80s revisted - unplanned, yet wonderful!

Beautiful Bangalore - in the 80s!

July 5th 2010 was "Bharat Bandh" thanks to the call by opposition protesting against the price rise and recent hike in fuel costs - taking it to Rs.58/litre. Well, putting aside the losses incurred by the economy etc blah blah...and stop thinking intellectual, I had a whale of a time enjoying Monday as a holiday! I felt I was back in the 80s, where there were but a few vehicles on the road, cool gentle breeze blowing due to the heavy rain clouds which shrouded the city and made the city air conditioned! There was no flux of people, there were no crazy traffic jams, honking and creating a bedlam, cool, crisp clean air (actually methinks, not being used to such clean unpolluted air, maybe I went high on good ol' O2!).

Had a leisurely breakfast, started planning our annual road trips which we make from August onwards every year, enjoyed the banter with Ranga while doing so, met our lawyer and picked up some papers at the Attara Kutcheri complex, and boy, did that red edifice look beautiful esp. in the drizzle drenching it?! - Ranga and I got reminiscing about what beautiful structures these old buildings are and we normally whiz past them without a care oh! so many times. A sigh at the sheer beauty of the place cloaked in silence with only a few pigeons cooing close by, escaped my lips and the feeling of being in the 80s when this was not a one off occurence but it was every day life...overwhelmed me. The Bangalore as I recalled was laid out in front of as if on a painter's canvas, and I soaked it in greedily.

So, we decided to continue the retro theme which had started on Friday, July 2nd. after Ranga bought the Classic 500 Royal Enfield bullet ... and went to the Parag hotel for a simple wholesome thali. Since there were not too many patrons, we were given royal treatment and we enjoyed the piping hot food and casual chit chat with the steward in Kannada about the good old days when Parag had a "happening" restobar on its lawns (where the Capitol Hotel stands now) and reminisced about the "khaara mixture" which was spicy and the so yummy paper dosas! It was a relaxed lunch and we headed home for an afternoon siesta (on a Monday!!) - thanks to our netas, we had a lovely laid back, relaxed trip down memory lane!

How I wish for more such languid, uncompliacted, unhurried days...