The Bengaluru we know today is nothing like old Bangalore. The monikers Garden City and Pensioner’s Paradise are often used loosely without really knowing what the Bangalore of yore looked like. In fact, old Bangalore lives on only in memories, like it has for Stanley Carvalho, who thought it essential to capture the Bangalore of yore in two books, Bangalore Blue, a collection of essays by ‘true-blue Bangaloreans’ that he has edited, and his recent book, Past & Curious: Forty Tales of Good old Bangalore, with stunning illustrations by Paul Fernandes, that the author says “transports one to a not-too-distant past of the city without hiring a time machine.”
Old Bangalore was a city of trees and gardens, lakes, and beautiful bungalows. It was a peaceful city where people would cycle, here night life extended well beyond 11 pm, and people flocked to film theatres. “It may sound repetitive or clichéd but Bangalore’s legendary, glorious past needed to be loved, celebrated and remembered. I realised the rich and fascinating tales of good old Bangalore had to be told, had to be recorded because our generation would soon be gone and there would be no one to talk about it. That’s how
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
In 1996, Stanley moved to Dubai, but with every trip he made back home, he was dismayed.
“I felt like Thomas Hardy’s character in the Return of the Native, an alien in my own city. Between the late ‘90s and the early 2000s, the skyline had changed, the architecture had changed, the pace of life had changed. The huge gulmohars, jacarandas and rain trees began to disappear. So did the lakes, the beautiful bungalows, the birds and squirrels. ”
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
He says the rapid changes in Bangalore were reminiscent of the Hardesque theme of ‘Deracination’. “Thomas Hardy, the Victorian novelist lamented the cultural loss of England at the hands of rapid industrialisation. Deracinated implies the one who has lost his roots or origin. To Hardy, the new age was bringing misery to the lives of people and the tranquillity and serenity of the English rural scene. Fortunately, the British soon realised it and did their best to preserve the cultural and ancestral heritage successfully. And look at London where the old and new coexist happily. People still happily cycle in London . It is suicidal to cycle in Bangalore, where cycling was the preferred mode of transport.”
Past and Curious, says Stanley, is “a memoir of myself as much as it is about Bangalore. It chronicles stories from personal memory and experiences meshed with experiences of others, anecdotes and tidbits. It is about the Bangalore of the 60s and the 70s through the lens of my generation, trying to capture the ethos and spirit of Bangalore, of a time gone.”
Past and Curious draws the reader in with its lucid style. “I couldn’t help the journalistic tone, but I tried to write it in a narrative way, at times descriptive, non fictional style, inspired by William Dalrymple – in a dreamy, wistful manner, conversational and light style. I was also inspired by Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale view of hills , which has doses of nostalgia. For me, the books are a bitter-sweet love song to Bangalore.”
He adds: “There are flashes of humour, glee, poignancy in the stories, evoking a strong sense of nostalgia. . The books also serve as a window to the past for the present and future generations who are growing up in a different Bangalore.”
And he says that Paul Fernandes’ splendid, vivid illustrations complemented the book perfectly. “Many told me it brought a smile to their faces and they could easily recollect the memories intertwined with the colourful illustrations.”
As for the title, Stanley explains: “Simply speaking, it is about the past and it has a curious ring to it. But it was a take on the Fast and Furious films. Bangalore inherited a colonial legacy, it is part of history, how can one forget that fact? So why change the name of the city? Frankly, I find the use of Bengaluru a ridiculous affectation, similar to Mumbai for Bombay and Kolkata for Calcutta. The irony is that the soul of it was in the name Bangalore, but its soulless state is called by a native Bengaluru. Fast and Furious is today’s Bengaluru, Past & Curious is our good old Bangalore. Bangalore is Bangalore, Bengaluru is Bengaluru. Bangalore and Bengaluru are not the same, they cannot meet!” he concludes.