And we got what we had wanted -- the Bangalore of yester-years; cool, quiet, calm and comparatively cleaner. We walked down the MG Road promenade and finally settled down on one of the cold concrete benches. Traffic was just waking up, sweepers were still cleaning pavements. We got to discussing the old photographs of Bangalore, now framed and hung in ice cream parlours, jewellery stores, and any other self respecting store claiming anything over a 20-year history. We spoke about how much the city had changed, how those old pictures were like capsules of nostalgia, how the city would change further, how future generations would look at pictures taken today and wonder at how the city used to be. Efficient photojournalist that San has become these days, he snapped these:
Little did we know then that drastic change awaited the promenade in less than a year. I don't have most recent pictures, and I'd rather not. The promenade is gone, so of course are the benches, so are the ancient trees. In place of the bougainvillea bushes and cool walk way, there are ugly, muddy and huge contraptions, digging, grinding, piling. Dirty blue tents dot the fringes of the activity, sheltering machinery and the labourers. A green fencing attempts to hide away the slush.
These are only the first steps of the much awaited Metro Rail. When we swap heritage for swanky new facilities, we'll have to wait and watch how many more landmarks will be lost. There are promises that the promenade will be rebuilt and made even more beautiful than it was. I am just glad we got to spend a few minutes walking down it.
5 comments:
Oh Sav, I've regretted not clicking the pictures back then. Because this metro rail, ring roads and elevated highways is the end of Bangalore I knew. I feel alien in my home town.
You've out the words together so beautifully.
DUH??? That cosy lil walkway where they used to hold those annual exhibitions is GONE???!!!!??? Oh man... oh darn...!!!
boulevard is gone? what's left of that monotonous city?
Soon there will be one more beautiful building giving way to glass facades. The building that housed GK Vale and Lakeveiw etc has been emptied, it will disappear any day now.
BDA commissioner, heard during a media interaction on development at the cost of landmarks: "when you are talking progress, there's no room for nostalgia."
the Metro guys have promised that once the track is up, they'll do the landscaping beneath... so that posterity can still do the M G Road jaunt, while the metal does a noisy grind above.
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