

Bangalore: 18th – 20th July 2009

Venue: Bangalore Palace Grounds (from the entrance opp. Mount Carmel College)

Tickets: Rs 20/- per head.

Website: http://www.iitmindia.com/

Filed under: bangalore, india, travel , ,

June 21, 2009 • 5:41 am 0

Bangalore: how it became Green

Bangalore

Among the many names the city has, Bangalore is also known as the ‘Garden City’. But you would be surprised to know that this city – during the time which Tipu Sultan fought fierce battles with the British – was a barren land. To know more about the evolution of our city’s colourful gulmohurs, jacarandas and the many rain trees read my article -  ‘Bangalore: how it became Green’ – published in Chillibreeze.

Filed under: bangalore, ecology

May 6, 2009 • 11:49 am 5

Temples of Bangalore – Kote Venkataramana

Growing up in a traditional Brahminical family in Bangalore, this temple had always been ‘Kote Kovil’ for me. If I had known its history and significance to the city then, I’d have been too awed to step into it!

The Kote Venkataramanswamy temple, stands squeezed between the busy street and the sprawling gardens of Tipu’s Summer Palace in Bangalore.

venkataramanswamy-temple

Built in 1695 during the time of Chikka Deva Raya, the temple has witnessed a 300 year-old tale of the city. This was the period of the Mysore rulers, the Wodeyars,  purchasing the city from the Mughals and fortifying it. The word ‘Kote’ means Fort in Kannada language. Once the seat of Royalty, thetemple now stands in the commercial nerve centre of the city.

Tipu Sultan

During the brief rule of Tipu Sultan, a Palace was built adjacent to this temple. This was not exactly due to religious tolerance. Those were the days when the Kings were treated as God and it was usually the norm in those days to built the palace near the city’s temples. Tipu merely followed this norm!

tipu-sultan

The Temple has a huge Gopuram built in typical Dravidian Style. The passage leads to a mukha mantapa, navaranga, and an inner garbha griha (sanctum sanctorum). Though it has been a Vishnu temple since Wodeyars’ rule, there are some claims made by  scholars that the temple is much older and with Shaivite origins. The basis for this statement is the Girija Kalyana (Parvathi’s marriage to Shiva) carvings on the outer walls of the temple; which is rather odd in a Vishnu temple.

kote-gopuram

As I came out of the temple, I was also blessed by another ‘venkataramana’ at the entrance.

kote-2

However on Vaikunta Ekadashi day, I dont think even this Venkataramana will have time for a photo shoot. In an otherwise busy street, devotees form huge queues to visit the Lord on this auspicious day.

Filed under: bangalore, culture & heritage , , ,

April 6, 2009 • 6:56 am 2

This Main that Cross!

dsc00031

I always had this curiosity about Main roads and Cross roads of Bangalore. The Mains are not exactly Main as they are often single lane roads running through residential neighbourhood. The Cross roads do intersect the Mains and are wider, two-lane roads with a conglomerations of shops, schools, garages that spill onto the side-walk, bhelpuri walla’s mobile shops, beggars and cobbler’s makeshift sheds. Whether it is Indiranagar’s 100feet road or Basavanagudi’s Bull Temple road, they all intersect Main roads. In contrast the Mains are quiet, narrow, single lane and sometimes unpaved roads with motorbikes or cars are parked on one side of the road. Growing up in this city, I assumed that Main roads are residential roads and Cross roads are bigger roads with sidewalks and are used for commercial purposes.

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Filed under: bangalore, india , ,

March 9, 2009 • 3:40 pm 3

Once upon a time..

We lived in a rented house, built on a 30 X 40 plot, in one of the many small lanes of Subramanyanagar. It was a nondescript two bedroom house in which seven elders and three naughty children led a contented life. There was a small garden in the front that housed a parijatha tree, rose, kendasampige and a few other flowering shrubs and of course a tulsi plant.

Just yesterday, we took this lane, as there was a traffic jam on the main road. I was going in this lane in a car after a period of 20 odd years and the infrastructure is still the same. The quality of the road not changed; footpaths never existed and never will. What had changed were the houses.

Bangalore’s real estate boom has made every inch of space very dear. So each owner has extended the house to the last inch available. The economy boom has helped each one of them acquire a car or a two-wheeler, which is parked on the street. What is gone is the lung space, the garden that beckoned so many immigrants to the city.

Some say that this is a common complaint by different generations that ‘it was better in their times’. Some others argue that gardens and lung space will not help in the economy of the city. Yet some more are emphatic in declaring that Bangalore needs a decent ’skyline’. Agreed. But does that mean we have to become a Tokyo or Mumbai?

Atleast Mumbai has the ocean next door. I’m not even talking about traffic congestion, pollution, waste disposal or any other topics that become an issue in this rapid urbanization of cities.

I speak at an individual level. Sure, you live in a rented house, but can you not maintain a few plants? Have you ever poured water, to the tree the government had planted in front of your house, which gives some shade to your car in the summer? Can you not use cement and brick instead of glass? We both know that glass reflects more heat to the place and you’ll end up either buying an AC car or put an AC in your house – so in reality there’s no money saved.

Think about it. And while you are thinking, here’s an old article that provides statistics to my argument. For those who prefer pictures to numbers, flip through Paul Fernandes’ illustrations – ‘ The Morphing of Bangalore’ in Aditi’s book – Multiple City.

Filed under: bangalore, india , ,

January 28, 2009 • 7:25 am 0

My first rock climbing experience

Rock Climbing Basics

Rock Climbing Basics

“See this piece jutting out at the top? Its called the ‘jug’, that one where you have to hold below the rock is called undercut” explained Ravi, our group’s instructor as the sun blazed down on the rocks at Turahalli, a forest reserve, just 10 kilometres from namma Bengaluru. The group had collected at Adigas on Kanakapura Road for a steaming but surprisingly not-so-good breakfast of Idlis. The instructors, Narasimha & Ravi, freelancers who practise rock climbing at Turahalli every weekend, arrived at the right time. They work with ‘Wanderers’, an adventure and outdoor events group for rock climbing programs.

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Filed under: adventure, bangalore , ,

December 1, 2008 • 11:08 am 0

A moment of hesitation

I stood in front of Kanti Sweets, a place that we frequent for its excellent badam (almond) milkshake. Cajoling my two-year old to have a glass of badam milk takes a lot of patience(unless your two-year old is goody-goody and laps up all the milk like they show on some TV ads). That was when I saw her. Sitting in front of the shop, she looked old, wrinkled and nondescript. She was just one of the millions of beggars we see in the city and choose to ignore. While my kid drank a few sips and I couldn’t help looking at her. She was definitely hungry and had I had offered her a milkshake, she’d have finished it in a gulp. Many thoughts rushed past me. There are so beggars in the city and how many could one help? Also this old lady might be controlled by some ringleader who takes a percentage of her earnings.
Just then, interuppting my train of thoughts, a guy, maybe in his thirties, rushed out of the shop with a plate of hot parantha and asked her if she wanted it. The old lady just gobbled the whole steaming parantha while he watched on. Once she finished, he handed the plate back to the server, came out of the shop and asked her if she needed help in walking across the street, as he was headed that way. He led her out of the place gently like he would to his own family.
I could have done the same thing – its just that I hesitated. Many of us have this dilemma. Should we help the beggars or encourage begging? Many a times I’ve felt giving money to a lady, holding an infant, but checked my sympathy thinking that this might be a ‘borrowed’ baby to increase her earnings given from the soft-hearted middle class. So what is the right thing to do? I would say act what you feel at that moment, like this man who bought the old lady a dinner. Give food, atleast that wont go the ones who control the racket.

Filed under: bangalore, general ,

November 26, 2008 • 2:00 pm 0

Road rage

I still have the license number of his car on my mobile! Last week, there was a political rally in our city that created a traffic chaos in many areas, especially north Bangalore. Traffic came to a standstill thanks to our local politician who showed his power by bringing in 4000 busloads of rural families in our tiny conjested city roads for his political speech at Palace grounds. The result, traffic jam right from Cunningham road until the Airport. Any vehicle headed north would have been stuck for atleast 5-6 hours on the road before reaching home. Ours was also the one of the unfortunate ones.
But thats not the point. On such a day where everyone from the commuters to the traffic police were on their edge, I want to write about the only road rage instance I met. It was not from the usual auto-driver, but from a well-to-do educated and beefy bugger. He not only shouted at our chaffeur;when I raised my voice, he asked me to shut up and raised his car window. As his car went ahead, I saw ‘Coorg wildlife security’ sticker on it. His license number is KA04 MF 3915. I wonder if the Coorg animals are as wild as this dude.

Filed under: bangalore, general , ,

November 10, 2008 • 12:24 pm 1

How much do you know about Bangalore?

Bangalore is growing radically and is as cosmopolitan as Mumbai. Many a Bangalorean would be surprised to know that this city has always had a multicultural history, just like Mumbai. To know more about Bangalore, its heritage, culture and places that one could visit around the city, read my articles published in CitizenMatters, an online Bangalore publication. Read the latest article. Check the publications page for links to my other articles.

Filed under: bangalore, culture & heritage , ,

June 25, 2008 • 2:39 pm 0

Lakes Development – Misguided policy says Forest Department

Sometime back, I had written about Hebbal lake deterioration and Nagavara lake commercialisation. I had also mentioned in the comments about the recent fencing and deweeding happening recently at the Hebbal lake. There’s an excellent article in www.citizenmatters.in on this issue. Read on.

Filed under: bangalore, ecology , ,

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