Bangalore of Yore

I came to Bangalore in 1965 and I am living here ever since except for four years(1973-77) I was away, in all 45 years of residing in the city. In the 60s and 70s Bangalore was mostly cold and misty most of the day almost all through the years. In fact, a friend of mine from Bangalore married a Bombay girl when he was working there and his wife refused to come and reside in Bangalore as it is so dull and cloudy that even in the mid noon you have to have lights on in the kitchen. There marriage ended in divorce and I have a nagging feeling that Bangalore weather is one of the reason for it!

We used to take an evening walk right on the footpath next to Deccan Herald Prajavani Building from Brigade road end to Oriental Building and how: three of us in parallel swinging our arms with no obstruction or brushing off with people around which is unthinkable now!

I was residing in Wilson Garden then during my NIMHANS days(1965-1973) and used to reach any place from there in just 15 minutes on my Bajaj Scooter which would now take about an hour for the same distance.

All that leisure and luxury living has gone now. Old city of Bangalore exploded into a top global city with utilising at the centre almost the same size and dimensions of the old city, is now bursting with the seams.Bangalore was never built for a capital city, Mysore was the capital where even now we see broad roads and boulevards everywhere.

Leaders with far far sight and vision would have allowed the growth of Bangalore from the old city only as a parallel or satellite town with all amenities rather than crushed in the old city space.