Memories Of Love

Two- Exploring my dream city-Bangalore

The hour hand in the clock turned ten. Yadav messaged me he was waiting outside the hostel and asked me to come down fast. I wore a blue jeans, and a white half sleeve top which looked very good with its white and red stones on the neck. I had bought it from Hyderabad when I went for an excursion from my school. I dressed casually and loosened my hair. I had a sling bag on my right shoulder which contained all the valuable items of a girl like phone, purse, hair band, lip gloss etc. I ran down through the stairs and went outside the hostel. I saw him sitting on his Enfield with one leg crossed over the other, dressed casually, and with sunglasses on. Yadav smiled and took his sunglasses off as I walked towards him. A smile of happiness lit up my face. 'Ithuvare e pazhaya chiri maattaraayilledi?' he laughed as he said this. I slapped him on his back with all my strength. Then we laughed together for a few moments. Our laughter became so intense that we were holding our stomachs and laughing. It was all because of seeing a schoolmate after a long time. All the formal words like 'hi, hello, how are you' had vanished between us long ago. He started his bullet which meant the journey to explore my dream city- Bangalore had started. 'Bangalore...what a rocking city yaar...' Remembering the dialogue of Dulquer Salman in the movie Bangalore Days. Yeah... It's really rocking. I watched the bustling city with open mouth. I hadn't been to any city like Bangalore in my life. So it felt electrifying. At first, we went to Iskon temple which was located almost 10 kilometres away from Bangalore city. We saw many children there with their schoolbags slung on their shoulder playing in the garden of the temple. Yadav told me that all of them had come to attend a spiritual class where children are taught about the leelas of Krishna and Radha. We saw many Buddhist saints who were deeply involved in meditation around. The Buddhists meditating, people praying and everything around added a spiritual touch to everything and everyone there. It was pretty well maintained and peaceful. I love visiting temple but this time I felt shy to enter the temple wearing jeans and top. Many elderly women were looking at me as if I were an alien creature as I came to the temple dressed in that way. By this time, Yadav was walking towards the inner hall of the temple and I too followed him as I was left with no choice but to go inside. As we were moving close to the area where the pujas are performed, I was able to see two people pulling out a curtain from both the ends of that very spacious room. And what appeared before us was the very graceful statue of Krishna and Radha. I believed it was a visual treat for us created by god himself. I felt blessed and relaxed to be there that moment. Lord Krishna was holding his beloved Radha his hand over her shoulders. Krishna was looking straight into my eyes with his legs crossed. His body was glittering because of all his ornaments. He had a big peacock feather on his head and a flute which made up his typical look. Radha too looked beautiful. With her head slightly tilted towards her beloved's shoulder, she attracted all my attention. I prayed to them for a long time. I was not praying anything in particular because I felt he gave me that moment as a blessing. I simply kept on chanting mantras which my mom had taught me. We became very much spiritual and sat on the floor cross-legged for a long time, closing our eyes and participating in the bhajans.
The poojari who was performing the pujas called us to give the Prasad. I drew a line of Prasad on my forehead and placed the flowers on my hair. Yadav looked at me and curved his lips a bit. We then walked around the temple area, enjoying the beauty of the place. The sounds of the birds chirping, the slight blow of the fair breeze, and the sounds of poojaris chanting mantras...all gave me positive energy. What caught my attention next was a board named "Uduppi Kitchen". We rushed towards that board to satisfy our hungry stomachs. We ordered idly and it reached our table within 10 minutes. The hot idlies tasted different from what my mom makes at home. I guess those idlies were made of rava while in Kerala we made it using rice. That's why it tasted different. Yet, I liked it because I was hungry. The Idlies together with its combination of chutneys and Sâmbhar satisfied the hunger of my stomach and impressed my tongue too! We then headed towards our next destination. But, Yadav did not tell me where we were going next. He was making it all a surprise. I liked that suspense too. It was the Cubbon Park-a fantastic open lung space for Bangalore. The garden city is lucky to have a very hush place like this so that many people can come here, enjoy the beauty of nature and can get a vast relief from the busy traffic of M.G.Road and Kastoorba Road. It was a refreshing atmosphere. I felt like telling my friends to visit the park once or else it would be a big loss in their lives. The park was very large spreading around over hundred acres. The most appropriate definition for the park is that it's 'The Garden of Lovers'. I could see many couples sitting on the benches under the shades of trees holding their hands and talking lovingly. I removed my sandals and walked through the wet grass. It tickled me. Yadav was sitting on a bench watching the naughty me. After sometime, he came towards me and sat on the grassy earth like I did. We sat facing each other. I sensed he was looking straight into my eyes which made me blush. So I kept looking at the big trees. We were both silent at once and it was he who spoke first.
'Arohi...' he called me in a voice which I never experienced before. It gave me a soothing effect and I gazed at him. 'Do you have a boyfriend?' I could sense the smell of love around. But I pretended as if I did not understand anything. 'No. Why?' 'Just nothing. I simply asked you.' 'It's okay.' 'Please don't misunderstand Arohi...I didn't mean like that.' 'Like what?' 'Like ...' he paused for a second and continued, 'like proposing to you..' 'But I never thought like that, Yadav...' 'Every girl will think like that when a boy asks this question...Anyway, I'm sorry.' What he said was exactly correct but I pretended as if I did not know anything. We looked at all those green bushes which were shaped like that of a heart and had small red flowers embedded on it. It seems that even the trees were falling in love with each other. We watched different types of birds flying over the sky with its elegant wings. I savoured every bit of it. We saw many old trees too. In fact, almost 3000 years old. According to my biology teacher, it was a fossil tree. By then, it was 3 O' clock and we waved goodbye to the place which had stolen my heart. I'm nutty about shopping. When Yadav suggested that we could go for shopping, I was so happy that I clapped my hands, appreciating him for his fantastic idea. 'What an idea sirji...!' I said to him. He laughed and said that I was mad. On the way to the Commercial Street, we stopped to have coffee from a small coffee shop. We ordered coffee and sat on the bench which was kept outside the shop. Sitting there, I looked all around to see Bangalore. This time too something caught my attention. I held Yadav's hand and walked towards it. It was those paintings. All the street walls of Bangalore were painted amazingly. The pictures of kings and queens, gods and goddesses, flowers, animals etc. Some of them conveyed some message too. Like 'save women','stop child labour' and many other themes. I felt that all those paintings had something to tell me and some faded memories came rushing up. So I turned back and walked towards the coffee shop. A small drop of tear appeared in one of my eyes. But I hid it from Yadav and pretended to be happy. We had coffee served in a steel glass of about 8 cm height. The aroma of piping hot filter kaapi drove me crazy. We bought a lot of things from the Commercial Street at cheap rates and ate masaladosa from a street shop. After shopping, he dropped me back at the hostel. We wished good night and waved goodbye to each other. He started his bullet, reversed and drove in the opposite direction to reach his home. I saw him from a distance and waved my hand even though he did not see me. I climbed the stairs of my hostel thinking of how it was a very special day. All those moments with Yadav, the spiritual Arohi in her jeans and top and everything that happened today. When I first came to Bangalore, I was lost. Literally, it took me at least thirty minutes to get out of the busy traffic. The traffic, the autowalas and long distances ... I hated it all and couldn't wait to go back to my city. But just within hours, the city had become a close part of my heart. The first launch at MTR, shopping at Commercial Street, the walk in the Cubbon Park and an amazing weather, you can't stop falling in love with the city.