Bangalore vs Bengaluru

Bangalore vs Bengaluru
Sudha Narasimhachar
As a teenager, I remember having spent great moments watching little brown sparrows in my balcony — picking the grains that we would throw to them. I also remember how they used to build nests on our attic, lay eggs and breed their species. As I used to study for my exams, the most relaxing sight used to be the way the father and mother sparrow used to feed the little ones in the nest, who seemed to be ever hungry. Sparrows are no more found in Bangalore.

Come the rainy season, I would walk cautiously on the road, lest I step on the little frogs that kept hopping from one side to the other. There were plenty of frogs and I would wonder where they would have been hiding during the other seasons. Though I have a garden, I hardly find any frog.

Then of course the lovely butterflies. Most of our trees would be covered with caterpillars immediately after rains and it was a pleasure to watch thousands of colourful butterflies sometime later. At present, I rarely find butterflies.

During summer, my father would eagerly wait after his dinner, for the street vendor selling ‘Thati Nungu’. There were some products which would arrive by the Express train from Madras — fresh white jasmines and ‘thati nungu.’ People would wait after dinner for these products. Life was simple and all of us used to be back home by sunset, enjoy family dinners and these small pleasures.

During the Ganesha festival and Ramnavami festival, we all used to attend the cultural programmes organised at different venues nearby till ten or ten-thirty in the night. Those were really good stress relievers. Until the idiot box donned our drawing room, life was fun and all the family members had a lot of time to interact with each other. In came the idiot box and this quality time slowly started dwindling.

Bangalore was very famous for its lovely gardens and beautiful ‘Circles’ at inter-junctions. At some junctions nearly five to six roads would meet but the huge Circles with welcoming gardens in them, used to tackle the problem of traffic management and there were no jams. Almost all localities had these Circles. Out went these circles and then started our woes of traffic.

Bangalore was a green city and almost all roads had such wonderful trees on either side of them. It was known for its lovely English weather. Our relatives who visited us wanted sweaters even during summers. Rare species of trees decked up the streets. Recently I saw two such rare trees, which I have never seen anywhere else, in the Vyalikaval area. One is a gigantic tree in front of my friend’s house, whose shade spreads far and wide, covering a large area on the four streets that meet there. My friend told me interesting anecdote about this tree. It seems a few years ago, this tree started oozing out some oily substance for almost a year and the vehicles crossing over it would skid.

The scientists form Wood Science Research Institute came and certified that it was American Mahagony and a very rare tree. They could not breed it despite their best efforts. This tree yields small white flowers like neem, which then turns into green fruits and surprisingly into wood flowers at the end. Then I saw another tree on 6th cross, near the Raghavendra Swamy Mutt. The leaves looked very much like mango leaves but the flowers were white and feathery with a lovely fragrance.

If one went around studying the various old trees in this once garden city, one can find many more such rare trees. Who is keeping track of such species now, when trees are massacred left and right for development? 5th Cross, Malleshwaram, which was a treat for our eyes and body, today stands naked.

It is an irony that today, after cutting useful trees, which covered the entire road with its cool shade, purified the air around and also gave flowers and fruits, vehicles zoom past with their ACs on, polluting the air around. It is very hurting and irritating to see concrete buildings named as ‘Woods’, ‘Trees’, ‘Green’, ‘Garden’ and ‘Forest’. It is painful to see these buildings decked up with artificial plastic trees and plants.

With so many things having gone out of Bangalore, now it is the turn of the poor street dogs. Except for a bunch of animal lovers, everybody in the city is today shouting, ‘catch them and kill them. They are not required anymore’.

Somebody was asking me, ‘of what use is a dog to the eco-system?’ God has not created any creature without any use. Just because we misuse the creatures and do not understand their use, we cannot call them useless. We were the ones to have brought the dogs out from the jungle and tame them.

Today it is the dogs, tomorrow someone might feel the crows are a hindrance, as they caw early in the morning, when most of the BPO employees start sleeping. So, then will the BBMP start shooting all the crows? Whither this senseless journey is leading us to?