When bicycles were a luxury and avenue trees the norm in Bengaluru Premium

Bharat Ratna awardee and Bengaluru-based scientist C.N.R. Rao recollects the momories of good old Bangalore when it was filled with trees and not vehicles and skyscrappers.

Bengaluru (then Bangalore), when I was young, was a simple, quiet place full of trees and little traffic. Most people walked, and a fortunate few had bicycles.

I always enjoyed walking along the Krishnarajendra Road with huge trees. Going from the south of Bangalore (Basavangudi) to the City Market was, therefore, always a pleasure. There were some buses running in Bengaluru, but most people that I knew did not use them.

The city also had wonderful weather. I had not seen a fan at that time. The number of institutions in the city was very small compared to today’s scale. There was only one college where one could get a science degree at the University of Mysore. We had a small number of private schools and four government high schools in the city. In such a Bengaluru, I was born nearly 84 years ago.

Teaching in high schools was quite good at that time. My interest in science actually got kindled when I was studying at Acharya Patashala, Bangalore. I did not take part in sports seriously. I participated in debates, writing competitions and some literary activities.

The city has changed enormously in the last 25 years or so. I am afraid that it has changed without our being conscious of how fast and how far it has gone. I am amazed by the changes in the shape and size of Bengaluru.

There must have been a planning committee and a master plan, but I do not know whether sufficient attention was paid to the way the city was growing. I get frightened even while going in a car when I see huge 40-storeyed towers just next to the road. I learn that a majority of the flats in the towers are vacant. Bengaluru is probably one of the good examples to demonstrate the ill effects of unplanned urbanization.

Sometimes, I get a feeling that the intellectual and romantic atmosphere of Bengaluru of the early days has disappeared. When I was young, I often used to see D.V. Gundappa, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Gopalakrishna Adiga and other scholars. T.P. Kailasam was somebody whom I used to see every few days walking with a cigarette tin in his hands. I do not think that it is possible to see poets and artists walking on the streets of this big city any more.