All my childhood school summer holidays during 50s & 60s used to be spent in Bangalore. My Grandparents house was situated in South End road, Sheshadripuram (Though it is the starting point of Malleshwaram) near New Krishna Bhavan hotel popularly known as NKB.
Every day, I used to peep into NKB to find the “Today’s Special” placard along with usual eatable items. The combined smell of ‘Dosas’ and ‘Chow Chow’ ( Now called Mixture) used to be felt even from the bus stop outside NKB. The park in front of the present Mantri Mall used to be the venue for weekly music performance (Orchestra) in the evenings of weekend. Raw mango with chilli-salt & Congress Spiced groundnut’ used to be sold at the entrance for munching in the park.
Sampige road was open for two way traffic and we had to walk until Mallewaram Ground to fetch a taxi or ‘Jhatka’(Tanga) to go anywhere. Right at the Malleswaram circle (now an underpass) in a corner was Radha Bakery (Now place occupied by a book depot). Those days were cool, so all the bakeries used to sell Hot/cold Badam milk. Now, no one sells at the bakery. The size of pastries & buns used to be small enough for a person unlike todays, which can be consumed by 2 or more people. The peculiar fragrance of freshly baked Bread and cakes used to be very tempting even from outside which is totally missing now.
There was a “Madhu Sweet shop” opposite present day ‘Holige Mane’ where hot & fresh loose sweet ‘boondi’ used to be prepared every evening. Going further up the Malleswaram Circle opposite BMTC bus stop was “Hamsa Store” (Building recently demolished). Often we used to visit Hamsa store for fresh Grape juice. Grape juice was very popular those days. I don’t know why the demand for grape juice has declined now a days.
CTR (Central tiffin room) & Jantha Hotel on 8th cross road were out of bound for us as no body took us to those places and there was no concept of pocket money for we children. We had to be contended with small sized biscuits in the shape of animals like tiger, dog, horse, eagle, cat etc given by grandmother.
While traversing those old path and locations in Malleswaram, the very feeling of those moments of bliss & enjoyment fills the heart.
‘Jaane kahan gaye who din’………….
