No Fairer Land

With Hospitable Locals, Verdant Mountains, Miles of Coastline and India’s Very Own Silicon Valley, Karnataka Is Ready for Its Moment in the Sun

- Chris Lead Beater

Beena and Mahesh won’t mind that I’ve crashed their wedding, I tell myself. There they are, sitting in ornate chairs in the main room of the Dharmasthala Manjunatha Kalyana Mantapa celebration hall, surrounded by 200 family members and well-wishers. It does feel a little unfair that I know their names — which are draped above the entrance on a huge banner — while they are oblivious to my uninvited presence. But they look happy and glorious in their outfits; the bride decked in garlands over her red sari; the groom a suited vision in white.

I’m not quite sure why I’m here, intruding on the last hurrahs of their unification as husband and wife. One moment, I was out on the long, arrow-straight Bull Temple Road, watching Bangalore go about its Saturday lunchtime business — cars welded in a jam that seemed as if it would last an eternity; with tuk-tuks, motorbikes, wandering children, idling cows and fast-gesticulating hawkers selling flowers, water and even spare tyres scattered liberally across this exhaust-fume carnival. The next moment, I’ve wandered into a party that’s scarcely any less noisy than the scene on the street — a troupe of drummers building to a rhythmic cacophony; and a feast being prepared — all clattering pans, rolling steam and rice on the boil — in the chamber beyond.

Surely someone has to notice the British man, dusty from a morning exploring, who isn’t on the guest list. When someone does, Yousuf is politeness itself. “You are welcome, my friend,” says the silver haired, grandfatherly figure. His perfectly pronounced English speaks of an antique education in the vestiges of the colonial school system. “Come, have you eaten? You look as if you are hungry.” And, with a gentle hand on my arm, he leads me towards the pots of bubbling amber chicken curry.