Grasslands

This is one of the coolest places around Bangalore. It took sometime for me to discover this. However once I found this place I knew I would haunt this place more often than people would expect me to. It was one of my “Vasco-do Gama” days where I went for “SPOT” expedition and did I find one? Hell yeah!!!
It’s 20min drive from my house. The road is newly laid and quite good. A few villages to pass by where we can stop to buy something to munch and gulp. Then comes the no civilization area and a few turns to left and right we get there. Once there nobody would believe they’re this close to Bangalore. It takes sometime to digest that fact. I wonder how long it will take before this piece of paradise is swallowed by the epidemic of concrete extensions and corporate takeovers.
The entrance to grasslands is amazing. It’s a stretch of rubbles filled road with Blood red (believe me no exaggeration here) soil beset on both sides by tall grass. Our shepherd thatha (grandpa) with his cows and sheep is generally the only one other than us in this vast stretch of serene beauty. He has this super cool “Boss” glasses.






Bike/car/Jeep anything will be test driven here with our usual picnic material. I can’t believe time flies like lightning even though there’s nothing much to do here. People around are really friendly (if you ever find anybody else). The place looks like straight out of African savannas they show in Nat geo minus giraffes and ugly hyenas (never liked them). The only wild animals you may find here would perhaps be me and my friends. At the end of this road (nearly 1.5 kms) we reach the woods. Woods has rows of trees with bright green leaves (as if it’s always spring for them) with not so tall grass underneath. Perfect place to park our butts or play cricket and of course click some pictures.


There’re quite a few places around this grassland like the tarzan tree, the Dam etc. may be I’ll leave them for the next entry.
All the food, beverages, smokes etc should be carried there because the egrets don't sell them. There are some cool food joints on the way which by the way are really affordable. A candle lit dinner for two would be around 65 RS :)

You can ban me but you can never stop me.

Being just 4' 5 " tall does not take a smile off a man's face, does it?


Entrance of an old house in seetharampalya

After October 2nd when the "Smoking in Public places ban" was implemented only one place changed, that's my workplace. I do not see any change outside, I go to the same places and have a puff where nobody bothers about me, that's a totally different topic which I do not want to talk about much. Now we have to get out of the campus to have a lung full of nicotine in peace. I thought I could use this as an excuse and explore a possible 10/10 place and did I succeed? Hell yeah! I did.

There is a nice little village just behind my office campus called "Seetharam Palya" where after a long search and anxious looking out, I finally managed to find sparrows within Bangalore city (that's like looking for gold and find an angel with gold). It felt as if I met my primary school buddies, just try to get an image of sparrow in your mind you'll know what I am talking about. Seeing sparrows has become a rarity in Bangalore these days. I have to dodge a fair amount of slush, feces and some arrogant pedestrians before I can reach the temple street of the village. The temple street has some newly built, multi-storied, only for rent types of buildings as well as some really old houses with brightly coloured doors, weathering out walls, tiled roofs, flat stones/red oxide floors inhabiting people with a broad smile on their faces and/or a high pitched conversation. Of course, sparrows attending to their own scores absolutely ignoring (sometimes it feels like these sparrows have some serious attitude problem) every human being around.

They have a newly built Anjeneya Temple which has been built with some very nice taste unlike the multi coloured collages you see on most of the recently built temples. O fcourse this temple also has a myriad of colours but a little more thought included as well. The Gopura has sculptures depicting Vishnu's dashavathara and celebrations of the holy wedding of Sita and Rama. I just heard some speakers screaming songs of a Telugu movie Ramadasu (Nagarjuna starrer) filled with best possible adjectives of Lord Rama.

Reaching the end of the road I see "Srikantha Reddy building" which has 5 shops facing a rather busy road. This building also has the "Sri Sai Bakery" owned by a Mangalorean Malayali (that's like RDX and nuke combination) named Mahesh Cheta. Mahesh cheta serves all the things you would expect him to sell. I think Malayalis have a special distinction of storing up absolutely everything one may expect them to have. But I go there for my tea. WOW! what a tea! the strong freshly made hot cup of tea served in a conical glass cup can beat any damn drink in the given context. Egg puffs, Honey cake, bread toast are all there if I am in mood for some quick snacks. Cigarette, tea, cheta's smile and some odd conversations with the other fellow stranger customers of "Sri Sai Bakery"; just the right ingredients to rejuvenate myself from the slackness.

I would generally go there with one of my colleagues, so we end up catching up on lot of things. It's amazing how private the conversation would be in such a chaotic place. There are quite a few vehicles on the road anytime of the day, bringing with them a fair amount of dust. I have seen push carts selling Sugar cane juice(I ain't kidding I saw one), lorries sprinkling sand grains all over(one of the real estate boom's sad stories), autos, school vans, chic professionals riding/driving totally oblivious to the existence of such a lovely place, pedestrians of all sorts; nobody bothers each other. I think that can be called peaceful co-existence for some extent. They would tolerate you until you tolerate them.

Anyway I go there for my tea and cigarette and it is a wonderful place. I wouldn’t go looking for the bakery wherever I am but Sri Sai Bakery is the first thing which comes to my mind if I want a nice break from work.

About this blog

It is not my intention to suggest people where to go and what to do in Bangalore. I think there are quite a few guides/blogs to do that. You could have been to the same place (quite unlikely but probable) mentioned below and might have had a different or contrasting experience. Shit happens! I am not going to get into an argument that no this never happens. Your idea of fun could be totally different from mine. I am writing about places in Bangalore where I used to frequent/which I discovered newly/which has been a part of my lifestyle and which will be in my memories forever.
Now I am smoker who would prefer a cup of filter coffee/tea with my cigarette hence you'll find quite a few places which fits my bill. I am as big a foodie a foodie can get, hence most of the places here serve food.
The whole idea of this blog spot is to just list down such places and write about my experience there. it's not gonna be a food is average, service is 5/10, crowd is stupid type of reviews.. All the places here are 10/10 on my own scale!
The reason a place has found its name here is simple. I have been there, felt like myself and thought I will write about it.
Wanna an auto ride into my hometown? Get into my mercedes, did I spell something wrong?