Namma Park

Disclaimer: 30% of the post is in Kannada, so kindly adjusht. I have translated in English (literally) for non-kannadigas, aint me sweet?

There is a park very close to where I stay. Exactly six and a half (6 ½) steps away from my place. Or maybe seven (7). It’s an old one. When I say old, I mean O-L-D. It has always been called “the Park” by all of us. As you can see we aren’t a creative bunch of people. Our lives, I mean the lives of everyone (almost everyone) living in our area, are somehow connected to The Park. You could say that if, God forbid, BBMP decides to demolish the park, the officials are bound to face some angry saree clad aunties/ajjis* and panche** clad thathas*** protesting in front of the park with a flask filled with strong coffee right next to them.

I can demonstrate how important The Park is -

“Park tarkaari-yammana hatra hogi kottambri soppu togonD baa”

(Go to that park vegetable seller (female) and get off coriander leaves)

Or

“chapli holskobekaa? Banni, ille park hatra obba idaane"

(you wanting hawai chappal fixing? Lets go to our park cobbler)

Or

“accident-aa? Park yedrugaa?”

(all accidents tend to happen near/next to/in front of The Park)

Or

“Lo Mahesha, park hatra hogi Bajji tinnoNa baaro”

(Hi there Mahesha, come lets have hot hot potato bajji’s next to the park).

So on and so forth. You get the picture.

No? I can explain. The above examples don’t really give you a picture of what’s inside the park isn’t it? My bad. Will try again.

A couple of year’s back this park was not-so-world-famous-in-Malleshwaram. Many people didn’t know about its existence, except of course for the residents of our area. Till recently, my previous firm’s cab drivers wondered if I had visions when I’d ask them to wait near The Park. “Park-aa? Yellide madam?” (you say park? Are you out of your mind?). Once in the cab I would glower at the cab driver thinking how the hell he can miss this lovely park. One day, after thinking exactly for one and half minutes (1 ½ minutes), I knew the answer.

The Park was maintained just like any other BBMP parks. No maintenance what so ever.

As a little adorable kid I remember coming to the park with my Mom and sister (note: fuzzy memory). Mom would let us play for sometime inside the park, tell us stories and then we’d leave before 6 PM. The Park, after 6 PM would be filled with drunkards and shady men smoking beedis & cigarettes. So like all good kids we would follow mom and once back at home the two of us played war games. Not really. My sister would do her homework and I’d just watch her (I was a toddler and a toddler has a choice not to study).

After few years the park was given a make over. Workers cleared congress giDa**** , shrubs and weeds; put more stone benches and built a path. We were very happy to find a path to walk. By then I was a big girl (around 11 years old). Along with my neighbors, I would walk for sometime and exercise (err OK you may laugh. pffftt) and leave before 6 (coz of the said reason). The Park was looked after by a man whose name was prefixed with ‘Lazy bugga’. He moved around the park like a zombie.

Our beloved Park started deteriorating all over again.

The next stage came in early 2000 when they once again cleared gida etc and appointed a new gardner. Well it looked alright. We never really bothered going inside. After a couple of years the authorities realized this was going no where (or was it election time?) and came up with an idea to give it a face-lift. They constructed a platform, put up nice bright benches (the stone benches were retained of course, along with crow / pigeon sh*t). The path was widened. No shady men were found loitering around. Most importantly they hired a good gardener.

OK stop! Where am I heading with all this nonsense you might wanna know? Yes, I shall come to that. After the entire make-over (over the years), we now have a very chic park. Aunties, uncles, Ajjis and thathas have a laughing club. Kids are back! Bless them. They play inside the park. There is one all woman’s group. These women sit and talk about yoga, diabetes, weddings, Obama, Amerikaaa -you can hear conversations such as “My son working in US no, so will go there next month to look after grandchildren and this time Subba***** has promised a visit to Niagra falls.. teehee” or “Moole mane Radhamma avra magaLa madve gottaaitante? Ade ri same-u, louv marriage-u” (heard corner house Radhamma’s daughter has found handy husband at pInfy matrimonial service?) -and other serious stuff.

The latest addition to this wonderful park is a fountain! Yes *punching air*.. Those of you who wanna visit this tourist destination can contact me. Please take a look at our new ‘amusement’ park. I know the photography isn't praise worthy, ahem, still...

(picture courtesy: my sister's Nokia phone).

*old ladies

** white colored sarong worn by men

***old men

**** Parthenium weed

*****I am not going to explain

Walk on

I walked. Yes. Those of you who know me will be surprised. For the rest of you, I’ll tell you why. The only walk I take is the one from my office to the place where my carpool stops. That's my exercise. But seriously I did walk, for about 4 kms. SO WHAT you may ask. Well, you see this was different. I took a guided tour. A whaa? Yep, a tour in our very own Bangy town. I, along with my friends took one of the walks conducted by Bangalore Walks. It was indeed an experience I’ll always cherish. A tour that helped me re-discover Bangalore.

We walked through places which were familiar. It seemed familiar and yet new. I went through a series of - “WoW I never knew that!” moments. Savita, our ‘guide’ clearly knew the place like the back of her hand and her enthusiasm was extremely infectious. We had good fun interacting and walking through the streets of Bangalore.

I will refrain from saying anything more about the walk. Take it and discover for yourself. Highly recommended, folks.

p.s. This walk has totally inspired me to find out more about Bangalore. I will get back with a complete North Bangalore (read Malleshwaram) tour guide. Promise.

p.p.s had breakfast at my favorite – ‘Brahmins coffee bar’ :) yummy VaDaa and chutney.. slurp slurp. Darn! I am hungry now :(

p.p.p.s I had written this post three weeks back and was waiting for my friend to send across some pictures, which I thought would beautify this blog. Now I have them, as you can see, yeyy!. err this was avoidable but of course you know how I like giving pointless information.

Now for some pictures (courtesy: my friend :))

Fruit Bats in Bugle Rock park. You got to look closer :)

KannaDa KaTTe (near Brahmin's coffee bar). This kaTTe (KaTTe means a place where you can sit and talk talk and talk. There’s a kaTTe in my compound as well, are you surprised?) has pictures of various luminaries of our state. This is just one part of the kaTTe.


My friend found this very amusing :p

Gavigangadhareshwara temple:

World Environment Day

“Geez! Not another ‘world something-or-the-other day’”. “Not another publicity-gimmick-day”. “Another “change the world by switching off television sets and computers day" you’d think.
But I prefer to claim this as a commitment day. Can I request you all to take some time off and think about climate change? No no I am not asking you to become an environmental activist or go around the city, shout slogans and hold “stop polluting start protecting” kinda demonstration. All I am asking is to do your bit. Commit yourself for your future. *too heavy eh?*

Well let me start again. Why can’t we commit ourselves to the environment? We could start by committing ourselves at home or office or when shopping. I am sure we can do little things such as using coffee mugs instead of disposable plastic cups or printing less or switching off the ignition while waiting for the lights to turn green or switching off fans/lights when you know you wouldn’t need them. You know things such as these (though not grand) do matter.
I don’t want to sound preachy but I do think we can bring about change in our lives by doing such simple stuff.

Just a thought. So what do you say? Can we start a movement? :)

Please send in your suggestions and share your thoughts about it. Do make use of the comments section. Maybe we can come up with better ways to tackle this issue.

Here is an excellent way to begin (an initiative by UNEP).