A Victorian Secret in Bangalore

NOTE: To anyone who objects to my not calling Bangalore by its correct name: simply adjust maadi.

One of my dad's friends is in Bangalore for a visit. There's been talk of many of them meeting up, and apparently one of the venues suggested was a pub in Bangalore Central mall. My dad was immediately drawn into refusal mode(when he heard this suggestion), and the following chain of mails resulted, letting them know why he objected to Bangalore Central:

Initial Mail from my dad:
Hi Deepak
Leave it to the other Bengaluru dakoos to choose the venue - BUT with one clear proviso: I think Bangalore Central cropped up as one option; sorry, but under no circumstances ie even to meet you, Deepak, will I step into Bangalore Central ever. Its built on the grave of my favouritest place, the old Victoria Hotel. And, Iam serious about this, so please everyone don't think Iam joking about this!

Friend's reply:
Hey Cad
No panic - its going to be an apparently sensible place called the Windsor Pub.
What is Bangalore Central exactly? A shopping mall?

Dad's reply:
Deepak,

Yeah, Bangalore Central is one of the many malls that have sprouted up all over.

The Victoria Hotel, which was razed to allow B Central to come up, was an incredible place; it started (in the late 19th Century) as some sort of club for the Brits; then became a (small)hotel, with large rooms and almost as large attached bathrooms. Plus a restaurant with stained glass windows, a verandah where you could sit on cane chairs and have beer and food; also a large garden area, where you could sit in the evenings (under massive, really massive 300 year old trees)and spend several leisurely hours over whiskies or rums, and food. The food was a mixture of Western (actually Anglo Indian, like cutlets, masala fish fries, etc) and South Indian non veg (like muton pepper fry, etc). On Sundays,they had a terrific breakfast, including spiced Goan sausages + paav. or Appams and mutton stew, and of course bacon and eggs.

I remember a time around 1992, when a close friend of mine was relocating to Hong Kong, and we decided to spend his last evening here, just the two of us, at the lawn of the Victoria, which we had haunted thru the previous 5 years. We started off on our rums around 8pm, along with snacks... and continued thru till past 11pm, when the waiter said it was time to close - BUT, that if we could tell us how many more rums we wanted, and what food we would eat after that (incl suggestions as to what would taste ok even if it was cold), he would put all that on another table next to us. We told him, he brought the stuff, we paid the bill (incl of course a hefty tip), and continued; just the two of us, just one light burning in the entire hotel, under those incredible trees, till 2.30am! Post which, we cleared the plates, left them neatly piled up and covered, woke up the watchman to have the gate opened, and he saw us off with an exhortation to drive carefully!!

Many times I asked the owner (a Malyalee who had grown up in Sri Lanka) whether he would sell his hotel to me, and to name his price (if he had, I swear I would have moved heaven and earth to raise the money); the answer was always a polite no.

And then, suddenly, the hotel closed down; the owner and my waiter friends all disappeared; the trees started being chopped off; and this horrible glitzy irrelevant monstrosity started coming up. I took an oath that I would never ever go there; my son understood perfectly, my daughter thought it was sentimental nonsense and that I would certainly go to Bangalore Central after perhaps a couple of years. Today, I think she too appreciates the strength of my conviction!!!

So, see you at Windsor Pub!!!

End of chain. Time for me to go into partial-internal-reflection mode:
I had been to the Victoria Hotel two or three times as far as I can remember. It was indeed a classy place - not 'classy' as in the garish concrete splendour of the Leela, but with a green leafy old-world charm - the sort you'd associate with a hill station retreat. It was incongruously located at that Mg Road-Residency Road Junction, a nightmare these days given the volume of traffic. While I was there, I was probably too preoccupied with other things in my head to take in every detail, but I have fond memories of the garden area my dad mentioned above. It had an earthy feel to it which felt miles away from MG road. And the food was kickass as well as unpretentious - I remember trying spicy Vindaloo and Goan sausages there for the first time, finding them too hot to handle. So too mutton pepper fry and the rest. (Of course, I wasn't allowed any beer - I suspect that would've helped!) I discovered, among other things, there's more to South Indian food than idly-vada-dosa. What would I give now, to be able to sit and have a beer there with the right company and all that spicy food, amidst all the greenery, so hard to find in the rest of Bangalore!

Yes Bangalore has its malls, and for those of us who like to believe we want something older, there's always Pecos, Lakeview, koshy's and the like. But I have a feeling I've missed out on something here, by not being able to revisit the Victoria. Another jewel of the 'old' city brushed away in favour of the demands of commercialism. The Garden city tag may have long disappeared, but if you still want to know why, look no further than the Victoria as an example.However it feels futile and hollow, keying this in all the way from Austin (with the benefit of hindsight). Oh well...