An Ipod and an Ice-cream

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By the time I was in 8th grade, I had travelled nowhere other than Bangalore [yearly summer vacations since Dad’s brothers were settled there] apart from odd family trips to innumerable temple towns. Then suddenly everything changed. It all started with me being adjudged with top honors at the district level Science Fair. Then for the state level competition I travelled to Kakinada. Those days I quite very well knew the song “Ma Telugu Thalliki”. In fact one of the teams there performed for this song, while I did a skit of the great late NTR. As a part of the trip, we roamed a lot in the East and West Godavari districts for sight-seeing. For the first time when I saw Godavari and Krishna rivers, I understood the lyrical strength of this song.

Even though our school was a Christian missionary and I was good at English, my first love was Telugu. I was fascinated by the Telugu fiction writing and i used to read a lot of novels. There was a lot of ‘Teluguthanam’ in me those days. Since my parents were voracious readers, it kind of spilled over me too, I believe. Those were the days of Yandamoori Veerendranath and Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani and I adored their work a lot. Then I gradually moved onto English literature, to Matin Amis (Money is my favorite), the great Ayn Rand and many more and never looked back.

By the time I was in 9th grade, I travelled to Delhi and represented state for the national level Science Fair which was held at Teen Murti Bhavan for a good 2 weeks. It was an awesome experience. One of those days, when I was interacting with DPS students I was clapped upon for reciting the very same song and letting them know the importance of Telugu’s and that song. Sometime in between those days, I also got recognized at the state level for reciting the Sanskrit poems with Telugu translation and vied for the top spot where there was no age limit. Even though I couldn’t win there what with all pundits around, it was great I could finish the recitation.

Why I am blabbering all of this, now? Because I was in Bangalore the last weekend and was listening to that beautiful song (From Leader in my IPod) at the Lido Mall. Even though I used to visit the city thrice a year all through these years, saw changing itself and all, I never felt so bad. Why did it hit me like a ton of bricks now? Because when I listened to that song, I somewhere realized that not only Bangalore but one more thing waned off in the past decade. The Telugu literature that is, and the feeling for my mother tongue in me. The irony is to get reminded of those days, I had to rely upon a remixed version of that beautiful song and that too in an IPod in the Ista hotel which was built upon that good old Lido theatre. Now-a-days, all we get is that occasional brilliance in lyrics of some good song in Telugu and that’s it.

Coming to Bangalore, those days four of my five uncles used to stay in Milkman Street. One of their houses shared a common compound wall with the old beautiful Lido theatre. With all these personal accomplishments and the summer holidays around, we used to frequent Bangalore a lot then to celebrate. Each time we were there, the idea of fun was to watch that occasional Hindi movie in one of the best theatres (Lido) in the city and have an ice cream in the interval. I just loved Bangalore from those days. I tasted my first Baskin Robbins ice cream there. Years later when I got some of my best friends and my girl there, I knew this city was special. I still love the city a lot. There is something in Bangalore which makes me go back and visit the city whenever there is a chance to do so. I just love the way the air smells there.

Many things have changed though: I no more talk to any of those relatives who stay there. In my recent visit, I realized many a few things about how Bangalore has moved on. How I have moved on:

- The café coffee days are no more happening, but the new Electronic city flyover is. I took a bike trip with my best friends on this new flyover, which was awesome.

- The good old food joints, hangout zones, innumerable cinemas which have been done with, to host swanky malls/multiplexes are really not so happening.

Yes, I was one of those first generation youth who saw this coming. I was one of those who lapped up the new malls/multiplexes when they started off. I frequented the Café coffee days (Koramangala is my favorite) even before people realized they existed. But now looking back I feel they somewhere lost the plot. Vying for global attention, they lost the charm/greenery the city was once famous for. Was it all worth it? Certainly not I would say. For when I saw what they have done with MG road [that bloody sexy MG Road] for the so called excuse of a Metro, you will understand the agony of my mindset. Hence I am venting out my anger now.

Like Bangalore, I have also moved on from that odd Baskin Robbins ice cream and a Hindi movie outing thrice in a year, to a retail junkie. I have seen Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Mumbai in the past decade. The sad thing is, they all boast of the same sorry state of things, I believe.

One thought is haunting me from then:

Where are all the Telugu fiction writers gone? Can a real new age/decent Telugu fiction writer (Atleast a wannabe) and the good old charming Bangalore please stand up?

PS: Those were the days when Delhi Public School was confined only to Delhi, not to every nook and corner of every possible city. Those days, we were looked down upon and were bullied by CBSE guys. Go and tell this to any of this age kids, they say ‘Oh yeah! Is it so? Just down the street I stay I have two CBSE schools!’

And yes, The Baskin Robbins in the Lido theatre was the first and the only one for a long time in Bangalore. If you were from Banashankari or BasavanaGudi, to eat a Baskin Robbins ice cream, you had to come all the way to the Lido. The irony is if I try saying this to any of those (‘and we settled down in the Silicon Valley of India’) types, they laugh at me.


The IPod is singing: “Nee Hrudhayam Thapana Thelisi, Naa Hrudhayam Kanulu Thadise Velalo“.


Bring it on!!!


D

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