Lal Bagh, then and now

Lal Bagh, then and now
Vijay Times

Every city has a special attraction, be it a place of tourist interest, food, some unique item, etc. For me, the special attraction in Bangalore is the Lal Bagh. Albeit a nature lover, I am drawn to the sprawling garden now perhaps more because of a childhood attachment.

My happiest thought on securing a job and coming to the city of gardens was that I could visit my favourite garden — the queen of them all — if not daily (as I once used to do), at least as often as possible.
My first visit to the garden was way back in 1960 when I was just 10. It was a visit to my grandparents then living in the city.

My cousins and I were shunted out of the house twice a day so that the elders could have some peace. The daily ritual for us (more than half a dozen boys and girls) was to visit the Lal Bagh in the morning and the Cubbon Park in the evening or vice versa.

Somehow, the majority of us preferred Lal Bagh to Cubbon Park — perhaps because it afforded more privacy and was thus better suited for us to monkey around. With nothing else to do we used to while away three to fours every day in the garden. There being not much crowd, we used to have a free run of the garden.

Climbing trees, sighting some rare birds and chasing one another through the Glass House or on the nearby hillock used to be a thrilling experience then. This thrill lasted for nine years till my grandpa died in 1969 and my grandma moved out of the city.

Returning here after a gap of 36 years, I am still drawn to the garden. Of course, now I neither have the time nor inclination to visit my once favourite haunt every day. I make do with a once-a-week (occasionally, twice) visits.
While the garden still maintains the charm, I do miss out on some things.

Some of my favourite trees are missing — dead and gone. For example, only one of the two tall coniferous trees is there in front of the Glass House. Those trees used to stand like sentinels on either side of the path leading to the bandstand from the Glass House.

But the greenery is still good though the milling (and often yelling) crowd doesn’t give me a chance to enjoy it. And then the jolly gang of yore is no more there. Often, it is a lonely trek with only sweet memories for company.
However, in spite of all these, spending an hour or so in the park is still my favourite pastime.