When we are on the topic of "hot spots" in Bangalore I am somewhat fascinated by the cultural associations that a somewhat migrant population tries to associate itself with the city (of course this argument is true of any city that a migrant moves to) by reading books. In the case of Bangalore, the associations happen to be coffee shops, some Anglicised bookshops, western theater and clubbing.
My memories of growing up in Bangalore was one of a close knit scientific+literary community where everyone possibly knew everyone else. I remember that growing up in Bangalore invariably meant running into a white-haired "thatha" while on an evening walk with parents or grand-parents. Of course these "thathas" happened to be a Dr. Raja Ramanna or national poets like MVS or Masti, which we as kids were blissfully unaware of. Books meant spending time during the summers in the Indian Institute of World Culture which still has a humungous collection of comic books, or at the Central or the local city corporation libraries, which unfortunately are now dead. The secret stash of banned books were always found at the Max Mueller Institute. The government book store at the Ashoka Hotel actually sold Debonair and a host of other imported men's magazines. South Parade actually had fountains towards one side of the road. The only night-club worth the salt was the Blue Fox. The only electronics stores worth their goods were found at "Burmah Bazaar". The only place with worthy Chinese food was Nanking (defunct), and the best dessert arguably was found at Chit Chat (dead). There were no Darshinis, and the best dosas were always (and still are) at Vidyarthi Bhavan. Topkapi and Tiffanys were restaurants of reknown. Koshys was always old and horrible. The Bangalore Club was always old, colonial and horrible. Nandini or KMF milk did not exist, and Nilgiris delivered milk in actual glass bottles, or the cow that would be milked in front of the house. The police were actually friendly and had Willys jeeps and Rajdoot bikes, and have now downgraded themselves to some horrible 100cc bikes. The Air Force Base was actually very, very far from the city, and going to Nandi Hills used to be a day's affair. There are so many temples in Malleshwaram that one can lose count. The only college that anyone cared about was Josephs because the Clergy offered a free lunch (literally). If you got into IISc, you had to be better than Einstein. IIM did not exist. "Computer Point" on Dickenson Road actually taught programming on ZX Spectrums and even sold these awesome machines along with Redington typewriters. The best theaters were Rex and Galaxy, but my favorite was always Symphony. Anyone could walk into the Governor's mansion and request an audience. The Chief Ministers of the State used to be somewhat down to Earth- one even inaugurated a corporation swimming pool by diving into it. The best theater was always found at Raveendra Kalakshetra and the best concerts at Gayana Samaja or the Sri Ram Mandali. Chowdaiah Memorial is a fantastic piece of architecture. IISc still has better telescopes than the Planetarium. The first super-computer was installed at the Weather Station next to the old TV tower, and it probably had a processing speed of 100 Mhz. There even used to be a precursor to online forums called a BBS, and run by a certain Udhay. The Coorgis in Vivek Nagar always made the best house wines. Not sure that any current book on Bangalore captures its essence. Perhaps the natives should contribute towards a wiki to preserve the proper legacy of the city! Chetan On 06-Feb-2013, at 5:11 PM, Vinayak Hegde wrote: > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 5:03 PM, Andy Deemer <[email protected]> wrote: >> Just ordered my copy of Promise from Blossom, but interested to note >> the rather absurd price on Amazon: US$1,159.60. > > Blossoms is the local famous legendary bookshops. Some entertaining > quotes on books and others at > http://overheardatblossoms.tumblr.com/ > > -- Vinayak >
