A trip down the memory lane

 

 Srinath’s Art-deco fashioned house (PC: Srinath)

For people from Bengaluru (Earlier days Bangalore) south, Lalbagh and Gandhi bazar holds a special place in their hearts.

My friend Amarnath kept telling me to come for a walk in Lalbagh on Sundays. Sundays are reserved for my Motorbike rides and hence hadn’t been able to join him for a long time. This time, I decided that I will ride till Lalbagh and have a morning walk in Lalbagh with him and other two close friends Sheshanarayana and Mohan (We missed him on this walk).

Post Lalbagh walk - Mandatory idli breakfast 

While bike can be parked easily, the idea of lugging the helmet (A Schubert) and not leaving it hanging to the bike was not a great option. I needed a place to keep it safely.

Since, I grew up (While not necessarily living there) at Surveyor street near Lalbagh West Gate, I reached out to an other friend Srinath (Srinathi – for old times sake) and requested, if I could park the bike and leave helmet at his place. He graciously agreed. I rode into Surveyor street to leave my bike there.

That started a flood of memories of growing up at Surveyor street. Just like that beautiful Urdu nazam written by Sudarshan Faakir

ये दौलत भी ले लो ये शोहरत भी ले लो

भले छीन लो मुझ से मेरी जवानी

मगर मुझ को लौटा दो बचपन का सावन

वो काग़ज़ की कश्ती वो बारिश का पानी

 

Yeh Daulat bhi le lo yeh shoharat bhi le lo

Bhale cheenlo mujhse meri jawAni

Magar mujhko loutaado bachpan ka saavan

Wo kaagaz ki kashTi wo baarish kaa paani

Take away this wealth, take away this fame,

Take away my youth as well,

But return me my childhood days,

Those (memories of) paper boats and that rain water.

Here is a tribute to the cradle of all those memories - "The Surveyor street". 

Surveyor Street - History

A Picture of the camp during the Bengaluru Plague

Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram were new extensions that were formed in and around 1898 as a fallout of the great plague that struck the Bengaluru pete (Fort town) around that time. Nearly seven thousand people died and more than thirty thousand left homeless and had to move into sheds in and around the Chamarajapete area.

The new extensions were well laid out and had a focus on hygiene (In between every set of roads there was a “Conservancy” road, all roads had proper drainages). This was the first of the "Extensions" in Bangalore (Which till then consisted of only DanDu pradesha (ದಂಡು ಪ್ರದೇಶ)  or the Cantonment and ಪೇಟೆ (Pete), which was enclosed within the fort).

A street which formerly housed a camp to accommodate a bunch of land surveyors (Who were all incidentally from Pune!), was formally made a part of the layout that they had come to make and that street was named “Surveyor street” or “ಬಾಂದುನವರ ಬೀದಿ”   (Baandhanavara beedhi).

 It is here that my maternal grandfather and his co-brother decided to take some land and build a house (My maternal grandfather bought the plot from a Lawyer Sri. B L Jois and Mr. Jois’s grand-son, Umashankar and I still maintain that fond relationship).

 Surveyor street

Google map showing Surveyor street

This is a street which runs east to west starting from the MN Krishna Rao road (A road which connects MN Krishna Rao park to Lalbagh west gate) and ends near Gandhi bazar and terminates in front of what is called a “Tin School” (It had Tin roof, which was a novelty during those days, perhaps). This street cuts across the Kanakapura road (Yes, Kanakapura road starts from Sheshmahal circle, which is near to this street), Krishna Rajendra road (KR Road) and DVG road (DV Gundappa raste).

 Life at Surveyor street

Auspicious start always from Surveyor street house

For the elderly and the aged, it was all about walk in Lalbagh, a visit to Basavanagudi club (for some), visits to various temples around like the doDDa Ganapathi, Basavanna, Karanji Anjaneya, Kote and Kota (Both are different) Venkataramana temples, Subramanyeshwara and Sathyanarayana temples – just to name a few. Attending the Ramanavami utsava sangeetha kutcheri at Fort high school or VV Puram, Ramanavami celebrations.

For those who were in their prime and were working, it could be a walk to either a bus stop at Gandhibazar or at Sajjan Rao circle (to catch a bus to Attarakucheri / Vidhanasoudha / various Public sector undertakings like ITI, HAL, BEL, BEML, NGEF etc.) or a cycle ride to factories like MICO (Where incidentally, I started my career in Bangalore) or some would walk to their shop in the pete area (around Avenue road and chikpete circle). Evenings would be a stroll to Gandhibazar with a cloth bag (Cheela) to buy vegetables and fruits and that would be a "evening walk".

  Childhood

I can proudly say that we almost knew all in one section of the street (By section, I mean for example, between MN Krishna Rao road to Kanakapura road).

We learnt cycling (Starting with Khatri style) from our senior kids, played cricket and gilli-daandal on the street itself (I cannot imagine that now, as on both the sides of the street, I saw cars parked and street looked so narrow).

Most of the houses had a garden and with trees like Champak, Guava and one of our favorites was a Cashew nut tree (GoDumbi mara) in Srinath’s house (His Chikamma would always shout at us not to throw the nuts after eating the fruit, but give it to her). Fun games like “Mara kothi” (Tree monkey?) along with playing marbles, flying kites, spinning tops (each one had a season and miraculously these items would appear in the “Shetty shop” near Sheshmahal circle heralding these seasons).

Sundays would mean more prolonged play time and “Twelve pencil match” played at National High School grounds or MN Krishna Rao Park.

It was not just physical activities of playing that we were involved in. We used to set up a small stage and stage some cultural activities like singing, mono-acting, plays etc. My cousin Alaka used to be one of the leaders out there taking a lead in these activities. These were more evident during the time of festivities and specifically during Ganesh festival time.

Talking about Ganesh festival, it used to be the time when one (as an individual or as a small gang of kids) could barge into anybody’s house and shout out “Ganesha ittiddeera” (More cultured) or “Ganesha maDgiddeera” (More rustic). This was also to check if there were any dogs in that house. Once inside, our focus would be more on what prasada or “Charapu” as we used to call it, being given there in that house.

We, a gang of kids had formed what we called ourselves as “Friends Union” and under the banner of which we used to conduct some programs.

 Summer time would be double fun as many of our houses would have guests in their houses (friends cousins visiting them). That used to be the time for “Ice apple” or “TaaTi nungu” , a kind of palm fruit. Sellers piling them on their cycle would be shouting TaaTi-nungu to announce their arrival. We used to hide behind the compound walls and shout back at him and say “neene nungu”(Meaning swallow it yourself - a colloquial joke). Most of the houses had a well and my cousin Baba (Venkatram) and me, it used to be the time to have “Bhaavi neer snaana” (Cold water bath with water drawn from the well). During the summer holidays, we would rarely be inside the house.

My brother Pradeep at Surveyor street house

Along with my brother Baba (Venkatram)

Baba along with sister Mangala in the garden

Back to reality

So, there I was in Surveyor street transported back in time and relishing my childhood memories and as I pushed my bike out of Srinath’s house and started, I wondered where are all the kids of the street now? Do they know each other? Do they interact as we used to then? Are they glued to TV and phones? Are they competitive that they go to cricket, shuttle badminton and such other coaching camps for competitive sports participation rather than playing for fun? Are they now no longer in the real world and climb trees but drive cars, kill and shoot in VR games?

Maybe I am a bit too cynical, maybe I am getting old, maybe I have started to relish more of past, maybe it is time to live in the present. Saying so, I started my bike and revved it up back home.