Crows, bees , trees

 I live in an apartment complex which is luckily surrounded by some green space around it. Hence squirrels, mynas and  pigeons visit our balconies often. From past one month there is a colony of bees which  have  mistaken  humans to be friendly. First they built their hive in of the balconies , our pest control guys actually sprayed some chemical which made their colony un usable. Then they made a hive in one of the  lower floors, this time they  burnt  down the hive. The next morning, i felt sad to be walking on a bed of  dead bees.
Now, the point is  people in our apartment, are not wrong in bringing the hive down, since they build very close for comfort right in the balconies where  we dry clothes, keep plants, kids walk around. But at the same time, there are no more huge  trees in Bangalore, so where do bees go? Where do they build their colony?

India has suddenly woken up to benefits of haldi,  honey and  ghee but what are we doing to produce them?
We are demolishing trees in the name of road widening, apartments and malls so  honey bees and even crows have become rare. Gone are the days when I used be woken up by my deep slumber in the afternoon by some crow , now I long to see a crow and have not seen one from many a days.

Every body seems to have noticed the  disappearance of  sparrow but I have seen even crows disappear in my part of Bangalore.

Once upon a time, I lived in a city called Bangalore, which is now renamed as Bengaluru.I was born and brought up in this city of Bangalore.People used to call it by different names, Garden city, pensioners paradise etc. As kids, we played on roads with our friends till it was so dark, that we could not see each other and then come home.The roads were just roads, no underpass, no magic box, no flyovers just plain old fashioned roads.Most of the roads were lined with huge Rain trees which provided shade to the entire road sometimes.Sparrows were  common and would visit us in our courtyards everyday.
By the way, we dint have a single mall in our city back then.We shopped at our neighborhood grocery shop.The shop keeper knew our family as well.So when we want to the shop and asked for coffee powder, he would give us our brand.Every month on the 1st we would make a huge list of groceries and give it to the shop keeper to be delivered at our door step by the day end.We knew almost everybody in the neighborhood.We knew their families, their aunts, uncles practically entire history of the families in our neighborhood.
We had very few theaters and movie watching was probably once or twice in a year affair.In the morning, some of us would go and stand in the queue at about 9am, ticket window would be open by 10.30am, we would buy the tickets and come back home and then go to the movie at 4pm, with entire family in the evening.The movie  would be implanted in our memories for so long, bcoz of all the troubles we took to watch a movie.Now with the age of Internet, multiplexes, tele booking, the fun in watching a movie is gone.We had only DD1 in our T.V, and would wait with baited breath for Superman series, Laurel and Hardy, Vikram Aur Baitaal.I can still sing Vikram Aur Baitaal title song.
Our schools were close by and we would walk to school with our friends.Our teachers knew us personally and going to school was so much fun when fees was nominal, homework minimal, and cultural activities maximal :) .(Just wanted to rhyme).We went to flour mills with our grandparents to help them,get wheat, rice flour.Stood in long queues in Ration shop, to get ration with our parents.Played with maids children, without being scolded by parents.Our parents, dint know, what were traffic jams, stress, tension and had 9 to 5 jobs.
Those were the days my friend.......
I wish,somehow all that comes back again.My daughter and son  get to experience my long last good old city again.

My Home Bangalore

Long long ago, there was a small sleepy place called as Bangalore. It was also known as Pensioners paradise, garden city etc. That was long ago mind you, about 30 years ago.There were huge rain trees on both sides of the road, traffic non existent and in general it was a peaceful place.

Now it is known as Bengaluru, silicon city of India. It has huge malls, sky rise buildings, international schools you name it you have it.But now it also has pollution, frequent traffic jams, high crime rate . Its a city of chaos now.

I am person who is born and brought up in Bangalore. And it pains to see my city like this. Anyways this post is to list some old places to eat in bangalore, which still retains the essence.

1. MTR the old one at Lalbagh road.

2. CTR, near Malleshwaram ground.

3. Janatha Hotel, 8th cross Malleshwaram.

4. Chalukya near Basava Bhavan.

5. Corner house, the old one @ the junction of residency road and MG road.

6. Vidyarthi Bhavan near Gandhi Bazaaar.

7. Gullu's chat, sheshadripuram.

8. Veena stores Malleshwaram , Margosa Road.

9. Bhagyalaxmi Gulkund malleshwarm Sampige road.

10.Subbamana Angadi , Gandhi Bazaar.

I have visited all the above places as a child, and still visit most of them whenever I am in those areas.Hopefully my readers will be able to get a taste of old Bangalore when they visit these places.