Profiling a Bangalorean

Bangaloreans are a bunch of hilarious and good natured people.Hence no offense to the below observations as I too, am a pukka b'lorean!

- You will see most localites taking an early morning walk in the neighborhood or the park.Over the weekends,these walks culminate with a whole hearted south indian tiffin at a popular darshini.

- Cafe Coffee day revolutionised the cafe culture in India.This Karnataka brand however is just an extension of the B'lore personality.While it may be cool to hang out at a cafe,most localites remain die-hard filter coffee fans.

- How are you doing? how was the dinner? how was the movie? a classic B'lore answer to most of these questions is "First class"!!

- Old world B'loreans are hospitality par excellence.They will make sure you overeat while they will eat only after you finish.

- When in high school and college,your vocabulary will automatically include slang such as sidey, maccha,guru,swami,maga etc.

- Young or old,all are addressed as "boss" even if you are their friend/relative."Man" even if you are a woman or a kid!

- aa, aaa and more aaaa's.If you are new to b'lore dont be surprised most nouns with a suffix of "aa".Example,jayanagar is jayanagaraa,Ram is Ramaa.These aa's are not restricted to nouns only,ya.

- If you need to exclamate,the words "ayyo" and "yabbha" will be most helpful for others to sympathise with you.

- B'lore is a very cosmopolitan city.No wonder english has trickled into certain vernacular phrases.Like "simply adjust maadi","one taraah","chill maadi","enjoy maadi".Another one which cracks up north indians is "chuma" which is nothing but "simply".Brings lot of local flavor when you use it.

- One humble thing you notice in Bangalore or in most places in south india is that if someone touches you with their feet by mistake they apologise with a hand to chin gesture.This indicates that slight kicking is a very unholy act.

- Most B'loreans like owning a bungalow or a house.How much ever far the plot or site may be,B'loreans are most likely to save up and buy the piece of land to build their own house.These days however the scene has changed a bit and many are going in for apartments due to the congestion in the city.I remember somebody told me once that Bangalore was called the Garden city because every house had a garden in its yard(this is in independence days).Alas,this cannot be claimed any more.

Blast from the past!!!

Below is the cover story of Bangalore Monthly magazine in 1997 featuring my mom as the "Bangalorean of the year".A proud moment for the family!Saving the article for future reference.

M.G Road bull-evard

In April 2007,I saved TOI's photos of the picturesque M.G Road boulevard.Two years later,I come back to find a dusty unfinished 'Metro' flyover.While I hope the public transport system brings relief to the bustling city,one cant help missing the old world charm of the erstwhile south parade.