Pride !

Indians today, seldom come across as proud people.
Well, we have had a glorious past. So what? We have moved on. Because, the reality is NOW!

Centuries of invasions have made us a subservient lot.  Today, even while we travel across the seas and achieve great feats, we are "mostly" modest (I mean, we just can't do the bragging thing!)

However, there are two days in a year (Republic Day and Independence Day), when the spirit of oneness sweeps across this large country (though only momentarily)! 

For once, we forget about our every day existence and swell with pride for being part of this great legacy called India.

As children, January 26th meant, watching the Republic Day parade in the National channel, if we were lucky enough to have a television. If not, even better. We congregated at the neighbour's houses which had one and enjoyed the different shows put up by the republic day parade participants.

For some, it was even better. For three years in a row, as part of the National Scouts and Guides movement, a bunch of us had the opportunity to represent our region for the State republic parade across that long beautiful stretch of the Marina beach in Chennai. This meant, almost a month of practice at around 5:30 am in the morning along the Marina.

But we barely felt any physical stress because getting rid of those boring classes in school, for half a day was a lot more fun J

Many years hence, a quick look at how Republic Day was celebrated around me, here in Bangalore.

Couple of bangalorean schools have their Sports day around this timeframe. The kindergarteners of Bishop Cotton Boys School, Bangalore, celebrated the Republic Day week with their Annual Sports event.

 

Oh yes, these kindergarteners have their own little band leader leading the overall school band :)

On the Republic Day, I headed to the Freedom Park in Bangalore, more popular only after Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption protest, held here. 

The Freedom Park was originally a Central Jail built during 1866 when the British wanted more and more jails to accommodate the rising number of self sacrificing freedom fighters.

Today, this Freedom park serves as a beautiful multi-use urban park with a state-of-the-art information corridor, cultural and leisure joints, children play areas, light and sound shows etc.

However  architect couple Soumitro Ghosh and Nisha Mathew Ghosh, who designed this structure, have ensured that the historical features of this place (such as the Watch Tower for the prison guards as well as the Prison main entrance) were kept.

In keeping with its history, this park was built to provide dedicated space for holding protests and rallies.

Another interesting event during this time, is the Scooter Rally organized by a couple of enthusiasts, at the Bangalore Cubbon Park. What a better day to celebrate everything that is vintage!  Some clicks from this event…. 

 

  

And ofcourse, though I have often repeated myself, no Republic day is complete, if you are in Bangalore and do not catch the flower show in Lalbagh, which saw ~2,00,000 people on this day.

This year's star attraction was the Buddha, amidst the backdrop of beautiful flowers.

Hmm..well, yeah...maybe we should get some Pride :) 

The world, thru' your smartphone!

Last Sunday afternoon, after a sumptuous meal (courtesy – the great Indian harvest festival - Pongal), I took off to a photowalk in Lalbagh with a bunch of like minded folks.

This walk was a unique one because all pictures were to be taken only with a camera phone!

So after weeks of haggling with aperture settings and shutter speeds, this trip was a welcome change. And particularly, no need for carrying huge ugly camera bags and being at the receiving end of weird glances from passersby!

I'm not a proud owner of the Iphone 4S. Due to my history of losing phones, I always stuck to the modest ones. And therefore my Samsung Galaxy ACE (2592x1944 pixels, 5MP) was to be my company for this walk. With an extremely bad battery life and  a limited zoom function which forces you to click at 640x480, it does limit one’s possibilities of being creative (assuming one, IS !).

But what the heck! Life is more about having a good time than about capturing good pictures. Therefore, I told myself - if everything failed, I could enjoy a good evening walk meeting up with a diverse group of people outside the confines of work and family (please don’t read any non-existent contempt or disgust, between these innocent lines!)

We started off the walk, with some shots of the Kempagowda tower along with the rocky terrain surrounding it.

Bangalorean families were enjoying their evening of fresh air, after a busy festive morning.

And vendors were making the most of the crowd here.

 

The glass house, the star attraction of Lalbagh was also a wonderful sight at this time of the day.

And after a while of chit chatting on the latest lens and image processing softwares, we enjoyed this wonderful sunset.

We then proceeded to the much awaited part of the walk - a visit to the “Food street” in VV Puram which is famous for its line of shops, selling Kannadiga delicacies.

This season’s special was the Avarekalu Dose. We downed these fluffy dosas and washed it up with a Masala Jeera Fizz drink (I’ve never heard of it either!). Thereon we stopped by the next shop for some traditional Dal Obbattus, Akki roties and Paddus. We then savoured the spicy hot capsicum bajjis and rounded it off with the sinfully sweet Gulkhand Icecream (2 scoops of icecream placed over a bed of rose petal jam, garnished with loads of banana, figs, apples, guavas – I didn’t notice the ingredients any further because I was blinded by the onslaught of its taste!)

Some more on the "V V Puram - Food Street"

Due to popular demand for pictures on the food street (well, I just needed an excuse to get there again!), I present to you, "the great Gulkhand icecream" -  probably the only icecream in the world, that is served on a banana leaf.

Caution: This icecream is only meant for people with an Xtreme sweet tooth. For those who cannot go beyond chocolates and pancakes, a better deal would be to try these delicious obbattus/holiges.

And if that makes you feel any better, this time around, I stuck to a simple strong coffee.

Letz go fishing on Christmas Eve !

Well, well, well, in the previous post on Fort Cochin, I was so besotted with the sunset that I did miss covering the main feature of the Fort Cochin beach – the Chinese fishing nets and lots more.

So here is a quick tour of Fort Cochin on the Christmas eve of year 2011.

If you mix up medieval Portugal and Holland, spice it up with the tropical Malabar coast, then you end up with a heady cocktail that is Fort Cochin and Mattancherry today.

All day, ferries scuttle back and forth, transporting people between mainland Ernakulam (where the train/bus stations are) and Fort Cochin. The ferry ride is an enjoyable one and takes you past a number of ships, big and small, docked in the Cochin harbor.

If you happen to be in Fort Cochin during Christmas eve, you would wonder if all the stars in the sky had landed on earth! The whole place is lit up reflecting the mood of “Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let us receive the King”.

Of special mention is the St Francis Church (built by the Portuguese in 1503) which is said to be India’s first European church.

 

One could also walk around the Jew town in Mattancherry (close to Fort Cochin) to visit the Cochin Synagogue which is the oldest in the Commonwealth countries (I landed there on a Saturday and therefore missed it!). So plan ahead!

Fort Cochin was once a small fishing village that became the first European township in India.

The Chinese fishing nets here, are an interesting feature of Fort Cochin. These large fishing nets are of made of teak and bamboo, with lights to attract fish as they are lowered into the water. It is a treat to watch the sun setting into the Arabian Sea (ok, enough about that!) behind the mesh of these Chinese nets.

And after all the walking around, time for an appetizing meal, isn’t it?

These fishermen camped all through the promenade of Fort Cochin beach, sell a wide variety of sea food – ranging from fish, lobsters, squids, mussels – you name it! As if that was not tempting enough, they say “you buy it – we cook it”. After you buy your goodies, you would be guided to a line of small restaurants across the beach, where they are cooked and served.

And for all the rest of us, vegetarians, there are peanuts and icecreams!