Visiting Bengaluru is always a pleasure for me. I have come a long way from the days when I stayed in a rickety lodge near the bus stand to attend some vague interview or stupid test to the present visits just to relax in a good hotel and spend hours with a friend in a bar with a few drinks. 

The pleasant climate, full of greenery on both sides of the roads in some places, the ever-quiet Lal Bagh, and the lazy Cubban Park are luckily not infested with the traders inside, though I haven’t visited them now. 

The once chill amiable climate now poses problems to me with the onset of arthritis; well, that is at the personal level. Even the non-airconditioned rooms gave ample feeling of coolness. 

But the sore and disgusting aspects surfaced this time menacingly; the never-ending traffic jams in all places, the high-rise buildings as sore thumbs in many areas even in some congested suburbs through which I traveled, the uneven roads and branching small streets. Well, that is the ‘in-thing’ to show the development of any city, town, or village in India in the present context. 

All the pubs and bars are overflowing with the youth population making ear-splitting noises with their nonstop raucous laughter or loud modern music in high decibels. Surprisingly the whisky and vodka I tasted had the least impact as they were nothing but H2O.

The much sought-after MG Road and its branching roads are the ‘modern version’ of Chennai’s popular T Nagar’s ever-crowded Ranganathan Steet with a nonstop deluge of people. 

One surprising thing I noticed in my favorite abode Woodlands Hotel at Richmond Circle (surprisingly quite a calm ambiance) where the lunch hours were quite active and busy but the nighttime the attached modern restaurant was always nearly empty. 

Well, one should understand and realize two things; changes are a permanent feature of the world.  Aging makes one turn cynical towards many things. 

Some Special Post-scripts. 

• I found the unique and beautiful Cannonball Tree (Nagalinga Tree) with flowers with many flowers within the campus of Woodlands which I missed noticing all these days. 
  
  
• I visited the Cauvery Karnataka Arts and Crafts Emporium and saw awesome small art pieces of exquisite handicrafts. 
   
• My visit to ‘Blossom’ turned out to be very memorable as I hadn’t come across a Booklovers Paradise like that too with old and new books in many languages.