For those of you, who reside in bangalore south might use this phrase much more than any other phrase!
Well.. am talking about our own SLV, BCB( Brahmin’s coffee bar). Blogs are not supposed to be written on them. You have to go experience the authentic serving of park side view of Banshankari BDA SLV.
It was back in 2002. After my 2nd puc exams. We cousins had camped in our house and had set out on a morning walk to bda park. Which was pretty new then. After walking around and talking in the park.
We decided to have breakfast in the nearby hotel. Wait. I already was aware of lot of SLVs. BMS slv. BTR slv. Vidyarthi Bhavan. Dwarka Bhavan. I looked up to see which hotel is this. Yes. Love at first sight. “SLV”.
Went and ordered. It was freaking cheap. 5 rupees for 2 Idlys and 5 rupees for a single vada. This SLV had a theme. The person who serves idly and vada will be calling the people in the kitchen like: ” Ondu double barli”, “Ondu khara bhath”, “ondu chou chou bath”. It meant, one plate idly, one plate khara bhath or upit, one plate kesari bhath and khara bhat. “Ondu masaaaaale” for Masala Dosa.
Seeing this unique style, if not for my cousins, me and my bro atleast became very curious and started loving it. Then, after rushing and pushing we gave our chits to the waiter. This SLV like every other SLV is self-serving. We watched in awe as he said: ” 5 double barli”. We were so excited about it. Then we distributed the idly vada plates and came out and stood seeing the track of the park where we walked for the past hour or so. Then came the moment of our lives. I would call it the redefining moment of our lives. We had the first bite of Idly and Vada with OUR SLV CHUTNEY. “Man wasn’t it heavenly!”. We savored every bit of Idly and vada and chutney. We quickly learned that all of us had finished it!!
That day, was the day of realization. That hot steaming idly has reached an evolutionary pinnacle in this place. I decided to eat given any chance.
Months passed. I got my CET rankings and all. In the second round of CET I decided to join Telecommunication branch. I was not hots for Computers at that time. Tronics gave me kicks. It still does. The only awesome place for me to graduate was “B.N.M.Inst of Tech”. Where is this college by the way?
I heard my chikappa say: “Ille BDA hatrano, park idyalla alle”. I quickly accepted this offer and joined BNMIT. Got admitted into it and all. Lush green college. You know where this college was, it was around 50m from the BDA park from where we cousins used to come for morning time pass. It was still more awesome for the fact that this was 50m from u know.. wait for it.. wait for it.. SLV!!!!
Wow! truly a love story! Starting from first week itself we started having breakfast, lunch, evening snacks in SLV. The more we ate, the more it became tasty. It soon became the place for short achievement treats. Feelings place. You had different emotions attached with different groups. With each group you used to bond in SLV. SLV was a rendezvous of all class of people. People used to come in cars. From cinema stars to politicians to students to regular walkers to office boys carrying coffee flasks thronging SLV from morning 7am to evening 7pm.
In 2006, I bid adieus to Engg and also to SLV. I started enjoying BTR SLV and BCB SLV. Our 17th July gang in Caritor had lot of BNMITians. All of us were from different branches. But we had one unifying thing. Not even our college. It was the SLV which binded. I am sure Adi, pommi, phani, katru will agree on this!!
Today, finally got a chance to go back to SLV. Had an awesome KHARABHATH AND VADA!!!! Each bite gave me thousands of incidents, memories ran through, the inner voices calling. But it was all subsided with the yumminess of SLV!!!!
I didn’t miss a chance to go back to the waiter amidst rush to ask : “Sir, chutney haki!!!”.!!!