Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hoping they still ply the Double Decker service that takes young princesses around Bangalore to introduce them to their citizens.


     Almost 7-8 years ago, late on a Sunday night Vicky asked me if I could accompany him to kancheepuram. His sister was getting married and we had to shop for her sarees he said. He called at around 11.45 pm saying we will start early in the morning to get there before it gets sunny and humid.

     Me,  Vicky his sister and mom left early morning at around 7 am. All of us opined that it would be better to take a driver along, so we picked up a driver en route at Hosur and reached Kanchi by around noon.We contacted the people from the guy’s side who were already in Kanchi for their purchasing and ended up in the same shop. 


     The showroom was a huge place with lots of people selecting the sarees. Usually one salesperson would sit in the midst of a group and a few helpers would get bundles of sarees and the salesperson would start displaying them to the everyone and start describing the inherent qualities,elaborating and exaggerating things about the saree trying to allure the buyers.

     I looked around and saw lots of people like us who had traveled from nook and corner of the country just to buy that extra special grand Kanjeevaram saree for the special day.

     Suddenly I spotted a familiar face. Was it her I thought? No it can’t be, is she the person whom I once knew, my god she is so beautiful now I felt. She stood like a damsel in the midst, trying on a beautiful saree with a rich zari. She was looking at the mirror just verifying if it would suit her. She was so beautiful by herself that any dress would look grand on her. Oh my god she has grown so tall and has such a poise to her already majestic presence I thought.

     I for a minute thought if its ok to go and say hi to her, maybe pull her plaits of hair just like I used to  when she was young. I checked to see if she still had that twin plaits of hair, which I used to ridicule her with. I was surprised when I noticed the long bouncy hair she had now. I was still in a state of surprise /disbelief and was trying to remember if she was indeed the person I knew.

     Once I was sure that it was her, I wanted to talk to her badly... It was after so many years that I happened to see her again, so much to catch up with. I checked if anyone I knew was accompanying her. I didn’t see her mom  nor her dad, it seemed that she had come with her fiancĂ©e’s family.

     I was like someone who had suddenly found a lost treasure; I wanted to loudly proclaim that yeah life had taken pity so that I could meet her again. But as always saner and wiser judgment prevailed.

     Though she might still remember me, still I shouldn’t put her to inconvenience I thought. I wasn’t sure if she actually did remember me after all these years.

     Her mannerisms made me realise that she had recognized me; I could notice her occasional glance towards me in the mirror whenever she was trying a new saree by placing it on her body. Trying to find out from me if the dress matched her. Still I was not sure if she had recognised me so once our shopping was done we moved onto a different shop. It was late in the evening when we started for Bangalore. It was raining heavily, in no time Vicky, his sister and mom were fast asleep. I could see the sense of satisfaction on Vicky’s Sister's face. Everyone is tired I thought, I was trying to engage the driver in a conversation lest he succumb to sleep.

     The rain was getting heavier and hence our advance was getting slower. I began to see the downpour and remembered the saying we have in kannada which implies that when you meet a friend after a long time, our first reaction is to mention that it surely will rain today. This I thought was true in my case.

     Looking at the rain I remembered those days. It was in the late eighties that one of my neighbors had a visitor from Hyderabad. She was a school going kid who had studied in residential school all her life. It was her first visit to Bangalore. My neighbors had to rush to their native place for a day due to some emergency and hence asked me if I could take care of the girl till they returned in the evening. I didn’t know what to say, I said fine and invited her to my place. There she was a small girl with a pink top and gray sneakers. She sounded funny with the braces on her dentures. She was so shy and scared. We played snake n ladder, ludo, brainvita and monopoly for a while. In no time she was bored.

     I was scared if she would start crying asking to go back to mom or ask for my neighbors. I asked her if she wanted to go out somewhere. That question brought a big smile on her face. I told her in Bangalore we had a bus on a bus called the double Decker in which only princesses were taken around Bangalore. Even the birds on the big trees used to bow to the princess and that even trees gave way to the princess. The princess could sit on top of the world and look at all her citizens in Bangalore.

     She was excited about it and asked if they would allow her to be the princess for a day and if she could go for a ride in the same. Those days there were quite a few double deckers plying on Bangalore roads, I chose route no 150 between market and shivajinagar. She seemed very excited, happy, elated and satisfied at the end of the journey to cubbonpark. She enjoyed the rides in merry go round, giant wheel etc in cubbon park. She had decided she would buy herself a horse when she was older at the end of the pony ride. She loved the toy train ride and was visibly scared when the train went through the small tunnel. It was almost evening when we started for home, the entire ride had taken a toll on her and she was visibly tired and hungry. I took her to the candy shop to buy her some cotton candy so that she is occupied till we reached home. She was surprised to see cotton candy. She told me it was the first time she was seeing it. I told her that the cotton candy is a very rare sweet. Only very few people in the world can make it to increase her curiosity, she was amazed to see how the guy could just wave the stick in air and create a candy out of nothing. She stomached quite a few cotton candies. She pestered the candy shop fellow enough untill he could make a candy in her favorite color yellow. At the end of the day she was happy and asleep by the time my neighbors returned.

    From then on she used to visit her aunt (my neighbor) every summer. She would eventually bump into me to borrow books. It started of with Tin Tin and Tinkles. Then moved on to Enid blyton, famous five, secret seven, Nancy drew, Hardy Boys etc. And then my neighbors shifted their house, so my lone point of contact with her was lost and she was restrained only to sweet memories.

        We were near hosur when finally the rain subsided. I was back from my thinking and reached bangalore late in the night. It was around noon the next day when I got a call on my mobile. When I answered the call a sweet voice asked if they still took princesses around in Bangalore in Double Deckers to introduce them to their citizens. At the mention of it both of us started laughing. She started her normal barrage of questions. Where are you, what are you doing, etc. I mean here she was calling up after ages but still felt she had the right to question me like this. I could sense the excitement in her voice; there were a lot of things she wanted to talk about, lot of things she had to say. True to the meaning of her name she was speaking sweet. (Priyamvada in Sanskrit means one who speaks sweet always), She started talking like old times that I never bother to call her etc. After a while she told me that she was getting married soon. I said it was evident when I spotted her in Kanchi. Then came her shocking disclosure that she never had been to kanchi and if she wanted any sarees there was a nice shop called Kalanjali in Hyderabad itself which had all the sarees one would ever want to buy.

    I can only say, this girl truly does keep me guessing. I wonder as how fast time flies, I still remember the small tiny scared little girl with pony tails wearing a pink top and gray sneakers on her first visit to Bangalore. I remember vaguely that day all I had spent was ten or twelve rupees. Now Bangalore has grown different and so has she.It is only the sweet memories that remain. But I hope they still ply the Double Decker service that takes young princesses around in Bangalore to introduce them to their citizens.

    Now I want to take my little princess, my daughter on a trip of bangalore, but alas most of the Double Deckers are already history. Other than the kaveri which plies once in a while, can you guys suggest any Double Decker still in service?