and just like that, we have reached the final stop of the ranga and ryan show! we’ve covered bombay, goa, and hampi and have finally made it to bangalore, my old stomping grounds for many years. this was where the most nostalgia hit, and also where i was most on the lookout for what has changed since i left in 2016.

as we prepare to recap the final days of the trip you can once again follow along in our playlist — songs 23-33 capture our time in bangalore.

friday.

we reached majestic a little before 6am friday, argued with a bunch of auto drivers, and were in chamarajpet by 6.30. sheilamma said a quick hello, showed us to our room, and left us to nap for a few hours.

once we were up and ready to face the day we had breakfast and got ready to head to the farm. the devaraj farm is one of my favorite places in the world, and since friday was a holiday for republic day nithya was free to drive us and be our social coordinator for the day. bern was already there when we arrived and gave us the grand tour [it’s changed so much since my last visit!], and once sheilamma and anthony appa reached we had lunch. we stuffed ourselves with two kinds of biryani and some yummy vegetables and then enjoyed a rest on the terrace.

once we were all up it was time to head home and get ready for the evening. our first stop was amai’s to see the girls [they’re 10 and 13 now! my heart] and have some snacks — because she’s a good friend / adopted sister / former boss, amai ordered a bunch of starters from empire and it made me so happy. after that we went to bar spirit forward for some fancy cocktails that were very delicious and stayed there until they closed. we made a very quick stop by amai’s and then went home and slept. pro tip: make a reservation, as they get pretty crowded especially at the weekend

saturday.

saturday was another slow morning before heading to amai’s for lunch. i had wanted to take sarah for a yele oota lunch [assorted items served on a banana leaf], so instead of going out they assembled it for us at home — amai ordered some from outside and made some at home and we thoroughly enjoyed our homemade yele oota. we chilled for the afternoon with nilah and evika [i of course took a nap] and then made our way to commercial street. pro tip: if you want to try it for yourself, your best bets are nagarjuna or bheema’s

we made a quick stop in safina plaza to pick up some shawls and an unexpected but lovely bedsheet, and then it was to my main destination: raju uncle for some new piercings. apart from my original ear piercings [done when i was 3 months old], i have gotten all of my others done by raju uncle. i had been wanting another ear piercing for a while and had gone back and forth on a second nose piercing for years and i finally did both. sarah also got another ear piercing, and in the process nithya was convinced to get one as well. if you’re ever in bangalore and want a piercing, raju uncle is your man.

after a quick stop at vashi’s so nithya could get a new pair of jeans, we made our way to church street so we could pay a visit to my beloved blossom book house. blossom is a book lover’s dream, and you can spend hours in there uncovering total gems. it looks like chaos, but there is an order to the placement of every item in that store and the booksellers can find anything you want. sarah and i both picked up postcards and a tote bag before heading out.

the one non-negotiable on my list was a stop at pecos. on the way i paid homage to guzzlers [rip] and then we snagged the last available table at pecos and settled in. this has been my watering hole since 2005, and as luck would have it one of my old servers was there so we got great service. we had chilly pork and peanut masala, sarah had two pints of beer, i had two cokes, and nithya had a pint before she went to meet bern. we ran into our old friend sidharth and had a great time catching up with him before it was time to leave.

we met back up with nithya and made our way to knowhere for the rest of the night. saturday night is karaoke, so we met amai and a few others and enjoyed observing the singing and dancing. it was a great final night in bangalore, and we all had a great time.

sunday.

i intentionally finished all my running around on saturday so that i could spend sunday at home in chamarajpet. bern invited us over for a delicious lunch that included fried fish, nithya organized hourlong massages for us, i chilled with gopal, and amai stopped by for dinner. it was exactly the laidback, chill day at home i wanted, and it was great to have time with so much of the family.

and then it was time to go 😦 we had dinner, i packed the last of my stuff [it took 3 of us to zip my bag closed oops], and i left around 9.15pm to meet my parents at the airport. we made it through security and to the lounge, and i was able to have video calls with priyanka and deboo and with norten to say farewell before it was time to board.

and with that, we have reached the end of the trip! looking back it’s wild how much we did, and i know i’ll need to write another post or two with my personal reflections of returning after so many years away and the impact of it all. i’ll spare you on that for now and just say the entire journey was perfection. thank you for following along!

xx