Raju is coming!!

Raju is coming to Bangalore next month! He called me yesterday !!

How many years since I last saw him? I don't remember but it has been a long time.
It is nearly 25 years since I first saw him... went to school together for 2 years...wrote to each other for a few more years before he left to the US of A.

1978 Bangalore had an innocence that is quite lost now. It was not a city but a large and a quaint Town. The colonial buildings in the Contonment area had a cloak of nostalgia draped over them. And if you came to old Bangalore and strolled along the bylanes of Malleshwaram or Basavanagudi you could see traditional homes built in the Mysore style. Trees were everywhere and there was a hue and cry once in a while by some Citizens' group urging authorities to stop felliing this or that Tree.

We resided in Jeevan Bime Nagar, Raju and I. School was in Grant Road now renamed Vittal Mallya Road and we rode to school. Raju on his imported Raleigh Cycle and I on my new Indian Raliegh.

Leaving Bima Nagar we cycled through Kodihalli via Doopanahalli and joined Airport road. From here we took a right turn till we came to Bhaktaram's street. There Bhaktaram would be waiting on his Raleigh Arjun Sports cycle(New!).
Then the three of us cycled through the army area & would emerge near the road that joined Trinity Circle and proceed through B-station and MG Road to reach School.

Well, that was a long time back. We probably have turned out to be two different people now!! Raju and I. It is with anticipation, curiosity and a little apprehension I wait his arrival.

It is almost summer. Raju's father lives in Mysore....loafing on the streets of Mysore with him would be a fine Idea. The Gulmohar trees lining Streets in Manasa Gangotri will be in full splendour. Bright yellow and red flowers will be strewn all over the sidewalks.Will Manasa Gangotri be the same or has it been filled with concrete structures? I don't know. It has been many years since I visited Mysore.