A leisure trip to City's heritage treasures

Art & appetite

The usual tourist spots for many visitors to the City include the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, Cubbon Park and the Dodda Ganapathi Temple.

In contrast, however, a local tour group has been offering ‘one-of-a-kind opportunities’ to get to know the City better, through food and festivals. 

‘Unhurried’ offered a special Dasara tour in Basavanagudi over the holiday weekend, to visit heritage homes to see Golu, a display of dolls and statues. One of these houses provided a spectacular sight, ‘stuffed’ with more than 4,000 such dolls, including a re-creation of the Ramayana.

A visit to the Bimba Art Ashram came next, which presented the unique art form of Rasaloka, handed down through generations of the artiste Deepika Dorai’s family. Dorai, with her daughter, brought a still theatre of miniatures to life with part story-telling, part philosophy, capturing the audience – both young and old.

Also on offer was a vegetarian and non-vegetarian food tour to Frazer Town, one the most historic suburbs in the City, with its restaurants being influenced by Middle Eastern cuisine. The food tour took off at the popular Thom’s Bakery, built around 60 years ago.

 The next stop was Luna’s Sweets, giving the tourists a chance to sample crisp samosas. Then came delicate damrot – a sweet dish based on milk – from the more-than-a-century-old Albert’s Bakery on Mosque Road.

The eatery was started by Mohammed, who felt the bakery would have greater appeal if it had an English name. The finale was a delicious five-course Middle Eastern feast at Alibaba.

There were plenty of interesting facts served along the way by tour guide Mansoor Ali, an architect by profession, with a passion to keep himself informed about the many of the locality’s disappearing historic buildings.

Information about upcoming tours by the group can be got on www.facebook.com/unhurried.in