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| "Drag that block to the right!" "Nah, this tree is not fitting in." |
Droplets of Carnatic music piggybacked freshly emitted oxygen molecules to reach my eardrums. I looked at the surrounding green, baffled. “It’s the Band Stand”, said Ratna, looking intently at her mobile screen where the results of a Google image search on ‘structures in Cubbon Park’ neatly arranged themselves. A girl, aged eight or nine, performed Bharatnatyam on the roofed octagonal platform at some distance. The electric blue of her elaborate attire stood at odds with the many shades of green around, while her braid, interlaced with threads of Zari, danced to its very own rhythm. “The bandstand was built in the early part of the 1900s. Before India’s Independence, the British Royal Air Force used to play western band music at the bandstand every Saturday evening.” - The God of information chose to enlighten us, while three pairs of bespectacled eyes scanned the nooks and corners of the landscape in an attempt to solve a jigsaw puzzle!
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| One of the many beauties of Cubbon |
We were on a mobile app-based treasure hunt. And our quest for treasure made us achieve an unthinkable feat – it had us drag ourselves out of the beloved mess of bedsheets, blankets and pillows on an early Sunday morning, head for the Cubbon Park and cover some six and a half thousand steps individually in the next ninety minutes. To put it to perspective, we look pretty much like the laziest of sloths on usual weekends.
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| "Cracked it!" |
But boy, you might’ve taken us for school kids had you seen us jump, grinning from ear to ear, at cracking a clue, or put up the grumpiest of faces at having narrowly missed one. We brainstormed as if our next pay increment depended on it, we wore our weirdest expressions in the selfies that the game required us to check in, and threats were hurled at me for my occasional diversion to photograph crows! ‘Sparrowz Quest @ Cubbon Park’, as they call the game, made the three hundred acres island of green open up in layers before our otherwise green-starved eyes. It made us take a close, curious look at its historical buildings and monuments, the many artefacts of art strewn across, the natural arrangement of its age-old rocks, the gardens in full bloom, and those with tiny saplings sprouting their first tender leaves.
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| Fun moments! |
The world of virtual gaming, from its very inception, has holed up our kind within the confines of walls. Frantic tugs on joysticks and wheels, anxious taps on touchscreens have set our adrenaline rushing. Sweating it out under the morning sun has been rendered unexciting, much like force-feeding yourself with karela-beetroot juice the first thing in the morning. From Pong to Snake to Super Mario to Angry Birds to League of Legends, electronic device based games have advanced and diversified by leaps and bounds, while our traditional outdoor games fell behind. Unless played in professional circuits, the latter has long ceased to be the talk of the town.
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| Of course, good deeds deserve good coffee! |
In a very welcome move, innovative souls have begun to wonder if grass and sun, fitness and fun can be made to shake hands with technology.
Sparrowz is one such venture. Cut down on a couple of trips to the movie theatres in the next few weekends (Netflix is anyways there, yeah?) and take your pick among the galore of options offered by Sparrowz. There’s a ‘
Kopatty Trek’ for the trekkers, a ‘
Lalbagh Trail’ for the nature-lovers, a ‘
Basavanagudi Food Trail’ for the foodies, a ‘
Discover Battle Tanks’ for the history-enthusiasts, a ‘
Bengaluru Selfie Challenge’ for those who’d have their next social media DP earn 500 likes, and more! Walk. See. Think. Hunt. Tag your kid(s) along if possible. Offer feedback. Spread the word. Make this revolution big!
Why? ‘Coz it’s fresh...
And it’s fun…
And it’s just the push that we, the famed couch potatoes, needed to step out…
And out is GOOD!
Notes: And here's the buzz around Sparrowz:
Some more pics:
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| The crows that I ended up shooting anyways |
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| More crows, more bamboo |
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| Hypotheses and debates on the next clue |
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| The Rock Garden |
Haven't been to Cubbon Park quite for a few months, even accidentally. Sparrows is definitly a very innovative venture.
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving your comment. This was in fact my first visit to Cubbon Park, and had it not been pretty far from my place, I'd have gone for a repeat visit already :-). Sparrowz is a good move. You can try out one of their hunts.
DeleteLoved the way you wrote it, Antara. I am an old, and I am vain to believe —incorrigible, gamer, although I have mixed feelings over Pokemon-styled franchises. Perhaps someday VR would allow me to transform myself into Prince of Persia some day and rescue the vial of sand from some prehistoric monument.
ReplyDeleteI would like to rescue the Princess too!
Many thanks for noticing my post, making time to read through it and leaving your thoughts (which are, as always, well-worded). The Sparrowz hunts, in their present form, are not quite like the Pokemon-styled VR simulation. They're more of clue-based treasure hunts using an interactive app. You solve one puzzle, and you're presented another. I've always been a fan of simplicity (remember Mummy Maze?), what about you?
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