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Travel

A trip to Bangaluru

Sabreena Ahmed
I was glad that I could finally pack everything and get on the plane. The month was hectic as I had to finish all my courses' lesson plans a month early so that I can go to Bangalore (or at present Bangaluru) to attend the InterAsia Cultural Society (IACS) Summer School on Cultural Studies. It is amazing how the same country can have so many variations in their weather at the same time. As 1 stopped at Kolkata airport, it was hot and humid. But when I reached Bangaluru airport, I saw people wearing light jumpers and it was pretty cold as if early winter had set in.
Ravi, the airport's taxi driver came to pick me up. And I tried to be friendly with my broken Hindi acquired from the Hindi satellite channels. “Aap ko Hindi aata hai" I asked.
Ravi: “Ha Meidam, aata hai. Aap kaha se ho?"
I: "Bangladesh se.”
Ravi: “Kolkata se?"
I: “Nehi, Bangladesh separate country hai. Hamari language Bangla hai. Yiha paar sab log kon si bhasha mein baat karta hai?"
Ravi: “Kannada. Sab log ko Hindi bhi aata hai.”
We kept talking to each other till we reached the hotel Maurya Paradise Inn. It was 11.30pm and we knocked on the main door to call the manager. A 22 year old guy came down to welcome me. He gave a call to the manager named Shameed. It was funny to see the old box shaped CPU of the computer at their desk. Bangaluru is ''THE IT hub of India”... I was thinking. It took 30 minutes for the computer to turn on and show the list in which the manager had kept all the participants' names saved. They gave me a packet given by the organizers of IACS that had a bottle of water, some fruits, Odomos mosquito repellent, toothpaste, a map of the Bangaluru etc. It was nice to have thought of providing basic necessities to the participants as this hotel is a hostel like accommodation and they did not give any other thing but only accommodation. That's why whenever I searched for Maurya Paradise Inn on the internet, the biggest five star hotel of India Maurya Hotel came on screen. So, the accommodation was taking the name of the big hotel (there were many other hotels and shops around with the name Maurya or Ganesh) without giving any such facilities of it.
The next day, Samhita came in with her luggage. A local Bangalore girl who was born in the US and currently studies at Rice University, Houston. It was really nice to have a roommate as friendly as her. We went out to have a walk and met two other Taiwanese participants of the course Kris and Eva. Four of us sat together at the restaurant of the hotel for the free breakfast-hot idli and sambar. After being introduced to each other there, we decided to have a walk around the lane called Mathikhere Extension. We saw a cow being tied to a stand near a temple as they worship it. Most of the shops had a picture of Ganesh with garland around it as a good omen.
The next day, IACS organizers sent a bus to take 42 participants of the summer school to the venue which was the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Institute of Sciences. The campus reminded me of the campus of Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. As we went to the venue, the green field and
soothing environment pleased us all. We were about to begin the week- long course from 2 August to 10 August 2012.
On 9 August we went to a field trip in the old town of Bangaluru to see ancient temples and notable sculptures and architectures. Suresh Jayarama, an art enthusiast owner of art exhibition centre "One Shanti Road" took us on the tour. He showed us the stark difference of the old brick buildings and modern glass buildings of Bangaluru. Suresh said that people of the city are making modern glass buildings following the western countries. But often the air conditioners do not work in these buildings at all and this makes it hotter to stay in. Whereas, the simple brick-built buildings are much cooler than the glass buildings as their windows can be opened. The biggest irony was that although Bangaluru is the IT hub of India, we did not have any Wifi connection in the hotel we stayed in. When we went for our classes to the Centre for Contemporary Studies, it took a day to fix the router which reminded me of Digital Bangladesh that is struggling to be high tech competing with the world.
We visited several temples in the old town area. We crossed through the largest market of flowers in Bangaluru where loads of fresh flowers were being stacked. Many flower sellers were making flowers which are used by the ladies on their hair also for worships at temples. As we came of the market, we went to visit the Jamia Mosque built in the Mughal style. As women are supposed to cover their heads, all the Korean and Taiwanese participants took out their scarves to use as a veil while the Indian participants and I took out our dupattas. Two of the participants were wearing three-quarter shorts and were not allowed to go inside unfortunately. This was the first time in my life that I got into the main area of mosque where male Muslims attend their salah. The long water body in front of the Imam's position was there for everyone to use for Odhu. The inside walls had the Mughal designs carved on it. We went to the ground floor of the mosque to see the Madrasha where little kids greeted us with "Assalamualaikum" and “Good Morning".
Our last stoppage was at Bangalore fort’s remnants ofTipu Sultan-Tiger of Mysore-who was the most modern town planner of the Mughal era. This fort had dry moats all around it and several gates to enter from. The original yellowish colour of the fort was intact. It made me sad to think of our Lalbag fort in Dhaka that looks pink after the renovation. The colour of the fort could not be preserved as the original ones.
Bangluru city has water scarcity as it does not have any river passing by it. It has to pump in water from the Kaveri river which is situated near Mysore. The time when we were in Bangaluru, was the monsoon. But it was not raining as much as it usually did at this time of the year.
Two days later, Samhita and I went to visit Mysore on a local tour bus. We started off at 5.30am in the morning and came back at 2.30am at night. The 6 hours journey took almost 24 hours as the people riding with us stopped to pay a tribute to every temple the tour guide took us to. Thanks to Samhita’s aunty Mrs. Arpana who picked us up when we reached Bangaluru at night.
The trip took us to Tipu Sultan's Dariya
Daulat Palace in Srirangapatna which was the capital of Mysore during his reign. The palace has Tipu Sultan and his parents' tombs. The bus took us to Lakshmiramana Swamy temple which is the oldest temple of Mysore and also Chamundi temple. I was amazed to see the Mysore Palace which belongs to the King of Mysore. The hand carved Mahgony doors, granatine floors, and a combination of oriental and English architecture was wonderful to look at.
India's multiethnic atmosphere is loved by any traveler. Anywhere you go, you will definitely find a Bengali from Kolkata, a Punjabi, a Delhi, a Hydrabaadi etc. All their cultures are so different that the others within India itself do not know them properly. One of our participants of the course commented in a discussion that the trip to India has opened her eyes as what she thought of this country is totally different. Then Nishant, one of our organisers corrected her "If you think that you have seen India by only visiting Bangaluru, then you are mistaken." India is a combination of so many cultures that it changes with crossing the border of a district and stepping into another one within the country.
I met four Muslim friends in the course with whom I used to break my roza by the end of the day. Ayesha, whose father, IG. Khader is the Head of Border Security Force (BSF) of five states of the south India had invited all the Muslim friends of the course to iftaar one day and so we got to see the BSF camp. The BSF camp is at the end of Yelahanka suburb-the end of the city as any camp of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is. There was a lively discussion among all about the Nakshal attacks in the jungles of India. I got to know that the existence of female feticide is still very hauntingly existent in India.
As a teacher of Linguistics, my ears were always catching the different accents and languages around me. The South Indian English I talk about in my class, was there everywhere-along with the way everyone adds and extra “only"', "the” and “itself" with their English sentences. The Muslim families mostly speak Urdu, while Hindi is considered as the language of the common people. The situation helped me more to understand what had happened in 1947. All the Muslims who spoke Urdu where considered as Pakistanis while all the Hindi speakers were Indians according to the British rulers. I fell in love with Urdu language's sophisticated pronunciations. Maybe, the group of Muslim friends is responsible for it as they kept teasing each other with various Shairy (poems). Language should not be stigmatized with the seal of religion at all as it's a part of a country's culture, it is not a part of a religion. Pakistanis encroached upon our mother tongue Bengali to rule over us. That does not mean that we cannot appreciate Urdu's graceful presence in South Asian Literature through Rumi, Iqbal and Ghalib's works.
I am grateful to the organizers of the IACS summer school 2012 for welcoming us warmly to Bangaluru. It was a memorable experience for all the participants.
SABREENA AHMED IS LECTURER, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND HUMANITIES, BRAC UNIVERSITY.