The Sentimental Idiot !

I get to travel a lot around the city as a part of my new job. Bangalore is a huge city. There are places here that I didn’t know existed, this I say with a tongue in my cheek. I have lived here all my life, my lack of knowledge of the place where I live is my own doing. Spending close to a couple of hours on the road everyday offers me a chance to see the city in a way I have never seen it before. I wish there was some device that I could be attached to my spectacle frame so that I can capture the beautiful sights I see all around me. Wait a minute! Beautiful sights ? Are you still talking about Bangalore city man? You may want to ask me. Let me clarify myself, I’m not talking about the lakes in our city that are all almost gone or the gardens and the parks that are under constant threat. I am also not referring to the long lines of traffic piled up on every junction, the construction work at every corner that never seems to end, or the small blotche

‘Preethi Sagar’- the oldest restaurant in our locality has been closed for almost a decade, in its glory days it was a place to reckon, now that the roads are being widened the building is being taken down piece by piece. As I walk past this structure which has probably been reduced to rubble by the time you read this, I am reminded of all the evenings I spent here gorging on hot samosas and masala dosa’s as a kid, but as the saying goes, ‘the old must make way for the new’. I know where I’m headed - the grocery store (again, the oldest in my neck of the woods), I am absolutely sure that the store is out of milk, but since I conveniently forgot to buy it in the morning I have no choice but to keep looking. There’s a song stuck in my head, I am neither able to stop it from playing nor am I able to recollect the correct lyrics so I’m just humming the tune to myself trying to be as discrete as possible. I become acutely aware of the fact that my phone is back at home and

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, I am exhausted from doing nothing. I have been saving the DVD of the movie Lootera for a day like this . Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan was an enjoyable film. I was curious to see how a director who had just made one of the best Indian ‘coming off age’ movies could make a high budget period romance, that too with such overwhelming critical acclaim. The movie starts and drags along. I am impressed by the lead pair, frustrated by the pace and disappointed by the direction the film seems to be taking in the second half, then I see the female protagonist lying in her death bed looking out of the window in her room at a tree watching the leaves fall. A Scene from the film  Just then I have a flashback, like a bolt from the blue. I am transported to a world that existed 15 years ago. It’s the post lunch session of our class, I am in the seventh grade, Harleen Kaur The girl with a golden tooth is asking me a doubt in algebra, I am am

All of my primary education was split between two schools in Bangalore the Air force school and Kendriya Vidyalaya No - 2 Jalahalli east, quite understandably a majority of my classmates were children of personnel from different armed forces in the country. Behind all the Greenery - Kendriya Vidyalaya No- 2 My childhood buddies came from all four corners of the state, and by spending time with such a diverse population on a daily basis I became fairly well acquainted with many different cultures, diets, dialects which amalgamated into our navy blue and white uniform making us feel like one despite all our differences. I took pride in saying that some of my best friends were from parts of the country which took days to reach by road or rail. The only problem was that every 3 years my class would get reshuffled, most of my classmates would get transferred to other parts of India and a new batch of students would arrive none of whom knew me or was familiar with my ways.