Despite the authorities’ best efforts, Bangalore still remains a beautiful city.The trees have dwindled, the wide pavements have shrunk and the gracious old buildings are disappearing, but the city has managed to retain its charm.Each month of the season brings out some beautiful face of Bangalore.While the monsoon makes the avenues and gardens lush and the sun mild, the summer beckons the mangoes and brings the bright bougainvillea in full bloom.But it’s December that makes Bangaloreans feel they are blessed to be living in this city.For the early risers, the silhouette of the trees in the dense mist presents an ethereal picture. Each time they utter something or huff and puff as they jog in the parks and streets, vapour emerges from their mouths.Vehicles, with their headlights on and dew on their bonnets and windshields, whiz past. The white, shifting mass of mist transforms the Bangalorean’s familiar turf into something out of the real world. As the early morning mist slowly lifts, the familiar structures show up and the nippy dawn gradually turns to a cool morning. The lone patch of cloud slowly melts away and the violet blossoms on the trees shorn of all leaves stand out against the clear blue skies and the red walls of the colonial buildings and the colourful butterflies flit from flower to flower.Suddenly, the worries at work disappear and everything seems to be fine with the world.Bangalore’s December is best experienced on foot.With no traffic to contend with, the laidback walker goes about his life at his own leisurely pace, defying the rat race.It’s a great month to slow down, leaving the motorists and their tooting horns and tense tackles on the road.This is the month most conducive for walking since the sun is not hot enough to sap you and there is no rain to drench you and make the footpaths slushy.The clear blue skies, with no clouds rushing across for an appointment, give one the sense of timelessness.The only thing that reminds you of passing time in December is the boys selling the approaching new year’s calendars on the streets.And for the housewife who has been coping with the laundry that’s been hanging endlessly on the clothesline during the Northeast monsoon, dry December comes as a welcome relief as her clothes dry up in a jiffy.And this misty season, of course is when the famous avare kai gets into almost every dish the Bangalore eats.For, it’s in these misty conditions that the little bean thrives.There’s no better way for the Bangalorean to top up the year with steaming rasam made of his favourite bean in the cold December weather.— [email protected]
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