Bangalore has evolved over the last 10 years in leaps and bounds. We've had to deal with a huge influx of people from other parts of the country and the world, which, by the way, we love! Bangalore has clearly edged past Chennai and Kolkatta in terms of economic importance.
Original thoroughbred Bangaloreans like myself (hey I have papers!!) tend to reminisce about how some of our festival celebrations have changed over the years. Today, retail is such a big word in this city, it's not funny. There are malls EVERYWHERE!! Everyone's buying things all the time and if there's a festival around the bend, the frenzy is even more, to the delight of businesses.
While Easter is considered the MOST important festival for Christians, it is not that big on the ground as it is not commercially popular like Christmas is. Having said that, there is some shopping to be done in terms of new clothes for the kids, Easter eggs and other eats. Easter for me takes me back to the time when I was a kid. We'd go to church in the morning (Easter is always on a Sunday) and then promptly stop by at Thoms in Frazer town, buy Easter eggs and some hot mutton puffs and head to my Gran's place in Cox Town. She'd be eagerly waiting for us as her "kids" with their kids will all troop in one family behind the other until the happiness was as loud as the noise we kids would create around the house. Biryani was pretty much a staple for festivals in my family and this was no different. My gran and her kids would get busy in the kitchen and we'd go hunting for the Easter eggs. My favourite was the soft ones made of chocolate, but those were expensive, so they'd run out pretty fast. So most often, I had to settle for hard boiled fondant icing eggs that would have some surprise inside once it was broken! Lovely memories though..
Today there are so many options to pick from. I decided to do my part and make available yummy Easter hampers and the Lindt Bunny that is made completely of the finest and legendary Swiss Milk Chocolate and available easily at the Roesome website. Roesome is a creative gifting company that puts together some of the finest ingredients into tasteful cane baskets and other creative packaging. Roesome also puts together fantastic wine baskets that go great with chocolates and some yum Washington apples. They are reasonably priced for the quality that is offered and in most cases, free delivery is available. That is something that I would not even have imagined 10 years ago from sleepy old Cox Town.
This Easter, I'm going to try and follow the same ritual (though I'll probably just do a take out) and land up in my gran's house. She lives by herself in Cox Town now and I'm sure she'll be delighted to see us with our great creative gifts from Roesome. I'll still have to go to Thom's for the Mutton Puffs though :) Happy Easter everyone!
