Plaza Theatre – Royalty to Ruins and now mere dust…

I may probably be one of the last bangaloreans who may be writing or talking about the saga of the Plaza theatre. I can’t help but write this today, to bring out the emotions in me that has just gushed … more like a sudden death that I have just seen.
For the last couple of years Plaza theatre has been shut down but the building stood as it was with the gates locked… but today when I went on to MG road, I was just struck with a shock. There was no building there. All reduced to mere dust.
I m probably one of the younger generations to have enjoyed movies at the plaza … it has been the place where our forefathers have been to watch movies. A theatre built with a lot of taste. There have been great plays that have been showcased in this truly “heritage spot” if I can say.
I have watched so many beautiful movies and the last one that I watched was “ Ek din Chaubis Ghante” …God you would have not even heard this movie as it would have ran probably for 1 day . May be few days.
It was a movie of Nandita Das in the very early stage of her acting days and it was just me, Ram, Murali and Vinayak in the ground floor, and few couples seated in some extreme corners….
We had a ball of a time watching that movie, and analyzing actually what the story was….
The bhelpuri guy outside the cinema hall used to make some amazing stuff and the corn guy was always there with some nice tender corn…
Infact there was a watch shop and a saree shop attached, from where I had even bought a saree that I still have.
I have just pulled this link from Wikipedia if you really want to know about this place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_Theatre_(Bangalore)

Bangalore has seen the death of so many such landmarks, Galaxy, Lido, Symphony( Shankarnag theatre) and now Plaza…
Lido is now in its new avatar, symphony ….building still stands and above that is our good , old Ullas hotel ( touchwood, I hope this building remains as it is) … Galaxy .,… wondering what will come up there as that place is also mere dust now and fully covered so when you cross you just can’t see what’s happening.
All these deaths in the name of urbanization. Truly tragic

monsoons are on their way

Rains are expected to hit in full swing from tomorrow .

While i am writing this , its already started drizzling..:-)

Hoping for more respite from the afternoon heat...

amazing technology

I am currently at the airport waiting for my flight back to bangalore . Flight is late for some good reason , finished reading the newspaper fully . Was wondering how to time pass. I haven't really used the internet on my mobile at all apart from downloading my mails into my pandora's box...oops mailbox . Just opened it, tried browsing thru, its pretty fast huh. typing is a bit of a pain though as the screen is tiny and so are the butttons. But for now, to kill time , its discovery . This technology is really amazing for tribals like me. Ok for now the short craze is over as my fingers are paining hitting those tiny buttons pain

Kites ------ flying high

Kites movie released in bangalore with a lot of unecessary hungama.
We got our tickets for the first day first show, doubtful if the movie was on, finally went up to the cinema hall. And bang in the intermission, comes a message
sorry for the incovenience , collect ur refund. the first half of the movie has been narrated in a very abrupt manner, unfortunately, missed the second half.

A kind of irritation of not knowing the full story, made me go to the cimema hall, closer to home to pick up the next day ticket. Its pouring like crazy, but nothing can deterr as i just want to see the whole movie and be done with it. that day morning, i glanced thru the various reviews in TOI and deccan, each quiet contradictory to each other.

Got into the theatre for the last show on Sunday
LEt me tell you , Hritik is awesome. I mean he is just too perfect to be a hero.
Barbara Mori... oops, she is just too beautiful, simple, zero makeup...
both of them make a deadly pair... the story is very intense and has been narrated very very intelligently. You just need to be smart enough to follow the trail.

A few hiccups are there, but is definitely worth the watch. Songs are really really nice. Dont know why these reviews misleed people. anyways thats their personal opinion , but I even got the CD.
Planning to catch up for another show over this weekend, if the movie survives the theatres till then.

Go watch it... i liked it. :-)

The last few mangoes

Every year come summer , it was time for me to harp into my Ajji Mane Hithlu
( granny’s house backyard) to check out the mangoes. This tree was never a planned planted one. It happened to germinate on its own ,,, and just that my ajji started giving it the required water day after day.
In one of my write ups last year also , I had shared the photos of those yummy mangoes.
This year too the mangoes have ripened but only the lady who took care of them is no more and the house remains silent with no one there, I went to the silent house, opened the door headed straight to the backyard just as I did year after year and there were the mangoes, infact more mangoes than last year , all just hanging there for someone to come and pluck them. I did all the circus along with my mother to lay my hands on as much as I could get and have got them home.
I want to savor it as I know these would probably be the last few mangoes from my Ajji Mane.

Life is pretty miserable, all of us go thru this at some point, but somehow it gets really hard and choking to digest the very fact that there is a huge vacuum when your loved one leaves you.

I love your ajji and will always …

Some good things never change.

Just a few days ago, I scribbled on April showers… well I just wanted to reiterate that some good things never change like the rains in Bangalore. Once the temperature gets soaring… rains are bound to pour . Just today, the temperature was making us feel the scorching heat and suddenly in the evening, the weather changed all of a sudden with a hailstorm and then a heavy downpour. It just felt so amazing and all of you completely agree with me I am sure. Just a video I took on my mobile.
I cross my fingers, that this continues till eternity.

Morning Madhumakkhi ( honey bee)

It was morning 4.30 AM and I m getting ready to go to the airport to take the flight. All at home are fast asleep and my mom gets up to make me some tea before I leave. I open the balcony door to let some cool breeze entre the house. Along with the cool breeze enters Mr. Madhumakkhi too. He is in one of those jolly moods and he starts hovering around in the house. My mother comes out of the kitchen and looks at this guy and is worried if it would do any nuisance to my daughter. So she takes preventive steps, gets the broom and asks me to chase it out without killing it. The task looks easy and I take the broom and get after it…. Well I started climbing up the sofa to chase it away from the lights, it jumps and goes bang down under the couch, where I bend in full zoom to push it out from there. It is then in a mood to go over the TV and then the speakers and the paintings on the wall. I am now irritated that despite my attempt of almost 5 minutes, he is not ready to budge and had decided to test my patience and energy levels and along with my ongoing drama my mother goes on giving instructions on how to attack and the strategies to have it out. I finally had to show that the (evil)man was more powerful but after a good 20 minutes, sweating me out and leaving me with a bad arm pain.
Imagine what one madhumakkhi could do if it decided to teach me a lesson every day ….and see me slimmer 