For all those times when my nerves have gotten the better of me, and I’ve landed up at the airport hours before I need have, and for the times when I have had an hour or two to kill before a delayed flight, all I’ve needed is a comfortable seat, a cup of tea and some munchies. But those freezing ‘modern’ steel-and-chrome chairs, and the insipid fast food on offer in airports hardly qualify as comfortable or comforting. So the last time I travelled, I decided to check out the much-talked-about Above Ground Lounge on my way back to Delhi from Bengaluru.
The 13,000-sq-ft Above Ground Lounge in the domestic airport comprises three main areas—the café/bar, the high-tea island and the dining area—and can easily accommodate up to 250 guests. The high-tea area services the mid-morning and early evening crowd, and offers a range of delicacies from chaat and dosas to waffles and sandwiches, as well as juices and aerated drinks. The bar is open from 9am to 10:30pm, and is well stocked with IMFL and foreign liquor, but offers no cocktails. The dining area serves a breakfast-, lunch- and dinner buffet that offers ‘healthy’ food options prepared by the in-house chefs. The lounge also has a small business centre and modern restrooms, and is conveniently located next to the airport’s smoking room. The décor is a soothing mix of earth colours, and the areas are nicely demarcated without the use of walls, giving the lounge a lovely open-air feel.
I took the escalator up to the expansive space on the first floor to be greeted by a smiling concierge, who presented me with a custom-made package for the two hours I was to spend there before my flight. It was lunchtime when I got to the lounge, and I was pleased to find a healthy mix of Continental, Chinese and Indian food, and one of the best chocolate brownies I have ever tasted, being served in the dining area. My hunger sated, I sank into the most comfortable-looking chair in the room, and looked around me, taking in the story-board that runs along the walls depicting scenes from the Ramayana (reproductions of the works at Hampi), the soothing green spaces full of pots and planters, the skylights that let in just the right amount of natural light, and the fountain that lets its waters tinkle down creating soothing music. The lounge represented Bengaluru perfectly—modern, yet in touch with its roots, and airy, yet warm and bright like its people.
Open 24-hrs; packages in the domestic lounge start from Rs 450, and in the international lounge from Rs 900.