The lost world

From the albums

Life in the Army always gives one a bouquet of memories to cherish for life. I was born in 1924 in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the erstwhile princely state of Travancore, and moved to Bengaluru after marrying an Army officer in 1949. At that time, Bengaluru was a small and beautiful cantonment. It was known as the Pensioners’ Paradise. The weather was so pleasant that throughout the year, one had to wear light woollens. Most of the bungalows had fireplaces to keep one warm during winters.

Those days, MG Road was known as the South Parade and soldiers would go horse riding in the area in the early hours of morning. Cox Town mainly had Anglo-Indians, who lived in single-storeyed bungalows with beautiful gardens in the front.

The houses had high ceilings with Italian tiles and the cantonment was occupied by the Army. There also, there were only single-storeyed bungalows with large compounds and beautiful flowering trees.

Trained cooks were available as domestic helps and spoke fluent English. The roads were very clean and we never faced any issue of garbage or pollution.Our official residence was located at No 3, Brunton Road and was a huge bungalow with a spacious compound in the front and back and 10-12 stables for horses. We would often go to Cubbon Park in the evenings to sit near the fountain and enjoy the cool breeze.

The officers always shared a sense of brotherhood and the Army life gave me the opportunity to mingle with people from different communities at the unforgettable parties, dinners and events organised in the messes. It was then that I developed a keen interest in cooking and began collecting recipes from my friends during our various postings to remote places across the country. Last year, at the age of 90, I published my favourite recipes in a book titled ‘Mother’s Recipes – A Manual for Indian Daughters’.

My husband was posted in Bangalore again in 1969. It was then that I joined the Sacred Heart Convent on Museum Road as a science teacher and taught there for 15 years. At that time, we lived in an Army house on Infantry Road. After my husband retired in 1973, we moved to our own house in Defence Colony, Indiranagar. Ours was one of the early houses to be built there and the place was infested with mosquitoes due to the swamps adjacent to the now Old Airport Road. In a few years as the officers retired, more and more houses came up, all of them independent bungalows with compounds, similar to the ones we had been living in during the service years.

The 100 Feet Road and the roads around it were beautifully lined with trees. My husband and his friends would enjoy a quiet walk in the mornings here regularly.Now, Bengaluru has become an IT hub. All those single-storeyed bungalows have made way for multi-storeyed apartment complexes and office buildings. Most of the lovely trees have also been cut. As a result, the weather has changed considerably. The beautiful city has now expanded rapidly and the heavy traffic on the roads is unimaginable.Though many changes have taken place in the City over the last 65 years, my love for the City remains the same.