Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Brunch
Back to Bengaluru
From old books to new pubs, the Garden City is perfect for a fleeting visit
Every summer, an ancient voice in me awakens, asking me to Do Things. This usually leads to dubious versifying about flowers and birds on Instagram; an annual search for white Lucknowi kurtas; and a weekend escape. Mumbai has my heart and soul, battered by rent, grime and other demons, but Bengaluru was for many years “the other city” in my life. It’s where I naively dreamt of relocating to, engineering a life rather than inheriting it. I’m now wise enough to realise that not all inheritances are obligations to be suspicious of. And so, “the other city” is now just another city, one that makes for fantastic fleeting visits.
A blossoming of books
My first response to Bengaluru is in the form of prolific sneezing. Pollen is an offshoot of the fabled green cover of the city, making every reunion a teary one for the allergy-prone. But merely one kind of teary reunion isn’t enough to satisfy my appetite. What a pleasure it is to walk along the narrow aisles of Blossom Book House on Church Street, where piles of second-hand books threaten to cave under the collective weight of well-catalogued human thought. If you’re there at the right time, you’ll be served a thimble of coffee by a staffer with jasmine in her hair, while a young man falteringly asks for help with a book for a lady friend who’s “into physics”.
THE FAMOUSLY SLEEP-INDUCING BENGALURU WEATHER CONSPIRES WITH THE RICHNESS OF LUNCH TO LEAVE YOU IN DESPERATE NEED OF BED
There is, of course, the colonial-era café on St. Mark’s Road, Koshy’s, so evocatively captured in Ghachar Ghochar, the tiny yet terrifying Kannada novel by Vivek Shanbhag, translated by Srinath Perur.
And the lovely old post office on Museum Road, whose illustration by Paul Fernandes — Bengaluru’s Mario Miranda — adorns a sling bag I carry. Then onwards to Residency Road’s Nagarjuna, where Andhra specialties like biryani and mutton fry make me temporarily reconsider my allegiance to my hometown.
Your charioteer swiped left
The famously sleep-inducing Bengaluru weather conspires with the richness of lunch to leave you in desperate need of bed, but the auto/cab driver who holds your immediate future in his hands swipes left. As does the next, and the next. Whether you’re looking for an auto or a cab, cancelled rides are a fact of life, as are lusty disagreements if you decide to be an anarchist and just hop into an auto off the street. Your charioteer will, invariably, conduct a Mahabharata-scale phone conversation for the length of your ride. Note to self: crack the metro.
Evenings in Bengaluru are bacchanalian, as anyone who’s ever walked around Indiranagar’s 100 Feet Road and 12th Main on a Saturday night doth know. I tried to get into Bob’s Bar on this visit, but it looked like there were generations of locals who had settled into the space with beers, cigarettes and conversations that could not be interrupted. The next morning, I was led to the MTR at Lalbagh where I jostled masses of coffee- and Pongal-lovers as I waited for my ghee-soaked dosa to arrive. It helped that the charming old eatery flaunted ‘50s-era photographs, art deco chandeliers and a rate card peppered with absurd decimals like .10 and .82.
My fudge is better than yours
If Indiranagar is a symbol of hyperactive, global-hubbing, futurefacing Bengaluru, the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, just across from MTR, preserves its organic essence. From trees that originated in Mexico, powerful as Aztec goddesses, to petrified coniferous tree fossil from Tamil Nadu, said to be 20 million years ago, I spent a couple of hours away from the ghouls of war, Covid and GST in its springtime abundance. Humanmade horrors are, of course, inescapable, no matter how far you run. Part of the botanical garden houses works of art crafted out of old trees. I was horrified by one such installation, ominously titled ‘Mother Nature’s
Womb’. Sculpted out of a 200-year-old mango tree, it features a tall, reclining female figure from whose navel emerges a full-grown head, with Medusa-like hair. Spooky.
Nothing like the hot chocolate fudge from Corner House to round off a trip to Bengaluru. Dilliwallas will judge me, smug in their Nirula’s nostalgia, but I think I’m on the southern side of things in many respects. Just as long as I’m back to the smelly bay before the new week begins.
rehanamunir@gmail.com Follow @rehana_munir on Twitter and Instagram
Japanese manufacturers are trying to play catch-up in the EV race after years of backing the wrong horse. That horse is hybrid cars. The Japanese automotive industry ploughed billions of dollars into hybrid technology in the belief that it was the most practical answer to global warming. However, the startling pace with which pure battery-powered electric cars have become mainstream has caught Japan’s car makers flat-footed and now they're tripping over each other to bring an all-electric car to the market as quickly as possible. Lexus, the Toyota-owned luxury brand, has announced a raft of new electric cars it will be launching in this decade.
Lexus has been on the fringes of the Indian market ever since it came to India in 2017 but like every other auto company, big or small, it cannot ignore India’s exploding EV market.
Which is why Lexus India is evaluating the UX 300e, a compact all-electric SUV and the brand’s first crack at an electric car for the Indian market. How good is it and should Lexus bring it to India?
The look
Electric cars are expected to look techy by their tech-savvy owners and on that front the UX scores quite well. The signature spindle grille, which looks pinched in the centre, certainly gets your attention and other design elements like the dagger-shaped headlights, and the origami-like sharp folds and cuts that adorn the body all add up to give the UX a futuristic look.
The interior gets the same busy and geometric design treatment. The dashboard is layered with different textures and surfaces which does look a bit excessive, but giving relief are the controls for the airconditioning. They are good old-fashioned buttons and thankfully, Lexus hasn’t followed the trend of moving these controls to a hardto-access menu on the touchscreen. The 10.25-inch screen is sharp and easy to use; if you don’t use the ultra-sensitive touchpad and instead just poke the icon on the screen. The instrument panel is digital too, with multiple view modes, but the range meter is curiously old-school and looks like a fuel gauge plucked from a '90s Corolla.
The snug driver’s seat, which has a wide range of adjustments and good all-round visibility, sets the tone for the nimble handling and good manouverability that marks the UX. This is really a compact SUV that will squeeze into the tiniest of gaps, but to know how compact it really is, you have to wiggle your way into the back seat.
Rear legroom is poor and tall passengers sitting behind an equally tall driver will have to sit with legs splayed apart and knees hitting the front seats. The 300-litre boot isn’t practical either and not much more spacious than a hatchback.
The feel
But there is no shortage of equipment; wireless charging, a 360-degree camera, a heads-up display and a cracking Mark Levinson audio system are all standard on the higher variants of the UX. There are multiple drive modes too. So, how does it drive?
It doesn’t feel electric quick. Which is to say, it doesn’t scoot off the line like a scalded cat but instead, the modest 204hp motor delivers a measured slug of power, almost deliberately so. And when you remind yourself that you’re driving a Lexus, you know it’s deliberate. The ethos of the brand is to offer a seamless driving experience and not something that slams your head back into the headrest every time you floor your right foot.
Now for the price. Toyota is unlikely to be able to price the UX300E at anything less than `60 lakh and for a car this size, that may be a deal-breaker. Which is why Lexus isn’t committing, but merely exploring the Indian market. What could finally give them the green light to launch the UX is the fast-changing perception and acceptance of EVS amongst rapidly evolving buyers that transcends the traditional barriers of size and price.
LIKE EVERY OTHER AUTO COMPANY, BIG OR SMALL, LEXUS CANNOT IGNORE INDIA’S EXPLODING EV MARKET
The views expressed by the columnist are personal