Askew: A Short Biography of Bangalore

by T.J.S. George

Y. N. Krishnamurthy;

food was not just a physical element related to hunger but a subtle means to the understanding of ambrosia.

PhD time—Precious Hours of Drinking.

Food, not liquor, was YNK’s love. He should have defined PhD as Precious Hours of Dining, for he was always in search of new eateries and new dishes he could call ‘the world’s best’.

Veena Stores.

Bengaluru Eats

‘Sit?’ exclaimed YNK. ‘We don’t sit. We stand on the footpath and eat.

Central Tiffin Room,

benne dosai,

Brahmins’ Cof...

Explorations with YNK taught me that while food is notoriously localized (North Karnataka food is different in concept and taste from Mysore food just as Thanjavur sambar is quite unlike Mylapore sambar), the cuisine we were enjoying in and around Basavangudi was a speciality that could be called representative South Indian food. It was South Indian rather than area-specific because it was consciously designed to serve the purposes of tradition common to the south as a whole. It was developed by the professional culinary craftsmen of Karnataka and taken all over the world by the entrepreneurs of Karnataka, but it was generic in its South Indianness, symbolized in a word that became universal—Udupi.

pakashastra, the science of cooking,

‘The overall concept was that forty-eight items should be cooked every day as Lord Krishna’s neivedyam. The main segments of this spread were to be five sweets, five payasams, five fried items, five unboiled items (such as salads), five rasa (such as sambar, rasam), five anna (rice), five vyanjana (pickles, papads) and five jeernakara (digestives such as herbal chutneys). These were not to be repeated each day, a stipulation that forced the chief cooks to become innovators and improvisers, constantly in search of new variations.’

A superior cuisine so scrupulously developed could have remained confined to the Brahmin habitats of South Canara. But the entrepreneurial spirit that propelled many of them did not allow that. They carried Udupi’s treasure beyond their district.

Woodlands, established by Krishna Bhatta, also known as Krishna Rao and Dasaprakash, started by Sitaram Rao in the 1930s, became iconic Madras symbols of fine South Indian dining.

When rice became scarce during the Second World War the Maiyas experimented with semolina, leading to the invention of rava idli, a hot staple today in South Indian menus the world over.

the English crowd was not only colonial in its orientation but proud of it; not only non-vegetarian in its ideology but keen to flaunt it. More Cantonmentarian than Basavangudian in its chemistry, the English crowd liked its beef well done, its pork vindalooed to perfection and its fish now fried, now curried, with pride. They found their saviour in Koshy’s.

The Koshy who founded what became an instant landmark was a Syrian Christian from Kerala, the significance being that Syrian Christian devotion to beef, mutton and fish is almost canonical.

Our fish and chips is still number one.’

How could food developed for the gods survive in a world where technology was god?

The real problem for them and others was how to maintain quality standards.

what goes into the soil before the grains and vegetables are harvested remains a national frustration.

‘If the rains don’t come when they must, vegetables won’t taste as they should,’ he said.

microbrewery, a new trend among the young and the impatient and the opposite of Udupi’s Brahminic civilization,

The unassuming consumer activist had launched, without realizing its full implications, an idea—that a strong middle class had emerged, willing and able to sustain businesses that were fair in their ways.

His style was to develop ideas and get his entrepreneurial friends to implement them.’

‘darshini’, that which is visible. Under Prabhakar’s direction, a friend opened the first Cafe Darshini in Jayanagar in 1983. Roughly modelled on McDonald’s, it had modern kitchen machinery visible from the public area. In front of it was the counter where order-takers handed over the prepared items directly to the customer. There was no furniture other than a new device: an elbow-high pole on which rested a small round tabletop. The customer was to put his plate on the tabletop and eat standing. The only staff in the public area was a cleaning boy who would wipe the tabletop clean as soon as a customer left.

bharjari oota, sumptuous meal—a healthy and hygienic Mysore-style spread of unlimited rice, curry, sambar, rasam, chutney, buttermilk.’

the trick lay in volume and in cost cutting.

This was the same approach, he said, that made it possible for ISKCON to provide Akshaya Patra meals for 6.

If your volume was large and your profit goals modest, such things were possible, he explained.

Prabhakar’s reputation was reinforced by the next idea he launched...

Nammura,

By 2 Coffee eateries.

Airlines Hotel,

The business model was a winner, too, because it was so down to earth. The restricted menu meant economy in raw materials, storage and labour. The new restaurant in Basavangudi served customers free for a week. The word-of-mouth publicity made up for the cost outlay.

Keep the margin low, build volume.

the evolving idea of Bangalore?

‘When you are born into a family like I am, it’s only fair that I give the business a go... I just owe it to myself, my grandfather and my father to give it a go. If I don’t like it, then no one is going to make me do it. But if you don’t do something, then how do you know you don’t like it, right?’

We were very middle class, less well-off than what the middle class means today. We found enjoyment in life’s little pleasures, like going to a movie or reading a book. My mother used to say: “Don’t run after Lakshmi, run after your passion.”

projects born of the imagination.

Plagueamma Temple in Thyagarajanagar in South Bangalore.

Bangalore creates a remembering, a longing that few other cities do. No one has captured the power of this nostalgia more tellingly than Paul Fernandes, the cartoonist who immortalized old Bangalore as Mario Miranda eternalized old Goa.

Dewars Bar

Bangalore Gayana Samaja,

The Internet age saw bands with names like Thermal and a Quarter, The Burning Deck, Lounge Piranhas, Sulk Station, Space Behind the Yellow Room and Clown with a Frown, playing everything from electro-pop to space funk to thrash metal.

Ulhas Refreshments.

Bangalore Little Theatre,

Jagriti, their own specially designed auditorium in Whitefield.

Ranga Shankara, which opened in 2004,

When Ranga Shankara finally took shape, she strictly adhered to Shankar’s twin principles—affordability and inclusiveness.