Bangalore – Some things of golden era….ullas
Bangalore was so nice and pretty, it is nice to remember having spent great moments watching little brown sparrows– picking the grains that we would throw to them. They used to build nests in the attic, lay eggs and breed their species. The most relaxing sight used to be the way the father and mother sparrow feeding the little ones in the nest, who seemed to be ever hungry. Sparrows are no more found in Bangalore since the bushes and shrubs disappeared. Also since the small shops that used to feed the sparrows have given ways to big malls.
When the rains come most of the people used to walk cautiously on the road, lest they step on the little frogs that kept hopping from one side to the other. There were plenty of frogs and one used to wonder where they would have been hiding during the other seasons! Who does not love butterflies? Most of our trees would be covered with caterpillars immediately after rains and it was a pleasure to watch thousands of colourful butterflies sometime later. Now there are hardly any butterflies.
Summers also were fun in Bangalore, since the tharbus (Water Melon) and Nungu (Palm Fruit) used to come from Ambur, Salem, Vellore and so on. Thati Nungu is a great coolant like the melon for the body during a hot summer day. The Chennai train also used to bring fresh white jasmines, which would add to the fragrance along with the fruits. Life was very simple and all of them used to be back home by sunset, enjoy family dinners and there was harmony. Today the charm is gone with Melons artificially breeded all through the year and available at any of the juice shops.
There was no much nightlife, things have changed drastically today. Today Bangalore has become a pub city, and nightlife has come to stay. A whole new experience for the Indian biological clocks.
The idiot box that came into the drawing rooms in the second half of 1980s, changed lives slowly. Until then life was fun and all the family members had a lot of time to interact with each other. In came the idiot box and this quality time slowly started dwindling.
These days simple pleasures of life like family interaction and get togethers have disappeared. Money is in plenty but the cost of making money is heavy. People work day and night and the entire family hardly gets together on a daily basis, because when some members are up, some are out and some are on bed. Community festivals have now reduced. That pomp and fun are gone.
Bangalore was very famous for its lovely gardens and beautiful 'Circles' at inter-junctions. At some junctions nearly five to six roads would meet but the huge Circles with welcoming gardens in them, used to tackle the problem of traffic management and there were no jams. Almost all localities had these Circles. Out went these Circles –traffic islands and then started our woes of traffic. Out went the Circles and the beautiful gardens in them. Today we live in an era of flyovers and traffic jams. Don't get irritated if you cannot trespass a distance of five kilometer in an hour, it is today part of life. The most sophisticated ultra modern cars hit the roads of Bangalore, but is even slower than our good old bullock carts. There is no way you can zoom in this city. With more than 37 lakh vehicles on the road and with more than 1500 registrations daily, there is no hope for the speeds to improve. But there are nearly a dozen of FM channels to keep you entertained in your cars till you reach your destination. For the busier lot you can always use the laptops and continue working inside the steel structure without bothering about the road or the pollution.
Bangalore was a green city and almost all roads had such wonderful trees on either side of them and with more than 200 lakes it was a haven for the many. Bangalore was known for its lovely English weather.
What you see today in Bangalore is remains of a lovely garden city.
A new set of urban dynamics generated through political manipulations rather than by design has gripped the city of Bangalore.
All urban regions are cities within cities. Issues like migration, language, tradition, community and religion are forces that confront the Indian city of Bangalore more than any other. Bangalore today is more international than national since there are many ex-pats who have made Bangalore their home.
Blossoms (Ritusamhara) of Bangalore
What made Bangalore so enviable?
It was truly a romantic place. Music, Dance and Sculpture. Above all Bangaloreans have always been fascinated by flowers. In the era of IT, these blossom culture is slowly dying down, since IT has bought along with it, the so called infrastructure development which is taking toll of once beautiful city.
Time has come to develop wide range of sensitivity and interests to one and all in the society whether they are economists, scientists, administrators or businessmen. All of them love flowers no doubt about that.
One hardly needs any research to say that village forests and fruit orchids have been a familiar part of Karnataka and Bangalore especially. The Mango and Tamarind, The Honge (Pongamia) are celebrated as God's gifts to man as much as the fragrance trees like Sampige (Champak) or Mallige (Jasmine).
It was Gustav Herman Krumbiegel (1865-1956) who created Bangalore's floral Ritusamhara (blossoms) and landscape effects, much of which have disappeared today in thin air due to development. It has been in Indian culture to grow trees and also love flowers. All of us have grown reading Kalidas's Ritusamhara, so all of us know what a good blossom is all about. With the emergence of congregations of community-living and trade, and later of planned cities, trees, besides architecture have all been an important element of urban aesthetics. Trees generally were grown in groves and were preserved as sacred groves at temples, palaces and so on. As civilizations grew there were more use of trees. Only the last century saw planning of cities. To prevent crime decongestion was required. So trees were planted along the roads. Boulevards often were done for aesthetic value and also for public convenience. Bangalore's M G Road boasted of one of the best Boulevard, today it has given way to the Cities Metro.
With cities becoming larger trees are needed to provide visual and psychological comfort to the urban dweller. But sadly in Bangalore the trees are giving way to development and the city is losing its charm of a bygone era.
The Tabebuia avellanedae, argentea, spectabilis, rosiea, the Jacarandas, Cassias, May flowers and other trees have blossomed at different intervals year after year to give the garden city a spectacular look.
Bangalore can count on eight or nine months of spectacular flowers as each species does its bit, until the series ends with a finale from the yellow Cassias.
The real reason for Bangalore earning its reputation of Garden city is not so much it formal gardens as the number of trees on both public and private lands. The first half is dominated by Tabebuias and Jacrandas. The summer is dominated by the gold and red glory of the Gul Mohur.
Ullash Kumar.R.K
Freelance Journalist, Wildlifer, Naturalist,
ullaashkumar@
94493-50275
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