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Showing posts from December, 2008

Why Malleswaram Railway Station Still Feels Like Home

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Malleswaram Railway Station — a place that never felt like “just” a station. A few months ago, someone forwarded me a video of an elderly lady speaking about the charm of Malleswaram Railway Station. She mentioned how, whenever her children visit Bangalore from Canada, one ritual remains unchanged. Her son insists on visiting the station, picking up idly from Raghavendra Stores, and eating it right there on the platform. I smiled when I heard that, because for many of us who grew up in Malleswaram, the railway station was never just a transit point. It was a quiet witness to our growing up. Even now, if I close my eyes, I can hear the metallic rhythm of trains slowing into the platform, the echo of announcements bouncing off the tiled roof, the smoky sweetness of roasted maize drifting from the bridge, and the soft warmth of idlies wrapped in paper from Raghavendra Stores. The station was never silent — but it always felt peaceful. For nearly a decade, ...

-25C

It was the mid nineties, and as I was creeping up from meekness to hit the point of I know everything , my mind was seduced by one of the most romantic tunes of the decade, churned out by AR Rahman. The heroine draped in a beautiful saree, in typical South Indian style, coupled with the beautiful Kashmir background, all in glittering white snow, lent a sensuous touch to the whole romantic moment. The song and the settings went on to become a rage. Every young lad wanted to be the hero, and obviously, the lasses yearned to be loved in such an environment. It was all beautiful, and life was certainly more so. My heart and mind were reverberating with When will I experience such a moment in the snow? Fast forward the situation by fifteen years, and I can only think of one thing, What the hell are they doing dancing around in that snow . She is just draped in a saree, and the hero is wearing a sweater; the clothes, no way sufficient by any means. Forget the romance, forget the song ...

What a victory!

What a victory! What a victory!!! I not only could see the excitement in his voice, but also in his whole body language. He was running around as though India had just won the world cup (Cricket, of course, not soccer!). For a second, I was confused and had to check up whether I was on the right website. This, neither was entertainment news and neither did it have anything to do with sports. Anyway, I was watching the Assembly election results in six states held across different parts of India. After watching election news all these years,, I can still safely say, without any presumptions, that Prannoy Roy was simply the best in business - calm, composed, and perfect to the point, with a good team of political analysts. Now, with the advent of time, and with the advancement in technology, there is so much access to statistics online, that anything and everything is just a click of a button away. But, those days, to compile everything methodically from different sources, was mor...