Monday, July 12, 2004

Bean City - Sillicon Valley of East - Pub City - Pensioner's Paradise - Garden City - Science City

I am hardcore Bangalorean and love this city very much. Someone recently forwarded following article on Bangalore's History. I didn't know so much about my city myself. So those of u who have a thing for the past history of Bangalore can go ahead.

PS: Its a lengthy one.

The popular tale of Bengalooru (now Bangalore) getting it's name from 'Bende Kaalu Ooru' meaning 'Town of boiled beans' after King Veera Ballala II of the Hoysala
dynasty in 1120 AD was fed boiled beans by an old woman in the forest is historically incorrect. The name 'Bengalooru' was recorded much before King Ballala's time in a 9th century inscription found in a temple in Begur village near Bangalore.

* Bangalore was founded by Kempe Gowda I, who in 1537 AD built a mud fort in an area which is now K.R Market, Avenue Road and it's nearby areas. Kempe Gowda built 8 gates for this fort:

1)Yelahanka Gate (present Mysore Bank Square).
2)Yeshwantpur Gate (near Upparapet police station).
3)Kengiri Gate (now a police station is named after it).
4)Halasoor (Ulsoor) Gate. (now a police station is named
after it).
5)Kanakanahalli Gate (near Vokkaligara Sangha Bldg).
6)Sonde Koppa Gate.
7)Anekal Gate.
8)Delhi Gate (at the Fort in K.R Market, which was
rebuilt in stone by Hyder Ali).
Inside the fort, he built the localities (pets) of
Balepet, Aralepet (Cottonpet), Chickpet, Doddapet
(Avenue Road), Upparapet, etc. To this day these areas
bear their old names, and serve as major wholesale &
commercial markets.



* Kempe Gowda II came to power in 1585 and it was he who set the limit for Bangalore's expansion by erecting 4 watch towers. These Watch towers still exists and are
known as the Kempe Gowda Towers.

* In 1638, the army of Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur, led by Ranadulla Khan & Shahaji Bhonsle (Shivaji's father) captured Bengalooru fort. Kempe Gowda II was then forced to retreat to Magadi, from where he and his successors ruled as Magadi Rulers. Magadi was later annexed to Mysore Kingdom in 1728.

* Bangalore was gifted twice as a Jagir and sold once. In 1638 AD, Adil Shah gifted it to Shahaji Bhonsle, thus starting the Maratha rule of Bangalore. In 1689, the
Mughals captured Bangalore from the Marathas and sold it to Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar of Mysore for 3 lakh pagodas (gold coins). In 1759, Hyder Ali, commander of Mysore's
army, received Bangalore as a Jagir from Krishnaraja Wodeyar II. Later Hyder Ali declared himself ruler of Mysore Kingdom after Krishnaraja Wodeyar II's death.
Bangalore returned to the Wodeyars after Hyder's son,Tippu Sultan, died in 1799 fighting the British.

* The British established the post of 'Mysore Resident' of Mysore Kingdom in 1799 and appointed Col.Sir Barry Close as the first Resident. In 1804 The Mysore Resident was
shifted from Mysore to Bangalore. The Resident's office & house known as 'The Residency'
was first situated in the SACRED HEARTS SCHOOL (GOOD SHEPHERD CONVENT) building opp St.Joseph's college in Bangalore. It also housed a jail, while the site across
the road where convicts were hanged now houses the ST. JOSEPH?S COLLEGE. Many a ghost was seen wandering about before the College came up! The Road along the 'Residency' came to be called 'RESIDENCY ROAD' and even today it's known as Residency Road though officially it has been changed to 'Gen. Cariappa Road'.

In fact 'The Residency' later in 1881 shifted to what is today the RAJ BHAVAN, but Residency Road has retained it's name ever since 1804 (now 200 years).

* The Raj Bhavan in Bangalore was built in 1840s & owned by Sir Mark Cubbon, who was Commissioner then. Cubbon was passionately fond of Arabian horses and used to keep at least fifty horses in his stable here. Lewin Benthem Bowring who succeeded Cubbon as Commissioner purchased the bungalow with its vast estate in 1862 for the British Govt to be used as the official Commissioner's Bunglow. Later when the post of Commissioner was abolished, the Resident came to stay here and it came to
be known as 'The Residency'. But the road still was known as Commissioner's Road, that is the reason why the road on the old Residency building continued to be known as 'Residency Road'.

* In 1806, the British established a new CANTONMENT AREA in Bangalore (at Ulsoor) for it's army and called it the 'Civil & Military Station'. Till India's independence this Cantonment area was ruled directly by the British.

Thus Bangalore comprised of two separate areas, to the West, Bangalore (Pettah) administered by the Mysore Maharaja, and to the East, Bangalore Cantonment,
administered as a separate unit by the British Govt through the Resident. Soon the Cantonment area became not only a military base for the British army & it's family, but also a settlement for a large number of Europeans, Anglo-Indians, missionaries, and Tamil speaking workers & traders from the neighbouring British controlled Madras Presidency. This is why the Cantonment area is today dominated by Tamilians.

* The Cantonment area under the British consisted of Shoolay, Blackpully (now SHIVAJINAGAR), The Parade (M.G ROAD AREA), St. John's Hill, Fraser Town, Benson Town,
Cleveland Town, Cox Town, Richard's Town, Ulsoor,Knoxpet (Murphy Town), Agram, Richmond Town, Langford Town, Austin Town (named after British Resident, Sir James Austin Bourdillon), Whitefield (Anglo-Indian Colony created in 1882), etc. Even today these Suburbs still exist. The names given to the roads in the Cantonment were according to the military arrangement and campus. Thus, there was Artillery Rd, Brigade Rd,Infantry Rd, Cavalry Rd, South Parade (now M.G ROAD),East Parade (near Mittal Towers), etc. The heart of the city in those days was the so called MacIver Town, the area around South Parade, St. Mark's Road, Brigade Road and Cubbon Road.

* The SHOOLAY area (now Ashoknagar) still has streets named Wood Street, Castle Street, etc. The name 'SHOOLAY CIRCLE', however, still exsits near Brigade Towers. The famous Shoolay Police Station of the Cantonment was renamed Ashoknagar Police Station and now it has been demolished.

* COLES PARK is named after British Resident of Mysore Kingdom, Arthur.H.Cole, who was Resident from 1809 - 1812 and again from 1818 - 1827.

* The British Cantonment area was also a host to SIR WINSTON CHURCHIL, the future British Prime Minister who stayed in Bangalore from 1897 to 1900.

* In 1892, new extensions were added to the old town of Bangalore (Pettah) by creating CHAMARAJPET (named after Chamarajendra Wodeyar) and SHESHADRIPURAM (named after the Mysore Diwan Sir K.Sheshadri Iyer).

* In 1898, a plague broke out in Bangalore. The Bangalore Administration at once laid out 2 new bigger extensions to the City to meet the demand that had risen due to
people being forced to leave their original areas that were affected. This resulted in laying out a suburb,named BASAVANGUDI after the Basaveswara (Bull God) Temple (also called Bull Temple) erected by Kempe Gowda I and another suburb, named MALLESWARAM, after the KaduMalleshwara (Siva) Temple in the old Mallapura village.

* In 1901, VICTORIA HOSPITAL was established in commemoration of Queen Victoria of England's Diamond Jubilee.

* In 1902, VANIVILAS HOSPITAL & SCHOOL was opened and the Road was also named VANIVILAS ROAD in memory of Maharani Vani Vilas Sannidhana, the Queen Regent of Mysore.

* In 1905, Bangalore became the first city in India to get electrical power.

* During the post-Independence period KUMARA PARK area came into existence in 1947, JAYANAGAR was inaugurated in 1948, and at Binnamangala was created the INDIRANAGAR
extension during the late 1960s.

* The large stone building on Residency Road, now housing L.I.C adjacent to Devatha Plaza once housed The Reserve Bank of India. The present canteen of L.I.C was once the
strongroom of the bank!

* One wonders why in the old records there is a reference to 'CENOTAPH ROAD'in Bangalore when there is none to be seen. Cenotaph Road is today the NRUPATHUNGA ROAD named after Kanada poet Nrupathunga. The Cenotaph (Tomblike
monument), was there at what is now the Corporation Circle. This Cenotaph was built in memory of Lt. Col.Moorhouse, Capt. Delany and about 50 soldiers who died in the siege in 1791, besides soldiers who died in different wars with Tipu Sultan till 1799. This monument was destroyed on Oct 28th 1964, by the Bangalore City Corporation and even the engraved stones are not to be traced! Only one broken small section piece has been
located in the Corporation compound, used as a bench.

* CUBBON PARK is named after Sir Mark Cubbon, who was the British Commissioner of Mysore Kingdom from 1834 to 1861. Sir Mark, incidentally, had never set his eyes on the park. He left India in April 1861, and died on his way back home at Suez on 23rd April 1861. Cubbon Park was planned in 1864 by Sir Richard Sankey,
the then Chief Engineer of Mysore (SANKEY TANK & SANKEY ROAD is named after Richard Sankey). The park was initially known as 'Meades Park' after John Meade, the then acting Commissioner of Mysore.Subsequently it was rechristened as Chamarajendra Park
in 1927 and later came to be known as Cubbon Park.

* CHURCH STREET at M.G's is called so, because the road used to lead directly to St.Marks Church. At one time the compound of the Church was much bigger and the Church could be seen as you walked along Church Street.

* MUSEUM ROAD next to Church Street was named so since the Museum was located there before it was shifted to the present Kasturba Road in 1866.

* MAYO HALL at M.G Road was erected in memory of Lord Mayo, the Governor-General of India who was assassinated in the Andamans in 1872. Built with public subscription it was handed over to the Municipal Commission in 1883.

* LALBAGH (meaning Red Garden) is not the original name of the famous garden in Bangalore, which was established by Hyder Ali in 1760 as a mango garden. In earlier records it was referred to as the Mango Tope & the Cypress Garden. The reason why people started calling it Lalbagh was due to the fact that Hyder & Tipu had a beautiful garden called Lalbagh at their capital, Srirangapatna.

* THE HOLY TRINITY CHURCH at Trinity Circle, at the end of M.G Road, was earlier the British Army's Garrison church, opened in 1851. The beauty of Trinity Church is not only in it's tall tower & unparalleled pillars, but also the British military memorials inside.

* In 1868 the construction of Attara Kacheri (present High Court) was completed. The Secretariat (with 18 revenue departments) was shifted to Attara Kacheri from Tippu's
Palace at K.R Market. Attara Kacheri literally means '18 Courts/Offices'.

* The TAJ WEST END HOTEL is the oldest Hotel in Bangalore and still maintains some of it's earlier memories!! The original Proprietors were Spencer & Co Ltd, Madras.Today it's owned by the Taj Group of Hotels.

* Opposite the Telegraph Office near Bangalore GPO, is the compound of the most famous Hotel of the late 1800's,The Cubbon Hotel. Today it is in ruins.

* Spencer & Co (where FOOD WORLD is now located) started by an Englishman, Mr.Oakshot, was the most sophisticated and only Departmental Store in B'lore in earlier days.

* On the West of Spencer's (present Food World) one used to find Liberty Theatre (today, try Handloom House!). Before it was called Liberty, it was The Globe, and
before that the Crystal Picture Palace.

* The very popular Funnel's Restaurant of the 1800's & early 1900's stood where the present DECCAN HERALD Office stands at M.G Road.

* S.J POLYTECHNIC & SILVER JUBILEE PARK (at K.R MARKET - KRISHNA RAJENDRA MARKET) was set up in 1927 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee Celebration of Mysore Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. The SJP ROAD thus got it's name.

* J.C ROAD (Jayachamarajendra Road) is named after Jayachamaraja Wodeyar the last Maharaja of Mysore.

* The TATA SILK FARM was established south of Basavanagudi in 1906. The farm no longer exists but the area however is still known as 'Tata Silk Farm'.

* In 1910 a General Hospital was opened at Malleshwaram and named after Mysore Princess Kempu Cheluvarajamnanni. Today this Hospital at Malleshwaram Circle is popularly
known as K.C GENERAL HOSPITAL.

* Bangalore once had 141 lakes (tanks) of which 7 are untraceable, 7 are now small pools of water, 18 are illegally occupied by slums & private parties, 14 were dried up & leased out by the Government, 28 have been converted as parks, BDA housing extensions, & commercial areas and the remaining 67 lakes are in fairly advanced state of deterioration, save for two or three like Ulsoor lake, Sankey tank, Hebbal, etc.

Some famous tanks which does not exsit now are ...

1)Dharamambudi tank (present SUBASH NAGAR, BANGALORE
CITY TRANSPORT SERVICE & KSRTC bUS STANDS are built on
the bed of this lake). That's why we still have a road
named TANKBUND ROAD in that area.
2)Sampangi tank (present KANTEERAVA STADIUM was built on
the bed of this lake).
3)Miller's Tank (now houses Guru Nanak Bhavan, schools,
and several buildings).
4)The Halasoor Tank (now called ULSOOR LAKE), is the only
surviving tank built by the Gowda (Kempe Gowda) Rulers
in Bangalore.


* Gandhinagar area is popularly nicknamed MAJESTIC,because of the Majestic Talkies (Theatre), which still exists in that area.

* ANANDA RAO CIRCLE at Majestic is named after shri T. Ananda Rao, who was Dewan of Mysore from 1909 - 1912.

* VIDHANA SOUDHA, which houses the state Goverment's Secretariat & Legislative Assembly. It was planned & constructed in 1954 by Kengal Hanumanthaih, Chief
Minister of the then Mysore State (between 1951-1956). The Double Road near Lalbagh is now named KENGAL HANUMANTHAIH ROAD (K.H ROAD).

* CHOWDIAH MEMORIAL HALL, opp Sankey Tank, has been built in memory of T. Chowdiah, a noted musician & violinist. This building is shaped like a violin, the stringed instrument of Chowdiah. Also the road along the Nehru Planetarium near Raj Bhavan is named T.CHOWDAIH ROAD.

* RAVINDRA KALAKSHETRA, near K.R Market was built to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's centenary. It promotes cultural activity. R.T NAGAR is also named after Rabindranath Tagore.


Bangalore used to be called the Pensioner's Paradise. However, today it's the Pensioner's lost Paradise, with Information Technology modernising the whole place. So, take a glimpse at some of her eroding past, before it is too late. And do update others if you know something more about Bangalore's past.

Here are few links on Bangalore:

My City

NightLife In the city

Where u can kill your hunger

Where u can have a pleasant stay when u drop by

Where does Bangalore stand in IT

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

The Great Indian IT Industry

Indian IT professionals have earned a lot of fame all over world for there expertise in any domain under IT. No doubt about that,i am proud being one.
It has been 11 months since i have enetered this "IT Industry" and i already have loads of experience. Some of them which i will never experience anywhere else and some really eye openers.

During my early days in this industry, i had the oppurtunity to work with some of the best people in the field. Later on i started realeasing how exactly this so called IT Industry works. Most folks(IT professionals) have loads of Experience in there CV's. But later on get to know the real experience they have when u start working with them. myself i am not the best in what i do, i can rate myself as any average guy. But some of my folks with so called Experience, really don't even have that much techincal knowledge. I don't want to generalise all the IT Professional here, but i feel most of the people who have spent there time ideally with out a job, add such kind of fake experience in their CV's. They work for a single company and when they plan to jump for another comapny they add the experience and cover up smartly. The management who hires these Exp. folks pay them so much just for that Exp. they posses.


I don't know how many people in this industry are like that, may be it happening from the intial time the IT boom happened in India. But all i can say is that sometimes it is not really worth paying such pay checks for a guy who hardly does any productive work for the company. And moreover it works out very well for such Exp people to move from company to company when the IT industry is blooming once again. As the popular saying goes "Make hay when the sun shines", these people are following the same.


I don't know whether it happens in any other industry, but it surely does happen in IT Industry and it surely happens in INDIA.

Hopefully the people who are into recruiting Exp people, do the right check before hiring there services.

comments are always welcome.

Monday, July 05, 2004

Trek to Tadiandamol

The Trek to Tadiandamol.


It had been 4 months since i had been out of the city for another great adventure in the Jungles of Karantaka. Finally called upon few of my friends who were willing to break from the same routine of 9-9 work schedules. Since i have been to treks with different set of friends like School mates, Engineering mates and off late with colleagues, it took sometime to get the response from each of them. After a lot of correspondance between my friends who work in diverse tribes of IT, we finally managed to find a common date for the weekend getaway, that would be 11thJune2004.Unfortunately many of them backed off at the last moment, so finally we were four of us. Myself, Raghunanadhan(Rags), Naveen and Matthew.

As always we planned to leave on friday night by KSRTC bus from Majestic to Virajpet. We took the ordinary bus which leaves Bangalore city at around 2200hrs. The only thing which we regret on this tour by travelling in an ordinary bus. I would suggest u to take a Rajahamsa Bus which would be much comforting on your night travel.

As Virajpet is around 270kms from Banaglore it would take around 6 hrs of journey. You do have 3 10'mins stops on the way to Virajpet. I could never catch sleep during the entire journey because of this huge person who was sitting next to me, I could notice matthew feeling uneasy with the seat. We envied naveen & rags who sleept for most of the journey.

Finally, we reached Virajpet in the wee hours of morning i.e around 0430hrs. It was already drizlling and we could predict the weather for rest of theday. Anyways we knew before we landed in Virajpet that it would be raining in Coorg district, as it was rainy season here and we were prepared to take on the rain. The tea shop was open by then, so we had our chai and biscuit. We got some brief inputs from the shopkeeper and now we
had to plan our schedule for the remaining day.

Search for Lodging

Since Tadiandamol is around 40Kms from here, we decided that Virajpet would be our base were we would halt for the night. So first we needed a place to lodge. But due to our(rags and myself) previous experience in Kushalnagar where we had a tough time getting accomadation due to the peak season, we hoped that this time which was off-peak we wouldn't face the same. First we went to Shiva's Regency and the manager says rooms are available and each one would cost Rs250 for 24 hrs, we were happy, but the underlying catch was that only 2 per room. Which lead us to search for other Lodges, we did find Bhagyalkshmi and Sangeeta, but for our misfortune both were full. After walking through the lanes of Virjapet in the wee hours with the drizzle we finally had to came back to our only option, Shiva's Regency. As soon as we got the rooms, me and matthew wanted to catch some sleep and decided that we would start our next journey at around 0800hrs. I
had one of my deep and short sleep. Freshened up and was little off to see that climate here had not changed even after 3hrs. We had our breakfast in the Hotel which is attached to the lodge.

The journey to Aaramane Gate

Finally we took the Express bus to Aaramane Gate from the Private bus stop at 0915hrs. The journey was very long one, i say that because just to travel 40 kms it took almost two and half hours. But the travel to Araamane gate was a memorable one. I have always heard about the weather here in Coorg and South canara districts change very rapidly, but here i was witenssing what i had heard about. It is absolutely amazing to see how nature chnages her behaviour in every second, every moment is different in these
places. It keeps changing with every breath you take, from bright sunlight to dark clouds covering the sky and with in the next few seconds it starts raining.All along the journey u see the dense coffee estates with patches of paddy fields on either side the roads. The secene is in the eyes of beholder, which i will never forget. You are far away from the concrete jungle, the pollution in all forms(noise,air,water) most of all
the maddening crowd.

Conquering the highest peak in Coorg district

After passing by Karanga, Napokla, kakabbi we reached Aaramane Gate at around 1145hrs. From the bus stop, we need to walk for 3kms to reach the base of the hill. It was still raining when we got down from the bus, we took shelter in the bus stop. There we met a carpenter he was saying that we have come during wrong time, as he said it would be very
difficult to climb the hill while raining and lot of leeches. He also said there would be lot of mist and winds would be very strong. The rain never seemed to end, so we began our trek. Intially we were little bit apprehensive to get drenched in the rain, so we used to run for shelter. We did find couple of well built desreted houses. So took shelter there whenever the rain got worse. But there was no point in doing so, as we go ahead we were definite that we would not find such shelter and should be prepared for the worse. From then on we got drenched in rain and loved everybit of it. On the way we found misty woods a KSTDC underatking cottages.

Near the base of the hill we met Mr Pooviah, he was really helpful to us in giving us the directions for our trek by giving us some important landmarks. He aslo cautioned us for the loose rocks and the leeches we would encounter on our trek. He told it would take around 5hrs to and fro for a professional group. We then left for our final destination. Initial 1.5 kms is on road after that we encounter a Water fall, after
crossing that we hit the jeep tracks and then finally a foot way which leads into the forest. We encounter a lot of water falls and also lot of leech attacks, each time we pass by a marshy place or a water source each one had to check their shoes for the leeches. Fortunately no one got bit while we were climbing. It was really amazing weather were there was sunshine, mist and drizzle all at the same time. And also heavy
wind were blowing against us. The best part was that we never had any signal on our mobiles while we inside the forests, Once we reached the top of the hill we were surprised to get full signal strength from both(Airtel & Hutch) the providers. We spoke to each of our loved ones we were very excited to be there. It was 14:30 hrs and we decided to have our lunch there. After lunch we decided to walk untill 15:30hrs after that irrespecive of what position we reach the hill point we had to get back to the base, the reason for that was the last bus which we could get to Virajpet would come there at 18:15hrs.

We were not sure how far the peak was as it was totally misty and we could never realize where we stood. It was only when the sun shines for few seconds we would realise where we were. Myself and naveen reached a certain point and we stopped trekking. But matthew and rags went ahead withe their ambition of reaching the peak of the hill. But later on we realised that we were some 48 mts short from the peak. Anyways we enjoyed every bit of our trek and thetime had come for us to descend the hill.

Descending was much easier as always. Again we had to fight those blood suckers, and this time some of us were not so lucky enough. Naveen got the leech bite on his ankle. Then we finally reahed the base of the hill by 1715hrs. Then we went to the palace there which is called Aaramane. It is maintained in a very bad condition, and neither is it open for us to enter inside the palace, as it is looked by ASI. Finally reached the Bus stop by 1750 hrs. All the four of us were completely drenched in rain. I feel we would never again get wet so much in our life time.

We got the bus to virajpet, it took an hour and half to reach Virajpet. Reached the hotel around 19:45hrs. Now when i removed my shoes i was surprised to see a leech inside, and the worst was yet to come. Naveen removed his shirt and all of us were shocked to see that a leech had got all the way to his shoulder and it managed to give him the bite and our naveen never felt it bite him. The leech some how had got squashed
inside and naveen blood was all over. He had lost atleast 100ml of blood i feel. Then everyone of us where anxious to check our body for more leeches clinging. Then we finally had our dinner and good 1hr talk before each one went to their bed.

We enjoyed every drop of rain and the leech bite we had on this amazing trek. It was a completely unique experience for each one of us on this trek. Trek to each place itself is Unique, but what makes this even more distinct is the very fact that i have never experienced such a weather in any of my previous treks. They say the ideal time is early
winter to trek Tadiandamol, but ask any one of us who had been here and we would suggest that you pack u'r bags and head for this place during the month of June/July, it would be one good experience, which i am sure will last as long as you live on this planet.

...........Some more articles are going to follow. Comments are welcome always.
If u want to know anything you can always reach me @ kondur_vivek@yahoo.com.
U can read one more experience of my friend,this