It was a throwback to the seventies

It was a throwback to the seventies

The Hindu

# City remained pollution-free for most of the day
# Many children spent their 'holiday' in parks

Bangalore: The bandh on Wednesday brought back nostalgic memories of the city as its was in the sixties and early seventies for many.

"South Parade as Mahatma Gandhi Road was still known to most then, had only a score or so commercial establishments, restaurants, bars, night clubs and cinemas included," says K. Shivshankar, a lawyer. Among the few old time establishments still doing business are Lakeside ice cream parlour, the India Coffee House and the gentlemen's outfitter, P.N. Rao.

"Brigade Road had its own share of night clubs and restaurants, notable among them Bosca's which had a fairly good band playing at night and Koshy's which even had a juke box. You could drop in a coin and select your favourite song again and again, if you wished to. My favourite was `Yellow River'' and ``Born to be Wild," remembers Denzil, now managing a travel agency.

Where one of the mini-malls now stands was the site of a well-patronised men's hair dressing saloon, he says. There were fewer cars and two-wheelers and even auto rickshaws were fewer in number till the late seventies, they say. A few vehicles had to honk because the traffic was thin and could be easily regulated. The almost palpable smog from automobile emissions, which you can now see late evenings, was largely unknown then. Jutkas were a common sight as were the few people riding Vespa scooters, then considered a fashionable mode of personal transportation.

The roads, which are choked with traffic on any normal working day, were deserted look on Wednesday.

On busy roads such as Richmond Road and Residency Road, traffic policemen re-painted the signs on the road surfaces. They were busy marshalling painters and ferrying buckets of white paint. On Mahatma Gandhi Road, the reflecting plastic road dividers got a nice scrub with soap and water. A few motorists came out on the roads to have a feel of speed inside the city. Beat constables sat on plastic stools in the middle of the road. Some of them were in such a holiday mood that they asked a few commuters to avoid a stretch of road where stone throwing was reported.

Pollution

H.C. Sharathchandra, Chairman of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, said pollution levels would have come down by about 50 per cent because of reduced traffic. But the suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the air would not have reduced significantly. The big parks — Cubbon Park and Lalbagh — and smaller ones in residential areas drew large crowds and children were the happiest lot playing cricket on the road. Chain SMS was put to good use by the organisers and sympathisers of the bandh.