The South Bangalore food walk and research commenced unexpectedly over a cup of tea with a friend - Mohan Narayan, foodie and Basavanagudiphile (I'm pretty sure he made up that word). We were talking food, one thing led to another and I had roped him in to do a food walk taking in South Bangalore's legendary food joints. Not that he needed much convincing. So we undertook a few reconnaissance visits to joints like Vidyarthi Bhavan, Mahalakshmi Tiffin Rooms, et al, planned our route (MTR had to be dropped purely because of logistics) and the walk was ready. During this…
Read moreWhitefield - what kind of images would this name evoke? most likely IT - a glass and steel building, the Technology Park or maybe even the Sai Baba Ashram, anything but a village. Well, Whitefield or rather the old settlement of that name certainly qualifies as a village and a lost one at that.I first visited the old settlement more than a year ago in connection with another research project and was fascinated by its circular planning and wished to know more about its history. My starting point was of course, Lewis Rice's 1887 Mysore Gazette. In it he describes…
Read moreB L Rice, who was the director of Archeology in the Mysore state from 1884, described Vasantapura village in the 1887 Mysore Gazette as, “a village 5 miles south of Bangalore. Population 112. It is in no way remarkable but for an old temple of Vallabharaya Swami which is a favourite resort for native wedding parties from Bangalore”, and thus dismissed it.However, I decided it would be interesting to see how the place fared today given Bangalore’s exponential growth in all directions and so set out one day heading south on Kanakapura road past the Banashankari temple. I took the…
Read moreAgenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task force (ABIDe) is a Karnataka Government initiative to build a better Bengaluru. The agency’s main aim is to provide solutions to the challenges faced by the city. Given the number of agencies required to be involved in any issue of city level urban and social development, the initiative appears to be a step in the right direction. It makes sense to create a nodal agency to co-ordinate between the various principal stakeholders.Among other recommendations towards the betterment of the city the agency has just come up with a blue print for Bengaluru’s Heritage.…
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