Food and games in the lap of nature

The  group photograph was taken in 1955 in the garden of our house in Shanthinagar on the occasion of Sheila’s birthday. Seen in the picture is my second cousin Geetha; Sheila’s parents and my aunt Nalini and uncle G S Bhasker Rao holding his son Ashok; Geetha’s father and another uncle of mine L N Kombrabail with his son Pradeep in his lap.

The photograph with my cousin Sheila and me sitting atop the stone lion was taken in 1957 in Cubbon Park. At that time, we lived in a large house with our grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The head of our family was my paternal grandfather K Guru Dutt, a very well-known personality in Bengaluru in those days.

The high point of our childhood was to accompany our grandfather, whom we called ‘ajja’, in his metallic blue Vauxhall Wyvern car to Cubbon Park where he loved walking every evening. There, he would meet a group of intellectuals who were his friends.

Among them was his best friend B V Narayan Reddy. These well-read, witty and articulate thinkers would settle down on ‘their’ green bench which bore a brass plaque that read, ‘Presented by Shri B V Narayan Reddy’, and discuss various topics of mutual interest.

We children were free to run and play wherever we wanted with instructions to return to the car park just before twilight set in. Our favourite place was a bamboo grove with lots of trees and some rocks to climb on. Sheila had a vivid imagination and would come up with games and make up wonderful adventure stories for us to enact. Through play and the freedom to explore, we learned about plants, trees and birds and got really close to nature.

At other times, we would go on family picnics to Cubbon Park armed with striped blankets called ‘jamkaans’, hampers of homemade food and a thermos of coffee for the grownups. A special treat was a box of assorted cakes from Nilgiris. There followed squabbles among us kids over who would get the cakes with the pink icing and chocolate button on top and who would get the plain ones.

On the hottest day of summer, our grandfather would be driven to Lakeview Milkbar on South Parade (now MG Road) and return with a large insulated metal container that held small cups of ice cream, all vanilla (no doubt, to put an end to the squabbles!) The container was designed to keep the ice cream from melting and was taken on loan from the milkbar, to be returned later. We were entranced by the ice cream cups made of blue, green and red polka dotted ‘silver paper’, as we called it. Occasionally, the whole family would visit a restaurant in the park which, for some reason, was called ‘Insurance Restaurant’, for ‘masala dosas’ and ‘gulab jamuns’. The grownups would have ‘special’ coffee that came in white china cups, each with a big layer of froth on top. I thought ‘special’ meant lots of froth and could hardly wait to grow up and taste it myself.
I have lived in Bengaluru all my life and went to Baldwin Girls’ High School, Mount Carmel College and Central College. While in college, I also learned French and won a scholarship to do a teacher training course in Paris, France in 1974. Upon returning, I taught French at Alliance Française for almost 10 years until I left with my children to join my husband who was working in Saudi Arabia. Seven years later, I returned to Bengaluru and taught French again from home. I am now retired but continue to keep in touch with the language.

My cousin Sheila is a homemaker and lives in Bengaluru. She has always loved animals and has several pets and once even rescued and took care of a maimed pigeon. Gardening is also one of her hobbies.

Alas, my aunt and the uncles in the picture are no more. Ashok is a businessman and lives in Malleswaram, as do Pradeep and Geetha.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to meet as often now, perhaps due to the busy pace of modern life and the difficulties of commuting in the city. But when we meet at family functions, we love to reminisce about the old days.

Even though Bengaluru has changed beyond recognition, Cubbon Park is still there and so are the stone lions. I will always be grateful to this beautiful green oasis in the heart of our city for making my childhood days so magical.

(The author can be contacted at [e-mail])

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