Bangalore :

Aliyeh Rizvi used to run a niche design store called Native Place many years ago. It encapsulated her love for handcrafted traditions, nostalgia and fading remnants of culture. She took to passionate blogging subsequently to revisit everything that Bangalore stands for. Native Place no longer exists as a physical space but it is now a “collaborative mind space that works to build awareness of Bangalore’s local history and culture through curated experiences, travel writing and city based collaterals. It explores ways in which information can be used to create meaning and build a deeper connect.”

In a chat with City Express, she talks about the many projects she has undertaken to keep the memory of a genteel city alive that is now being overtaken by change at every level.

Poignant memories

The best memories I have are of Bangalore’s trees and gardens, and a life lived among them. Avenues were awash with different colours all through the year, jacaranda petals fell on our shoulders as we passed. Large family picnics were organised in Cubbon Park and Lalbagh when the weather was good. I miss the beautiful bungalows that had lovely large gardens: fruits, flowers and scented plants. I miss the Queen of the Night that bloomed after sunset, scenting an entire lane with its fragrance. We made passion fruit juice and gooseberry jam from our own fruit trees and compound walls had moss! Which means it was traditionally a cold, damp climate where early morning baths were always accompanied by shivering!

A Turquoise Cloud

I blog and write offline about the Bangalore I grew up in, to save it from vanishing. The city is my home and I am rooted in it. My blog, A Turquoise Cloud, is an archive of information and stories about local culture, city people and our symbolic spaces. The city I grew up with was being knocked down rapidly and it was becoming increasingly difficult to connect with it physically. Houses I had played in were now hi-rise buildings. The local grocery store I stopped at for sweets after school had disappeared. Trees were cut down, roads had changed. Streetscapes in the city were altered forever. I felt a terrible sense of displacement in my own hometown. I could not recognise or identify with it anymore.

That’s why we old Bangaloreans spend so much time in sentimental nostalgia and B&W photographs. It’s our only way of coping with loss.

So where does one go to find this other Bangalore? I chose to recreate it online, where it can stay virtually untouched. ATC is a space where I create a context for the  present through memories, images and stories of the city. I choose to focus on the present, by giving it a meaning through the past.

historical connect

One of my most memorable projects was as Curator, Centre for Public History, Srishti School of Art Design and Technology where I  co-facilitated a successful Public History Project titled ‘The Tiger Comes to Town’ to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Archaeological Survey of India. The focus was the Bangalore Fort in Bangalore’s busy Kalasipalayam area and its role in local history during the 18th Sultanate, the time of Tipu Sultan, and the Third Anglo-Mysore War of 1791.

It aimed to reconnect the public with their local heritage sites through deeper engagement, build awareness and instil pride in the same. It combined elements from oral history, design, academic enquiry and performance so students could look at multiple ways to engage with the site during the course of the project. The outcome was a true city project in more ways than one.

breakfast specials

One of my most popular posts was the Bangalore Breakfast Special, since the  and the eating out-breakfast tradition is so unique to our city. I wrote that Bangaloreans love their breakfast and discuss it intensely.

Replies flooded in with suggestions to try other favourite joints, NRIs posted with intense nostalgia for iconic restaurants mentioned, more discussions about food happened, vows to visit, and even arguments over the best idlis-and dosas! Like I said, we are obsessed with our tiffin! It is always wonderful when people write in with comments and stories of their own, volunteer to share information and photographs.

We also have a page on Facebook for daily interactions and information. The blog allows you to access information by usage (eat, breathe, know) and geography (north, south, east). All posts are research intensive and constructed to provide comprehensive information, painstakingly collected, in one place.

It often takes days to track down information, locate people or join the dots, but it has to be done. In this space, I can now see the Bangalore I know and love.

Back to Native Place

Native Place is the seed of an idea which will hopefully grow into a larger organisation where people interested in the city can work together on creating new formats for city history and culture based projects- through documentation, interactions, performance and information based collateral.

Perhaps knowing a little more will build a relationship, create protectiveness and then generate the ownership we require so badly right now. Our website will be up soon and city based activities will hopefully start with the onset of the festive season.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express  / Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express News Service / August 19th, 2014