Becoming Bangalore
MY THOUGHTS
If there was ever a love letter to Bangalore, then this book would be winning hearts.
As a Bangalorean myself, I was so excited to read this book and it did not disappoint. Author Roopa Pai is a third-generation Bangalorean and this is an extension of her fortnightly column, ‘Beloved Bangalore’ that appears in the Hindustan Times.
Bangalore is a city that is easy to fall in love with, with its green avenues and year-round spring-in-the-air feeling. But Roopa is a rare Bangalorean who not only accepts the city with all its kinks and faults but can persuade even the harshest critic to fall in love with her city. Becoming Bangalore is a collection of non-fiction essays that she categorises according to the seasonal flowering of trees. March-May: Gulmohar, June – August: Champaka, September – November: African Tulip, and December – February: Pink Trumpet.
Bangaloreans love their greenery and flowering trees, but they are also fiercely protective of their Darshini culture, their local heroes, and their theatre culture. What are the stories floating around in an average Bangalorean’s mind? What insights can the outsider gain about this gorgeous city? Is there a way we can look beyond the traffic memes and Zomato ads to truly learn about the essence of a city? Yes and Howdhu pa! All that is possible by reading Becoming Bangalore!
Roopa’s essays are gorgeously illustrated by Priya Kuriyan, also a resident of Bangalore who somehow captures the softness and kitsch of Bangalore in her illustrations. The book cover and jacket are a strong decoction kaapi shot of colour and a brilliant smorgasbord of everything Bangalore is for anyone looking in from the outside.
Reading this book as a Bangalorean meant learning new information about places I had visited. It has been years since I moved away from Bangalore but reading her essays transported me to a time when I stood in the place she was writing about — smelling the air, taking in the flowers of the season, and listening to the sound of local Kannada. Bangalore is a city that has given me so much and this book brings it alive for me years later.
Highly recommend this book for every Bangalorean and to anyone who has always been intrigued by the city everyone wants to be a part of.
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