CUBBON PARK IS STILL A CLOSE GETAWAY!

CUBBON PARK IS STILL A CHARMING GETAWAY

Jacqueline Colaco

     Cubbon Park has been a place to visit and enjoy throughout my life, and each of my six decades evokes different memories and experiences of happy times spent there.

As a little girl on summer holiday at my grandparents’ home on Grant Road, now renamed vital Mallya Road, walking across with siblings and cousins every morning to play in the park for a few hours was a regular feature. The Bamboo Grove lay amidst a wealth of rocks one could scramble over, and stagnant pools gave scope to trap tadpoles or sail empty silk cotton pod ‘boats’ that fell in plenty to the ground. Tapping rubber and rolling it over a stone to make a ball was another thrill. And if the ball was somewhat round and bounced, that was an achievement!

     During our early teens, we explored the park a bit more, learning to ride bicycles and climb up trees to knock off their green mangoes, kirks, guavas and tamarind. We would play ‘hide’n’seek, ‘twos and threes’, ‘holly colly’ and whatever. ‘Gilli dandu’ too perhaps, or seven tiles. Boys became more polite and tolerant of girls as we grew older, and were even quite eager to give the fair sex a spin on the front crossbars of their bicycles! 

    Enter our twenties and Cubbon Park suddenly turned into a romantic paradise for us, offering undisturbed little cosy nooks for a Rendevous. Early morning scooter rides would take us to the KSTDC restaurant near the Central Library, for a sumptuous South Indian breakfast. Picnics too were the order of the day, and as marriage and parenthood took over in the next decades, gangs of us families and friends who lived in Fraser Town, would take off with home made fare for lunch and tea, to spend an afternoon in a quiet shady spot. The older folks merited the benches and the rest sprawled out on bamboo mats on the ground. Energetic games like French cricket and Throwball would later give place to ‘dumb charades’, ‘coffee potting’ and housie, post lunch and a laze. The kids of course would indulge in delights similar to the kind we enjoyed when we were their age. They fortunately were still not yet victims of the ‘instant’, ‘readymade’ generation as is the case now. We would carry a guitar, make our own music and create our own fun.

     I do remember once riding on my scooter during my lunchtime from my job at Bank of Baroda, K.G. Road, to watch a bit of the Davis Cup match at the KSLTA stadium in this park. With the thrill of watching greats and handsomes like Premjit Lal, Jaideep Mukherjee and Ramanathan Krishnan in action, I forgot the passing afternoon, and realized it was beyond bank closing time before I rushed back and begged my boss to forgive me for my truancy.

     On many an evening we would drive to the park for a cotton candy or bhutta and to give the kids some rides and spills in their play area. For a while there were Sunday concerts too which we’d enjoy at the bandstand.

      Presently as well, I sometimes sneak a drive on a Sunday afternoon to an area beyond the Press Club, where my favourite pani puri and kulfi man hang out. Recently four of us at a loose end on a Sunday morning, enjoyed an impromptu mini picnic there, carrying along some Beer and Biryani. We so enjoyed the peace and quiet, the shade and the relaxation from our frenzied pace of life, that we vowed to revive the larger family picnics of the old days. Though we are now the senior most generation, we are still game for a go!