When we were kids, we were taken down to the Richmond Town park to play for a few hours by the ?baby ayah?. We held her hands which were as rough as stone and were dragged across the road when there was a break in traffic.

The park was filled with flowers planted in orderly beds and in the centre of the park was a pond over which we hung and watched the tiny guppies dart about with their colourful tails.

Later when the boys were tiny, I did the same, taking them down to the park when we visited Mum and Dad. The park was still lovely, though beginning to go to seed and in one corner lived the maali and his family. No one was allowed to run around on the lawns, but the boys enjoyed chasing one another on the paths between the flower beds and they too enjoyed the guppies in the pond.

Later we took my grand daughter down to the park and lo and behold a whole section had been turned into a great kiddy playground with swings and slides installed, with little ones having a wonderful time, on them. Squealing and racing up the wrong way on colourful slides. Swinging high in the air on bucket swings, the merry go round looked broken so we did not attempt it with the little one. But she spent a whole hour having a whale of a time, which was wonderful as it matched her spiffy park in London, that she is used to.

Then we walked down to the Nandini kiosk round the corner and bought milk and icecreams and chomped our way home. Not diabetic me ofcourse, but there was a lovely low sugar, iced, badam (almond) milk for me. And the little one was very happy with her cup of vanilla icecream which she is partial to, and skipped all the way home.

We also took her to Cubbon Park where the Independence day flower show was closing down. There were a few exhibits left, but most of it was sadly spent and the exhibits taken away by the exhibitors. What she was thrilled about was being able to eat a Polly Mango there which was semi ripe. She loved it, minus any spice of course. So we scoured the place for a second one before we got into the car. And she sat on the carved bull infront of the glass house just like we did as kids and Mum did as a young bride.

She was happy to walk around the edge of the Cubbon Park lake which seems to have been turned into a sort of soup bowl, with a high walking path around it. How rain water can flow in is anyone?s guess. A troupe of monkeys were running around, and she stood and watched their antics for a while. I am nervous of monkeys as they are unpredictable and bite.

But the whole idea of this story is the Rest House Road park. As kids it was known as Murder Park as someone had been murdered there.Now the Puravankara group has taken over and turned it into a lush paradise. The trees are grown and kept trim and there is a lot of sunlight coming into the park. The Puravankara group are builders and seem to have unleashed a great set of maalis to transform the park into a green, manicured jewel. Finally it is civil society which will turn our beloved Bangalore back to what it once was.