Old Bengaluru Life

How life was in Bangalore/Bengaluru before the IT revolutio

1. School kids had to buy 2 sweaters with uniform. Half sweater and full arm sweater. Without half sweater, no one would even step out of the house.

The thumb rule was  Strong n sturdy folks can wear half sweater Easily prone to cold should wear full sweater.

But, when winter kicks in. It was like wearing muffler, full arm sweater and then blowing out the air from the mouth to see who has thick fog. I always thought that children could smoke by doing so.

2. One could reach any part of the city in 20 mins in the Lambretta, Vijay, Enfield, Chetak, IND – Suzuki, TVS.

3. Train ride in Cubbon park

Band stand in Vidhana Soudha/LalBagh/Cubbon park

Joy Ice cream after giant wheel ride

were considered as “cool” activities to be done on Sunday. There was no concept of weekend

4. Almost, all roads were 2 way and I remember people were amazed when Avenue road was made one way. JC road was later made as one way, I guess

5. If a area didnt have enough trees, it was considered as outskirts, new extension. In short, trees were the benchmark for assessing the age of layout 😛

6. Old Airport was the end of the city. Infact, anything beyond the trinity circle was considered as Bangalore – Airport. News paper used to carry temperature reading of Bangalore and Bangalore – Airport.

Most of the times, airport used to be cooler by 1-2 deg when compared to city. I was always jealous of it while reading the news and used to be happy when Bangalore city was cooler than Airport.

7. Torino, Gold Spot, Bejos, Rooafza, Tutty Fruity, Campo Cola, Yummies, Maggi etc were the cool things to eat, drink ! We had got Niligris Pizza in Brigade road and it was a cool thing during those days

8. Barton Center, Fifth Avenue, Rajeha Arcade were our shopping centers where one could buy imported (smuggled) foreign goods.

9. NASA, Down Town, Blue Fox etc were popular hangouts for the college folks.

10. The era of clubs had started. Manipal County, Best Club etc started on city outskirts where one could experience resort amenities

11. If there was a good Dr. Rajkumar movie playing on DD Kannada on Sunday evening, it could be considered as lean period for business. Those were the days when marriage timings were adjusted so that people don’t miss Mahabharata serial 

12. Gobi Manchuri had just hit the menu of Bengaluru hotels. I still remember eating that dish and forcing my dad to order one every time we went to restaurant.

13. We had Red colored BTS buses, Pusphak buses were considered as luxury, Double deckered bus on few routes , Auto which had engine in the front seat and everyone loved Premier Padmini, Ambassador , Fiat, Maruti 800, Contessa cars over Audi, Lamborghini 

14. Ganesha Festival, Annamma Devi festival, Kannada Rajyostava were celebrated with zeal.

First few hours of the morning were dedicated for bhakti geethe of BR chaya, Rathna mala prakash etc and later came the film songs.

There were horn mics blowing out new numbers of Shiva rajkumar movie or other sleazy numbers  during the afternoon ensuring that no one sleeps in the vicinity of pandal. 😉 Evening time was reserved for Orchestra, drama etc.

Most of the people enjoyed it and none of them used to call cops stating sound disturbance. I wonder, have we lost that patience off late when we call cops even for slight sound in the colony.

15. Those days, kids used to play on streets.  Roads were having minimal traffic and it was easy to play cricket. Play grounds were used during summer time or holidays.

Power cut was most welcome since it would relieve us from studying or doing homework. The game “Dabba” was the default choice for kids in the colony during power cuts in evening.

As kids, we had lots of games to keep us engaged.

Tree – Tree – We had so many tress that we could start this game on any road. Today, we have to play with concrete structures and rename this game as building building or compound compound

Naadi – dhada – One more classic game which was favorite since we need to keep jumping to the commands

Lock and Key – A quick game which started off with CLEPS ( to decide the unfortunate one to chase people ) and went on till someone got tired and dropped off from game.

Eyes- spys ( but pronounced as ice spice 😛 ) – Our version of Kalla police

Lagori, Chuu chandu ( this one was painful if you are slow runner ) , Goli , Panna , bugari – all these are common games and need no introduction.

Then came the era of WWF cards, Big babool cards , HE Man stickers, fake tattoo which used to catch the attention of any average kid in Bengaluru.

16. “Naale Ba” ( translates to Come Tomorrow ) was found on almost every door of the middle class household. It was a scare created in 90s (atleast in minds of kids ) that some old lady ( a witch ) is roaming the streets of Bengaluru asking for water. If someone opens the door for her, then bad things would happen. So, everyone has this “Naale Ba” written on their doors for some years.