The Hindu : Front Page : Gantiganahalli has the best seats in the house

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Sunday, Feb 13, 2011
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Gantiganahalli has the best seats in the house

Divya Gandhi

Bangalore: From behind a heap of beans she sells from a little pumphouse, 70-year-old Akkayamma peered out incredulously at the scene before her. The stark landscape of Gantiganahalli now had every ingredient of a carnival — complete with thronging crowds and ice-cream vendors.

Noisy antics

As for entertainment, it came from the skies: the noisy antics of Aero India 2011. Gantiganahalli, with just a compound wall separating it from the Air Force Station at Yelahanka, was indeed a vantage point.

Thousands of men, women and children from surrounding villages, and from Yelahanka New Town, descended upon the village on Saturday, occupying every little perch. Haystacks, the tops of tempos, and even the roof of Akayamma's pumphouse was populated with people looking skyward at the Sarang helicopters and Eurofighter planes that seemed to fly too close for comfort.

Mansoor, a sugarcane juice vendor, was pleased that the fields around Gantiganahalli had morphed into a village fair. “The crowds have been increasing every day and vendors have been coming in from all around.”

He too pushed his cart from Yelahanka New Town, 6 km away, to this village where his income had doubled. “I've made Rs. 1,000 this morning.”

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