Zebba, Ippo and Eyetaya!

If you come into the Jain ghar these days, you will see a little boy walking around the house saying Zebba! Baergatta! Ippo! Baby! Baergatta! M says I have scarred him forever by taking him to Bannerghatta National Park. That he will be found walking chanting Zebba even at age 20 perhaps. Sometimes, I almost tend to agree. But I am already planning to take him to Mysore Zoo in near future. They even have a giraffe I have heard!


At the entrance. raring to go!

Anyhoo, now that Cubby had started recognizing lot of animals and can walk for fairly long time without demanding "Gooddi" (carry me request said in one word!), we though good time to take him to the zoo. And it was so totally worth it.



Oho! Mummy stop posing for pics! Let's go!

Ofcos the day started funny with rain gods deciding to do their sense of humour bit by making it rain in middle of January! I kept having my intense one on one with God demanding the rain be taken away with immediate effect, but the cludy n cool weather could stay. Afterall you can only bargain as much and the rains did stop by the time we entered the zoo, though cool n cloudy, not really! :p

Bass aise hi. GK ke liye! :p

We decided to skip the safari considering we were not sure if Cubby will enjoy being in a small bus with grilled windows and squinting to see tigers and lions. Plus there was a mile long Q for it. So we bought our tickets for the zoo and camera and went it.

Can you see the python, somewhere down there?!

Bannerghatta is a tad confusing and its not easy to find animals you really want to see. I mean would an 18month old actually care about a huge cobra that lying on the floor or hidden in it's cave with just the tail showing?! Anyhoo, we first found Bear which is an animal Cubby recognizes. There were three of em and one was eating Ganna (sugarcane). So now the series goes Bear! Baergatta. You ask what does Bear eat?! He replies Ganna! :) The grills have very small squares and for a kid it's not easy to make out what is prowling the cage.

That's a Bear! It is eating ganna!

We saw some monkeys, langurs etc and Cubby was quite happy though not as excited as we thought he would be. The leopard didn't interest him at all and the hyena was too stinky to stand there for long. The small tortoises were really cute, but thanks to almost no movement I am not sure how much Cubby noticed. Same goes for crocodiles, who were sunning themselves like statues that even I had a doubt if they are real. Some moved suddenly and we tried to see Cubby would notice it. He does say Cocodile now! ;) So maybe he did.

I think there is leopard somewhere in the background! :p

What really got a reaction was his favourite Zebra. He could not believe his eyes that he was seeing a live Zebba about 50times the size of his toy one. Plus the fencing had enough gap to see it clearly. Add to that it is a good looking animal. The black n white stripes, taut and shiny skin and right there within your grasp. Cubby was totally fascinated. Till date he identifies Bannerghatta outing with Zebba more than anything else.

Isn't the baby Ippo totally cute!

Hippo (Ippo) also became quite a favourite. My belief all babies are cute came true when we saw a baby Ippo. It was adorable and stuck to it's mum (i guess) all the time. They also came and gave them food while we were there, so we showed Cubby how they were having their khaana.

I am bored now, Mommy!

Eyetaya (Elephant) didn't get as much approval as we though. Or maybe it was because he was tired by now. He had been walking with us almost the entire time, demanding godi every now and then and walking again when little refreshed. We saw some birds, but that didn't interest him much, neither did the listless aquarium. I have seen better stuff in homes.

WE took a lunch break and ate some OK types biryani available at the government stall. Egg rice, more like it. Tried feeding Cubby some cerelac. The stall was next to the children's play area and Cubby went absolutely ballistic just playing in sand rather than go on slides and swings which we made him do for our khushi! :p

See- saw! Up Down! Upar Neeche!


I am doing this only for their happiness!


Id much rather play in mitti! One fistful of sand has so many interesting things! :)

Ofcos, playing in it with Zebba, even more fun!

Zebba ROCKS! people! :D

Where is my Zebba?!


Oh my god! What do I do now?!


What the heck?! I will just play with sand again!

We then tried hunting for rabbits which turned out to be futile and we just kept going in circles. Plus we were terribly tired by then and decided to call it a day, leaving the rest to another day. And we will be back soon indeed! :)

Chalo bhai. Ab ghar chalein?!



Haan please! I am so tired. And sleepy.

ps: We don't have too many animal pics because its difficult to click em through the mesh and we were too fascinated by Cubby's reactions to bother taking pics at that time. His expression to me read "OMG! These things exist OUT of books and even move!"

pps: for anyone who wants more details on Bannerghatta National park, here's my review with more practical details! http://bangalore.metromela.com/article/Go+wild+at+Bannerghatta+National+Park/2407

heart became garden garden! :D

When I moved from Bombay to Bangalore, I was often asked the typical question "How do you like Bangalore? Are you missing Bombay?". I always replied saying I like this city and am not mulling over what I left behind. It could also have to do with the fact that life seems nicer when you are newly married wherever you go. (That we had our worst fights in the first 6months is actually a fond memory laughed on today!)

What made me fall in love with this city was the shades of green you could see everywhere you turned and the cool weather which is like heaven for someone coming from Bombay. Couple that with the lazy pace of life, it's a stark contrast to the city that never sleeps.

Even now we have close to 5 parks within a 4km radius which have well maintained lawns, a tiled walkers' track and a kids play area with swings and slides. Every time I go to one of them, I say a prayer that may these last the onslaught of concrete and glass.

Apart from these small parks in older areas of the city, two HUGE parks that are lungs of this place, are Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. You can easily find the history and how many acres they are spread over etc on the internet (Jai Google Baba ki!).

I remember going to Lalbagh, during my first trip to Bangalore as a tourist, many years ago! Then, I was just fascinated with the big floral clock with Snow White and Seven Dwarfs adorning it. Then next was when we went for a picnic with entire khandaan post shaadi and we had so much fun. We kept wanting to go there for the Flower Show that happens every year for about a week, concluding on Independence Day.

the first look

This year we decided we HAVE to make it to the show come what may. First attempt was made one evening when there wasn't any better plan. We were shooed away by the cop saying no entry after 530pm because it was alreadytoo crowded. So then we decided to go on 15th Aug itself. When we reached we were in for a pleasant surprise when there were cops helping the vehicles find the right parking etc. We were also shocked by Rs.200 entrance charge! ;)

and you thought Petunia was just Harry's aunt's name

Anyhow. We started moving towards the glass house where the show happens. There was a looong queue to get in and soon enough we were a part of it. It was really fascinating to see the burst of colours in form of flowers big and small. From special decorations to some just put together flowers, everyone was trying hard to capture the beauty with their cameras, mostly on phone, while cops tried to make people move asap. It was lot like going to these famous temples where you stand for hours and then get pushed out within 2 secs. We also like complete bozos, forgot to take our camera.

fool khile hai gulshan gulshan! :p

ek phool do mali! ;)

Apart from flowers, people formed another colourful collage of sights and sounds that cannot be captured on a phone camera. The atmosphere was totally like a mela.

the wine baron.... err barrel?! :p

There were stalls selling some handicrafts and mostly gardening related stuff. The Amul ice cream carts were there every 500mtrs and people were indulging having Icecreams and Ice Lollies that aren't so common anymore. We bought a lemon grass plant for M's mausi and a Tulsi plant for ourselves which was pending forever! There were people selling baloons and bubble maker sellers were blowing bubbles incessantly giving the whole place a very dreamy and fairytale like appearance.

harit vahini - Go Green! Chk out the dog resting inside!

Cubby had a ball trying to walk all over the place holding our hands. All in all it was coupla hours well spent and I am sure to go back soon. Esp now that Cubby will soon walk comfily on his own and he will LOVE the wide open spaces to run on even more! :)

And you remember I said they shooed us away from Lalbagh in the evening. We decided to make a trip to Cubbon Park. This park has lots of separate gardens and a road going through it. We had taken the road often but never stopped by at the park.

So we parked the car opposite a garden and walked in on to the lush green lawns. We had a short walk with Cubby saying our hellos to all the little kids out there (there were MANY). It was fun to see kids of every age and size doing so many different things. One had just learnt to walk, so insisted to perfecting the skill while other who couldn't was content just lolling on the grass! :)

It was one of the windiest days in Bangalore (as per the newspaper next day) and the guy selling this contraption that starts spinning in wind (I have no idea what its called. Picture below. Pls help) did a brisk business. When M said lets buy it, I told him Cubby was too young to enjoy it. M coolly replied "It's for you!" So yours truly was quite busy seeing it spin in a dizzy with every round of breeze!

THE Contraption (name pls!)

Cubby was busy soaking it all in and was quite fascinated with green grass and crows that were flying around. It was just so much fun seeing him enjoy it all.

While Bangalore has very little to offer in terms of things you can do without spending money at a mall or multiplex, these parks can offer a pleasant change. It's so refreshing and invigorating to just enjoy the cleaner air and feel at peace even with so many people around you.

Here's some of Cubby's latest pics taken by our very cool chacha who has a golden hand at shooting of another kind! Yeah! We can now call him our Abhinav Bindra! :p