Coffee, Mangoes and Jackfruit

Today I went to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, which is a 240 acre walled-in nature area not far from central Bangalore. This town truly is the City of Gardens. Lalbagh is huge (I only saw a few of the attractions), about the size of The College of Wooster, and it’s pretty popular from the look of hundreds of families and young couples walking around. I’ve never seen that many young couples sit close and quietly talk on benches, rocks and lawns. It’s really quite cute. I was actually a bit depressed by the time I arrived, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself so much from just walking around at random and taking pictures of everything I saw that it soon went away.

I started off checking out a huge rock outcropping from the top of which you have a great view of the city (I could see UB city; easily recognizable although I’ve never been there). It wasn’t very steep so many people sat there – a girl sitting with her friends even stood up and waved at my camera as I photographed the scenes. 

At pathway junctions there were plenty of vendors selling drinks, snacks and icecream. I slowly sipped a small cup of coffee as I looked around at the masses of people slowly walking by – a favorite pastime of mine when I’m in one of my quieter moods. As I followed the path that made most sense, I came across a large space with over a dozen fruit stands on either side, all selling mangoes! And I remembered someone had recently told me the mango festival was going on because it was high season, and they had had all 30 varieties of mangoes on display in Lalbagh (or maybe it was a different number, can’t remember). I got so excited from this I almost bought a box of mangoes, only to remember that I’d have no way of finishing them on my own. In another, circular area, I found more mango sellers as well as tables with jackfruits, so I bought a small bag with jackfruit seeds. They were orange, and oh-so-refreshingly sweet.

I got lost in my own thoughts walking around and finding good angles for my camera; I forgot to look for the Wooster people I knew were sitting around somewhere near the lake. Unfortunately I had to return early to Koramangala to pick up my laptop, but it was a fantastic couple of hours I spent in Lalbagh. I will be sure to come back and complete my little adventure. 

P.S.: My laptop finally got repaired, so I can blog more often when I'm back in my room! I was done with this post at 11pm, too late for my evening lassi, haha!