BENGALURU: Now we are looking for ‘bakras’ (loosely translate as scapegoats) to blame for our traffic woes. Actually, the bar has been raised from ‘woes’ to ‘woe-be onto-us’! The outsider-insider card seems to be raising its ugly head again, and the transient working population streaming into our ooru is being looked upon with a jaded eye.
Last week too, I had addressed the fact that the ‘I love Bangalore Brigade’ has to stop justifying the collapse of our city’s ‘stretched to its limit’ infrastructure and take appropriate action with the appropriate authorities! We are much more than a city with mere great weather, (though equal in pollution to the bigger metros), pubs and tech hubs. I know! My father, his colleagues and all the other unsung heroes gave this city, telecommunications, an enviable space programme and indigenously manufactured defense equipment to name a few firsts. Arts, crafts, dance and drama proliferated here. We are slowly but surely running the risk of losing it all…
Whenever I feel a sense of despondency and foreboding, I connect with my friends and family. They provide the security of a warm and non-judgmental space where one knows that there are no masks. We are an eclectic group of friends comprising entrepreneurs, corporate hot-shots, doctors, business people and this time round we had the very interesting and talented Ambassador Lata Reddy thrown into the mix! Her long and distinguished career at the IFS has made us proud. So one can imagine the scintillating conversation that went around our table ranging from politics to the plebian!
I chose the new Turkish restaurant Öz by Kebapçi in UB City to meet up at. The array of hummus, kebabs, fragrant pilafs and baklavas kept us gastronomically spellbound. The sounds of laughter that echoed in the restaurant had other tables smiling too, as the ‘power-puff’ girls enjoyed our four-hour luncheon thoroughly. We got along like a house of fire and for me, it was a coup of sorts! I was the initial glue that bound them together, but by the end of the afternoon, they had all exchanged cards and numbers. The young owner, Adeeb, was at hand to give us a small introduction and his vision, passion and unshakable dedication to be at the top of his game really impressed us. Bravo!
Chef-entrepreneur Tarun Sibal rose to fame for his renowned resto-bar Titlie, in Goa where he introduced the concept of collaborative cuisine. With his partner in Street Storyss, the whizz-kid Akshay Luthria, Sibal has opened a resto-bar in a small corner plot in Indiranagar. The place is called Swwing and we did swing by for some amazing gourmet pub grub with a nicely paired bar whipping up some amazing cocktails an aperitivos. The vibe was young and eclectic and yet had a very up-market feel to it. Again I met up with friends who I hadn’t caught up with in ages and as the young ’uns say we allowed ourselves to ‘hang loose’!
Everything doesn’t have to be a mad rush or at a frenzied pace. Sometimes ‘hanging’ and ‘chillin’ give one a halcyon space to think, introspect and calm down.
We tend to save good memories in pen drives and bad memories in the mind. If only we interchange locations life will be better.
(The writers’ views are their own)