• Ashok and I visited the Avalahalli reserve area to catch the sunset. We had to enter in from the front, formal entrance as the back has been cleanly and concretely destroyed, pun intended! I’ve talked about my sadness previously at the fact that my access to the only large open space was being lost, that is why entered in from the front and walked all the way to a cliff facing the north-west. On Sep 3, 2024, I’d written on twitter (I’ve deleted my account since then, so this is from my archive)

It is poetic that i lost my notebook at Avalahalli a few minutes ago. I can’t place my sadness of knowing that the Avalahalli backyard is now fully urban. What was is now gloomy and full or poles and urban moats. I’m broken. It was my refuge in Bangalore. When I felt intense sadness, or unease, or the feeling one feels when you begin to breathe fast, I drove up… Sat. Chennai has a beach. My big, empty place of freedom… Breathing space when none else seemed so was Avalahalli

In a conversation about Avalahalli came to be, Vivek replies:

In the late 1880s, major drought, caused government to search for alternate water sources. One of the proposals was to create a large reservoir. 1000s of acres of village/farmland were acquired for that. All of HMT, BEL, Jalahalli, Peenya were forests just like Avalahalli. 1

The Sunset from Avalahalli
Amidst the dry, unalive and hot inbetweens of the Eucalytpus Trees, Ashok stands as we try and find a trail to the top
It was a gloomy evening, I had driven down with Archit and Abhiram with all the excitement that i had not found for other things in the recent months, and then i saw the flat sandly land, and the pillars. The pillars broke the view, they broke the natural valley that made it feel like a stream could flow inbetween the forest and the fields. From the tweet in September
  • I accompanied some students to Channapatna as they were exploring Pond Ecosystems as a microcontext. It was facinating to hear of the differences between the management of ponds between the Taluka Panchayat and the Village managing it. I’d also never spent time exploring Channapatna, so it was nice to orient myself and understand the geography and spread of it. I walked from our nodal center to the bus stand, and realised 1. I don’t walk enough because i’ve not been travelling enough and that is no excuse to not walk in my own neighbourhood and city. I had time to mull over and absorb so much of what the city is through the food, conversations and sights I picked up along the way - things that I only seem to do with Vivek (Vonter) or Aman or while in Bidar. I must walk more!
A steam we found behind a village due to OSM, and satellite imagery. The scale difference between real life and maps scare me at times. I might have even called it a River.
A pond south of Channapatna Town had these sharplines that one could notice below the waterline. We later learn that the contracted fisher deepens the pond so that more fishes can be farmed.

Vehicles cross at an at-grade railway crossing close to the end of the Channapatna Station.
We were in Malleshwaram, close to Sankey Tank while me, Vivek and Aman decide to take a coconut water break. They now start at 50 or 60!
While walking in IndiraNagar, I discovered the C100 RajaKaluve hidden behind tall and dense houses. There is a Pink Trumpet tree (Tabebuia Avellanedae) blossoming if you see a bit into the Kaluve.
  • I got a calligraphy pen in the hopes that I make a dear friend out of my notebook

  • I have spent too much on eating out and staying out late this week in the city, and it makes me think of how much the foundation of my leisure is the work and labour of others. From auto and cab drivers to sweepers at the metro and elsewhere. Modern commerce has necessitated the complexity of how we live. And the complexity scares me.

  • Hot days have spilled into the night, and one day while leaving from work, I write:

The UPS keeps our lights alive while the street conks off.

Electricity went out for a quick second. Streetlights slept off, Pink barked and bike breaks screechings were crawling all over my ear. I thought for a quick second this feels like the quiet British street in Harry Potter and then I realise i don’t imagine or dream that I will feel the joy of such a street in my own neighbourhood.

Maybe it is that I haven’t been on the streets after a shower in some time, or that summer has begun and the sun’s touch does not leave the night as well…I yearn to not just feel peaceful taking that walk one day, maybe a cold evening, but somehow be able to remember that peace and joy. Do y’all remember your last remembrable walk?

  • I attended my first play at RangaShankara, ‘The F Word’ I did not know anything about the subject of the Play, only accompanying Vivek, Sireesh and others, I arrived. It made me remember and come face to face with what I’ve been thinking about Euthanasia, thoughts that initially motivated the making of Game aids for the elderly, and a Photo book of my grandmother’s funeral that I’ve never published.

  • Vivek shared what his definition of a ‘techie’ or more specifically a ‘Bangalore techie’ is not somebody who necessarily works in software, but a much wider identity that is only possible if their household had internet in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. By 2002, 0.53% of India were users of the internet, Those 0.53% now carry a privilege over the rest of the nation that gained access later. Even by 2018, only 20% of Indians are users of the internet. They don’t have to be regular users! The survey question was:

Surveys asked respondents if they used the internet at least once in the preceding three months

understanding tech is different from working in tech. you can understand tech without working in tech. if you understand tech and grew up with heavy exposure to tech, you are a cultural techie

Data for India

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20240915232422/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/karnataka-forest-minister-orders-recovery-of-599-acres-in-northwest-bengaluru-sending-jitters-among-occupants/articleshow/112445645.cms↩︎