Gandhi Bazaar

For a change, a different topic - as suggested by one of my ardent readers :)

Gandhi Bazaar which is an integral part of Basavanagudi is a special place to live in. Coming back from good old days of mid-80s where in Ramesh Bhat (Veteran Kannada Actor) was one of our neighbours, we used play lagori and cricket on the roads. Sanman Hotel and Vidyarthi Bhavan used to be landmark (Vidyarthi Bhavan is still a landmark, but the quality of a Masala Dosa has gone drastically).

Later during Early 90s, the IT boom started in Bangalore. One of the first outlets of Food World opened in Gandhi Bazaar, and the first day I remember, me along with all my friends attacked FW cos he was giving some chocolates / coffee for free ...

Later during 01/02, Gandhi Bazaar started to play a new role - Hunting grounds of South Bangalore along with Jayanagar 4th Block. We used to roam the streets of DVG Road and Gandhi Bazaar main roads for bird-watching and hunting. But since we were not that talented couldn't catch one :-(

In the meanwhile GB (Gandhi Bazaar) had attained a kind of saturation level - Crowd, Traffic, no place to park the vehicle. This was a result of the advent of the likes of Adyar Anand Bhavan, Coffee Day, Roti Ghar, innumerous no. of Sagars and Darshinis etc etc. Also worth a mention is the advent of Banks. I guess even MG Road do not have the no. of Banks Gandhi Bazaar main Road has. Starting from Tagore Circle to Ramakrishna Ashram -> Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, UTI Bank, Citibank, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, HSBC , Vijaya Bank (Hope I have not missed out anything)

In some of the roads like Govindappa Road and Surveyor Street, every other house has a music teacher, and a street has some 4-5 bharatnatyam teachers. As far as i remember MS Subbalaksmhi used to come to 3 places in Bangalore to sing - Bhavani Kalyana Mantapa (Heart of GB), Gayana Samaja (Very much in Basavanagudi), and Fort High School (during ramanavami for years together - next to Basavanagudi)

Gandhi Bazaar is hardly an area of 500 mts / 500 mts and so many diversities.

Though I crib a lot about being in GB, am proud to be a Gandhi Bazarian ;-)