Friday 22 April 2016

Bangalore Summer & Its Festivity Memories

Summer is a season not relished by many. Hot weather with thirsty days and sweating body is not liked by many. But Students & Kids like Summer very much, as it brings in VACATION from school & studies. Lots of ice creams, soft drinks fresh fruit juice all make summer memorable.
For Bangloreans summer brings in lot of events in form of City Festival 'Karaga', Lord Rama's Birthday -'Ramanavami' and 'Ugadi'- Kannadigas' New year day.

Bangalore once upon a time known as garden city and air conditioned city is no more clinging on to these titles. This year SUMMER of 'Namma Bengaluru' has overtaken Chennai & Mangalore cities  with soaring mercury levels. We can attribute this to chopping of trees and digging of bore wells and exponential growth in vehicular traffic leading to pollution of all sorts. Leave aside summer, this year WINTER of Bengaluru was not chilly!

RAMANAVAMI- Real Treat for Hot Summer
The mercury levels of summer has been associated with two Festivals Bangalore Celebrates with utmost enthusiasm. Ramanavami & Karaga. As mentioned earlier Ramanavami Birth anniversary of Lord Rama is celebrated with Fruit juice prepared from MUSK-MELON & Jaggery combo- PANAKA, Butter milk and a salad called Kosambari. All three food are best suited for SUMMER appetite. Ramanavami also brings in festivity in form of cultural programmes organized across the city of Bengaluru for weeks together. When Bangalore was not GLOBALIZED with Malls and Multiplex, Summer evenings at Parks of Bangalore with music played by renowned musicians was treat to eyes and ears. Even Today Ramanavami is a Festival apt for SUMMER season, with temples, schools, colleges and shop vendors distributing NEERU-MAJJIGE (butter milk) and KOSAMBARI- Salad.

KARAGA- The Festival of Bangalore City

KARAGA is celebrated in the name of lord Dhramaraya swamy for entire night during summer and the route through which the procession goes will be celebrating it with PANAKA & KOSAMBARI salad! Food that is yummy for summer season. Though Bangalore KARAGA of dharmaraya swamy is the official one of the city, many God and Goddess also have their own customized KARAGA. The person who carries the 'FLOWER TOWER' on his head is surrounded by veerakumaras dancing with swords. The act of balancing Flower-Tower isn't an easy task and needs expertise to carry it throughout the processions.
KARAGA procession takes place in Old Bangalore Localities for entire night, with people thronging in from various districts to watch this unique procession of GOD.

Though current generation is losing its attachment with such festivities, these festivals along with Kadle Kayee Parshe, Avare kayee Parshe still reminds of unique culture Bangalore had and is having.
Personally as a school kid I used to enjoy ramanavami by taking lot of PANAKA & Majjige staying away from home and patrolling city temples and streets serving Rama's favorite food to public!
One more interesting fact about the day of KARAGA is it rains and today it is raining in Bangalore giving break to long and  hottest SUMMER witnessed for the past two and half months.


 Happy Karaga...................

Bangalore City has eateries of all size and shape. Today road side eat-outs have become more and  more popular in Bangalore. Let us look into the history of evolution of eateries of various size and shapes across the city. Eatouts of Road side, read on

The Restaurants serving food in a relaxed style to customers' table through bearers was the main category of food outlets for Pensioners Paradise Bangalore. These type of Hotels initially made way for Fast-Food Darshini outlets that catered to the needs of customers with affordable quality food at quicker delivery mode called 'self-service'. Further these Self-service hotels mushroomed across the city in name of 'DARSHINI' chains. The key reason for mushrooming of SELF-SERVICE DARSHINI hotels can be attributed to unavailability of sufficient space and human resource to supply food to tables in service based restaurants.
As Bangalore evolved from Pensioner's Pardise to Information Technology Hub in 1990-2000, small cafe and chat centers began to mushroom outside I.T parks to provide affordable and tastier food for tongues that would have frozen eating same kind of Hi-Fi FOOD-COURT stuff within campuses. Now the trend is to set up small eat-outs called MOBILE-CANTEENS on road side thanks to whooping costs of realty and rents for commercial space in city limits. Now we have CHINESE, NORTH-INDIAN, SOUTH-INDIAN, SEA-FOOD, WESTERN-INDIA Chat centers, ANDRA-STYLE, HYDERABADI-STYLE, MANDYA-STYLE, DAVANAGERE-STYLE, HUBLI-STYLE food outlets on wheels and small canteens with self-service mode of operation doing hot-business in food and catering sector of Bangalore. Few outlets which are well known to me in areas of Rajajinagar, Malleshwaram, Peenya Industrial Hub and Hesaraghatta Main road are shared with you all here:

Bhattru Hotel (opposite Manipal North-Side Hospitals), Malleshwaram West

Bhattru Hotel or Raghavendra Hotel is a small eat-out joint next to Malleshwaram railway station that serves vegetarian food of great taste starting from IDLI, VADA to various kinds UPAMA akka UPPITTU at affordable hygienic style. It is an outlet people visiting Manipal Hospitals or Railway station will definitely drop in to satisfy their appetite.


One More Bhattru Hotel in Peenya Industrial Hub

This outlet always burgeons with customers from the industries of Peenya Industrial estate. The Open Masala Dosa and a type of BHEL-PURI called 'SANGEETA' are patented food items of this BHATTRU Hotel. This hotel utilizes footpath to its optimum extent. Here Service is also available to customers but at affordable price!


Gowdru Hotel in Chikkabanvara, Hesaraghatta Road

This is out and out Non-Vegetarian hotel that serves delicious Mutton Curry and Ragi Balls with Liver Fry and other parts of Goats and Sheep to customers in a home-cum-hotel environment.

Veena Stores, Malleshwaram

The name sounds like a Book stall! But it is a small store that caters to needs of Morning Joggers and Walkers of Malleshwaram with tasty IDLY and VADA. Also in Malleshwaram we have Bhagyalakshmi BUTTER-GULKAND store that prepares innovative food items using butter and gulkand. This outlet is in Malleshwaram circle (5th Cross). Those who often visit t Chickpet and Avenue road always talk about yummy DHONNE-BIRYANI of this locality. In addition mushrooming of mobile-eat outs selling Chinese to North Indian are doing good business in this city where commercial space is not affordable to all class of society to do business.



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