So a couple of friends of mine finally decided to say balls to block timings now that we’re graduates. I don’t see the point now… Mangalore sleeps at 9:00 pm. I hated the city the moment I saw it. And I still hate it for having no culture of its own, save a few instances like the kite festival. And I also hate it for making sure that the student population has no need whatsoever to learn Kannada/Tulu. No self-respect, no whatever. God, and I thought Bangalore was bad in that respect!
Oh, and the malls! So there is this place that calls itself “99 Varieties of Dosas”. I ask the man at the counter, “Ondu neer dose“. He laughs and says, “Adhu illi sigalla”. This is Mangalore only, no? How come no neer dosa? I ask. He smiles back.
Go to hell, I’m pleased as can be that I’m getting back to my own city with its myriad darshinis and places like Nammura Hotel where I don’t have to shell out half the GDP of Vanuatu every time I want to eat out, and where I get to eat the cuisine I’m used to, and love. I hate it that inspite of being so close to Udupi, there are hardly any Udupi restaurants in this damn place within easy reach. And I hate it that I’ve not combed the streets of Mangalore looking for them anytime in these four years, and just taken it for granted the cuisine of Mangalore is to be found in the desserts at Cherry Square.
Oh, and Manipal. Billboard city. Not a single tree, or even a blade of grass. I hate it more than I hate Mangalore.
Bangalore… I hate it that our culture is now officially Pub City. Identify the whole damn population with alcohol, paint us all with the same brush, go on. “You don’t drink?? I thought all Bangaloreans drink!!”, a Kolkatan friend once said. I’m not pissed with the alcohol bit… just that it’s too broad a generalization. “Pensioners Paradise” implies it’s just a great place if pensioners want to live here, not that every Thomas, Richard and Harold is a pensioner. Why does no one recognize the polyglot culture, the fact that we are the only city in the world apart from New York to show movies in six languages or more? Why don’t people talk of Suchitra Film Society, or Gayana Samaj? Or even Alliance Francaise, Max Mueller Bhavan, Indian Institute of World Culture, or that we have one of the best chapters of Toastmasters’?
I haven’t quite figured out why yet… when I’m neck-deep in last-minute coding, my mind runs in all sorts of absurd directions and comes up with lines like “The model eating the banana split was worried it was all going to waist”, and “Hardly anyone goes to Crumbz (known for its pastries) these days… it’s so desserted”. I also take to singing songs like “Lal lal hoton pe gori kiska naam hai”.
I’ve also realized that there are a few people here I’m really glad to get away from. And tolerating them these four years or less was an experience all by itself; something I’m glad for, for now I know the sort of people I should avoid.
And another thing I’ve found out is that it’s very hard to find people who share all your interests. And that you need not have much in common with someone to be good friends. And having things in common is no indication of a great friendship.
Something Pooh said comes to mind now… “It is easier to find someone to marry than to find someone to work with”. I don’t know about how easy it is to find someone you would like to marry, but finding someone to work with is downright hell, I’ve found. But when you do find someone, there’s nothing quite like it.
I feel there’s a certain amount of disgruntledness in everyone’s mental make-up, and that’s the driving force behind any sort of action. Cribbing is a normal facet of life, a necessity, I would say. It helps you analyze things better, makes you more articulate, and lets you acknowledge you have a problem. And no amount of making things better can remove the minimum quota of disgruntledness a normal person is supposed to have.
And at the end of it all, I know I’ve left a lot unsaid, or half-said, or said very badly. A couple of months back, I compressed four years’ worth into one line which indicated nothing except in a nutshell… no point … I know second chances are hard to come by, but I can only hope.
My most memorable times have not just been all the Incidents, and the Engineers, but also a great number of incidents and with a good many engineers.
PS: I know the last line sounds slightly meaningless… but I just had to say it for its own sake.. kindly adjust.
In a reader
