Tuesday, November 21, 2006

nuts

Kadalekayi parishe is a yearly affair in Bangalore. It happens around this time, every year, on the Bull temple road. Madness ruled. While Gandhi Bazaar wore a forlorn look.

Plastic toys, accesories, snacks, chats, sweets, flutes, shining parachutes, amidst groundnuts, offcourse. Special mention of these parachutes, they were these shiny, light-emitting things, which went up in air, and came down, making the night-sky shimmer with many of these. Some got caught in trees, and lo, trees were sprouting these thingies, in their dark foliage.Flute-sellers playing popular tunes, a kid shouting.... 'Ma, there is a small plastic camera, in this cart, i want it.......' A lost friend 'Where are you?'..... 'If you find a place, push your bike into it, i'm waiting near the entrance of BMS Women's College'.... 'Tell me how much will one measure of beaten rice cost, i want some onions, mixture added....' A bakery, somewhere a chat-shop filled to the brim. ' I want a bhel-puri.....spicy, no meeta......'... 'Grandma, come quickly, amma and appa, are there.....' 'Is this hand-bag trendy..... bhaiyya, tell me how should i pay?' ' Woollen sweaters only for 125, madam, sir, can i help you?.......'

Two guys buying a pack of potato chips. The smell of hot oil, filling the air. Robots forcasting the horoscope, with eyes which emit a fiery flourescent glow, the earpiece, also emitting a weird light. Queue's were beginning to form, before these robots!! Music could be heard, from the musical fountain in a park nearby. My eyes lingered on the mural on a kalyana mantapa, created by S.G. Vasudev, for a moment.

Amongst the people, who thronged the place, many were villagers. Young girls trying to help the mothers' by screaming out loud. Teenage boys fooling around, creating a ruckus just for the fun of it. How wonderful is it to be young! Grandfathers, in wollen pull-overs discussing, something serious. Mothers grasping their kids' hand's tightly, lest they might loose them.

Spotting techies(people belonging to the BPO, commerce fraternity) was the most easiest job of all. Sporting, Columbia on a sweatshirt, trying to pose as smart guys. With floaters adorning their foot, bags containing heavy laptops, trying to shift the weight from hand to shoulder. Talking technical, wearing branded clothing. Using slang words, some wearing a demure look, and hastily speaking into a mobile phone. To-be engineers-doctors, straight from tutorials, gathered in groups, munching snacks, with spectacles resting on their noses, having as much fun as time could provide.

There i was, shopping for groundnuts with father, opting for roasted ones in this stall, raw ones in another cart. Tasting a variety of nuts, made my tastebuds go mad. On sighting K.C. Das, i feasted on cham-cham. It had been quite some-time since i relished a K.C.Das sweet. Ground-nuts is in stock to last for the entire week.

7 comments:

Raghavendra D R said...

Was blog-hopping and stumbled by your entry on Kadlekai parshe. Nice post! I missed it this time around...

-Raghu

Anonymous said...

Hey cool...never been there...I read all over the web about it the last few days.

I do miss that 'festive' mood though....Glad you enjoyed it...


And, KC Das...ummmm.....I live and die for sweets !!!

Shiv said...

Mouna !
You said satisfaction guaranteed and indeed it is !!! Reading something like this brings the avalnche of memories about such jaatre.

You have brought out the entire of feel of atmosphere in a very nice way.

I always have heard abot groundnut parise, but never got an chance to be part of it..anyways atleast ur blog took me thru it..thank u :)

The 'Ekaangi' said...

what's really weird is that i haven't been to kadalekaayi parshe until today...every yr dad says we'll go and i say...whats the big deal...its just peanuts...which eventually make u throw up if u eat a lot of it...I nvr knew there were so many varieties of peanuts available...and eatin peanuts with a piece of jaggery is still fun...maybe i need to be there next yr

mouna said...

raghu,
thank you, there's always another time, you still can visit it the next time!!

ds,
ya, the festive look was shall i say, worthwhile, and sweets, glad to know, we both have a sweet tooth!!

shiv,
you are always welcome!! :) :)

suhas,
imagine a jaatre environment in b'lore, not to be missed at all, a fun thing to happen, truly....

Srik said...

Wonderful post. It recreated the magic of old time Bengalooru.

Appreciate your way of writing. Keep it up.

mouna said...

srik,

thank you! b'lore still exists the 'old' way, atleast in my mind!