Life in Bangalore - 1

Sometime back I had to go to Bangalore for a period of 2 months for my final year project work. I spent 2 months in a PG accommodation located near a busy Tippasandra Main Road. Those where some of the most memorable days in my life... Why? Because, most of my lifestyle was changed as I tried to blend in to the Bangalore.

Let me start with our accommodation itself. It was a room in a nearly enviable duplex at a prime location in that area. The rooms were in the first floor. This was my first experience in a PG. Though it is supposedly called a Paying Guest accommodation, it was actually more like a hostel with around 15 girls living there apart from the PG aunty. Aunty had only 2 worries in running the PG- Water and Electricity. Electricity is expensive in Bangalore. And hence, we were initially allowed only those mini CFL bulbs! Later we had to cajole aunty into changing those into power-saver tubelights. After that electricity related stuff was OK with her.

Sometime after we went to Bangalore, one night, we went to sleep only around midnight. I was partially asleep. Suddenly I was awakened by some sounds outside the room. The room-doors are generally kept half-open so I was able to see some movement outside. After a few seconds, our door was opened. I was terrified(yes, at midnight, in the dark, I am afraid of ghosts... :P). A pale glow, with no form or size appeared. I thought I was only dreaming and that it was only a figment of my imagination. I tried to cover my eyes with my blanket and see through it. The form started walking into the room. I could hear faint tapping sounds. It crossed our beds and went to the other side of the room. By then all three of us were wide awake but only too scared to get up. Suddenly a bright white light flooded the room. I used all the courage I had to open my eyes fully and see. I saw a pale form. It wore a pale robe and a pale cloth covered its head. I let out a silent shriek. It turned towards me. It was aunty.
"Kya hua? Mein night-mein tap check karne aaongi... Kal 5:30 tum teenon snaan karna... pani waste mat karo... tap open mat rakhna..."

Aunty is from Karnataka, and like most Kannadigas, is really fair. She generally prefers to wear salwars with long, pale kurtis because it is easy to work with. January nights in Bangalore are cold, so aunty was wearing a scarf. And she too was half asleep, so she looked pale. And for the next 2 months she believed with her heart and soul that at nights we deliberately leave all the taps open. Are we crazy or what? Like we wanted to flood the house and sail paper boats in it or something.

We are night-owls. We used to work late every night. But everyone else in the PG would go to bed by 10. So aunty felt we were disturbing everyone else by keeping our light on. And so she would lock our room from outside!!! Everynight, around 12, she would come to check the taps and will always lock the door from outside. Every morning, in order to go out of the room, we have to bang the door until someone wakes up and opens it.

Our room was connected to a balcony, the entrance to which was from the common area. There was a window on the wall between the balcony and our room. Every night, around 10, the others will close the balcony door and go to sleep. Once, around midnight, when we too had gone to bed, I started hearing a weird groaning sound from the balcony. I got a little scared and asked my friend if she too heard it. She said that I was either dreaming or trying to scare them. But after a few minutes, she too heard it. I thought I should go check it out, but my friend warned me to not do so, since the groaning sound had stopped. But at that moment I was feeling like I was in a horror movie! :P So I decided to check it out anyway. I went out of our room and near the balcony door. I stood there listening for a while. After a few minutes, I felt a movement. I took another step closer and tried to listen more keenly. I felt the movement again, this time it was right behind me. I was felt a sudden chill. I tried to not move a single muscle but the eyes to see what it was, but I couldn't. And suddenly, there was a tap on my shoulder. I shrieked and turned around. My friend was standing there,"I just came to see if everything's alright.". At that exact moment, the groan resumed, a little distant now. From what I guessed, it was right next to our window and a little away from the door. My other friend usually slept right next to the window and she was asleep now. I was engulfed in an acute fear. With all my courage, I opened the door. A girl from the PG was standing there. She had been locked out. She had been whispering to us from near then window to see if we were awake. That was the groan.

And that's was the "Night-Life" in our PG! :P More about it in the next post! :)

Diwali

Diwali - The festival of lights. It literally translates to 'a series of lamps'. It is said to be a celebration of the victory of the good over the evil. There are many legends and stories associated with it. It is said that the celebration of Diwali started in the Treta Yugam. When Lord Rama returned to his capital, Ayodhya, after defeating the evil king Ravana, the citizens of Ayodhya lit lamps all over Ayodhya in celebration. Ever since, lamps are lighted all over the country, every year on the day of Diwali.

A lamp signifies light, knowledge and wisdom, the absence of evil and, of course, celebration. Fire is the soul of  a lamp. Fire signifies valour, courage, and victory. Initially, the celebration of Diwali was mainly about lighting lamps, making and sharing sweets and performing special prayers. Eventually, with the growth of sciences, firecrackers were introduced as a way of celebration.

Firecrackers were initially simple bright things which burnt with colour and bright flames. Slowly, some explosive crackers were introduced for the thrill of it. But off late, it is only these 'bombs' that dominate the festival itself. Also, since there is not much to see in the bursting of bombs, people have started bursting them all the time. Whether it be morning, afternoon, evening or night, the air is filled with booms and bangs. The bombs are burst everywhere, every street and every corner. There are also some very powerful kinds of bombs, making a very loud boom.

But is this the true spirit of Diwali? Today, during Diwali, the streets look like battle fields! Bombs bursting in front of every house! It is also a hurtful reminder of the fact that the people have forgotten the true spirit of Diwali. Forget Diwali, they have even forgotten how to act humane. Every time a bomb is burst, the large sound that it produces startles babies and aged people. Heart patients are affected and so are the mentally ill. It affects the babies even when they are in the womb. Why limit it to just humans! It affects even the birds and animals. Birds are scared out of their nests and animals are too scared to be anywhere. They just run wildly in fear on the roads. Animals too have young ones which could easily get scared. A cat gave birth to 3 kittens just 2 days before Diwali and today it was too scared to even drink some milk. I saw dogs running and trying to hide in whatever nooks and corners they find in our homes, and then being mercilessly shooed away by the house owners. I saw a dog trying to save its puppy from the bomb and the puppy standing perplexed between two houses where bombs were being burst, too scared to run either way and with eyes filled with fear, confusion and helplessness. Seriously, do we really need such crackers?

There was a time when Diwali was all about lights. Lamps were lit all day and all night and colourful bright crackers were burst in the nights. It was a time when Diwali was celebrated as a festival for all. A few days before Diwali, people used to go to the houses of everyone they knew to share sweets and wishes. On the day of Diwali, they'd light lamps all over, they'd wear new clothes given by the elders, they'd make more sweets to offer to the Gods, they'd go to the temple first thing in the morning and then would spend the rest of the day with their families in celebration. In the evenings they would light the lamps again and would start bursting crackers. This was a time for everybody. People in the whole street would get together, would share everything from wishes to crackers to sweets to clothes, the elders would watch the children bursting colourful crackers under the watchful eyes of their fathers and uncles. The women would now share the sweets made on that day with all their neighbours.The entire week in which Diwali falls would be filled with an air of spirituality and celebration. This was Diwali even 10 years ago.

Today, we say technology has developed. We have gained so much from it. But what about all that we have lost? Diwali, today, has become more of a ritual than a celebration. A ritual to burst noisy crackers all day. From around 10 days before Diwali, people start bursting bombs. Day and night the bombs go off with no prior warning. Nobody goes to anyone's house any more. They simply send the Diwali wished as sms's or tags on facebook or as e-cards. On the day of Diwali, people get up whenever they want, wear something new just for fun, and watch TV all day. When there's nothing good on TV they burst the bombs. Nobody lights lamps anymore and the night sky is as colourless as on any other day. People burst the bombs mostly, and so the elders don't come out of the house. Nobody shares anything with the neighbours, they don't even burst the bombs together. Instead, they compete on who's bomb makes more sound. They don't care that their attitude is hurting many humans, animals and birds around them. What once was a festival for all, is a mere ritual today, for we have become so modern. we have lost our humanity. We have lost our culture. We have lost the traditions, passed down to us but all our ancestors. We have brought down the glory of our civilization - the oldest and the most cultured of all civilizations on earth. We have lost everything. Yes, I am old school, but at this rate, who knows, the future generations might even consider it a day to burst the hideous bombs alone.

Happy Modern Diwali!