Nostalgia or Need

Work on the Metro Rail on MG Road has begun to progress ....Looking back..... A bird’s eye view of the Parade Grounds had a grassy central area and a large body of water at one corner, surrounded by dense vegetation on its south-western periphery. That brief verdant section, after the rains, momentarily took you to the lush richness of the Malnad. In more recent times, separating the historic military grounds and the road is a splendorous evergreen bush bearing purple-pink flowers, and a walkway. The radiant plant has a hoary background. A French Navy Admiral, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, ‘discovered’ it growing in wild splendour in Brazil in 1768. He carried the exotic plant to the western world from where it eventually found its way to British India, and the famous embankment on South Parade. South Parade, that stretch of Mahatma Gandhi Road between present day Anil Kumble Circle and Brigade Road, became one continuous trendy mall with upmarket stores, chic fashion houses, Marks & Spencers and other English brand outlets, dancing halls and piano bars, restaurants, and a place where the rich and famous were to be seen. Around the 1930s, the Civil and Military station’s hungry souls and saccharine-toothed crowds often made a beeline to a hep ice-cream kiosk facing the water body across the elevated ‘bund’. The Lakeview Ice Cream parlour, even with many changes in ownership, retained its hold on customers. Elsewhere on the bund children played or couples sat near the illuminated cascading fountain opposite Liberty cinema, or some came just to shoot the breeze.... In the ’60s and ’70s the bund was a favourite hangout of students, young couples and retirees.On Saturdays and Sundays, invariably after the movies and a coffee at Koshy’s, youngsters ambled across with friends there. The bund protesters and others interested in preserving Bangalore’s heritage will continue to protest. Meanwhile, old timers are bound to feel nostalgic about the changes wrought on the historical bund. On the other hand, there are many who after experiencing the Singapore or Kolkotta or Delhi metros, don’t see what all the fuss is about. After all, Bangalore does need a faster and better mass transportation system...