Vidya Nanjappa
Nov 7 · 3 min read

Bengaluru blues...

The week after Diwali , is usually the brightest after all the festivities and long awaited family get togethers. It’s a different story here in the garden City as the air pollution has reached its highest .

Fourteen years back when I moved into Bangalore after marriage , the mornings would be so beautiful with the music of chirping birds and golden rays of the sun gliding through the heavenly fog.. it’s all the same now , except that ,now ,it’s no more fog , it’s the thick toxic smog.

Bengaluru was every parent’s most preferred choice to get their daughters married into ( offcourse u.s.a bieng the first choice ). The booming I.T industry and the 5 digit monthly earnings was an added attraction. Every matrimonial website would have an elite section for the I.T Ian’s . Yes I.T was considered elite in the late nighties and 2000 . These guys flaunting a sleek laptop , boasting about their very important meetings with their American /Brit bosses in thier fully air conditioned offices and their pizza parties looked and sounded very hip . Pizza and laptop were pricy things then. Now the laptop is literally a child’s play. My 12year old daughter is a pro..

When we moved into Bangalore , i was very happy as the weather was beautiful and pleasent unlike my hot and humid home town. Mornings were so cold that getting my feet down from bed needed a few nudges from my hubby. A hot tumbler of hot filter coffee with a serving of illayaraja’s melody in the cold mornings was so satisfying and relaxing . It’s a different story now. I have my first shot of Java after the exhausting morning routine of packing my kids off to school . It’s no pleasure now but just a quick energy boost. i make sure i get to sip my favourite cuppa peacefully during the weekends.

Bengaluru’s traffic is horrendous and the never ending expantion process is adding to the woes. A romantic scene from the roads of Bangalore would be like this . The hero walks his walk with a puff in his pout in a slow motion , he looks across the road and falls in love with a lovely girl walking through a cloud . Let’s be very clear. It’s a cloud of dust and the girl is fully clad from head to toe to save herself from all kinds of pollution 🤣.. the girl in a movie would be seen singing a song or helping children cross the road, but here in reality is helping her poorself cross the road coughing, panting and holding on to her dear life . This may sound humorous , but Is the sad state today .

I keep telling my friends jokingly , that i wish to move to Alaska or Antartica as an escape from this chaos . Imagine going out ice fishing and having fresh Alaskan salmon . My innerself laughs at my thought , teasingly reminding
me about the chills and shivers during our recent vacation in Nilgiris 😂. Il die of cold in Alaska .

Bengaluru is dear to me . It’s my second home. the people here are warm and loving. There is no one to be blamed for this state of bengaluru now . There is a saying in tamil, ‘ Alavuku minjinal amudhamum nanju' which translates to , ‘ too much nectar is toxic' . Similarly overwhelming love for this city is causing it harm. Government here is doing its best and the people mending their ways to save this garden City and maintain its charm and beauty. I hope and pray for the best for my dear Bengaluru and it’s green ,clean future .

Recipie of my favourite filter coffee .


Ingredients -

Filter coffee powder — 4 tbsps

Boiling water — 3/4 cup

Fresh milk — 3/4 Cup

Sugar — as per taste . I prefer 2 teaspoons

Fill the coffee filter with the filter coffee powder and press gently . Add in 3/4 cup recently boiled water and wait for the decoction to collect . Boil milk and add the sugar . Switch off the gas and add required amount of decoction to achieve prefered strength. Note , the decoction should never be heated . Doing so will change the taste and flavour.

Pro tip — pour prepared coffee from one glass to another to make it frothy . Best served in a steel glass .

    Vidya Nanjappa

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