Hope springs eternal in Garden City

As another IPL season rolls into Bengaluru, the franchise's fervent fan base, who packed the M Chinnaswamy stadium for a practice session, are ready to watch their heroes again

- VISHNU PRASAD

IN Bengaluru, the change in seasons is unmistakable. The city often tends to announce it with a colourful makeover. Since January, the garden city has been sporting pink with its iconic cherry blossoms - not the same trees as Japan but just as spellbinding in full bloom. But on Sunday, it signalled that another season had dawned by trading in the pink for a dark shade of red.

For the uninitiated, there were other signs. Traffic often froze in the road that separated the M Chinnaswamy Stadium from the nearby Cubbon Park, as vehicles patiently waited for droves of fans to finish crossing the road. Long queues of red snaked to the various gates of the stadium, flanked by hawkers selling replica jerseys and amateur artists offering a couple of lines of red paint across the face. All this could only mean one thing. The IPL season was here.