When bicycles were a luxury and avenue trees the norm in Bengaluru Premium
The Hindu
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.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, rejected a plea by former special Director General of Police (DGP) Rajesh Das to restore the electricity service connection to a bungalow in Thaiyur near Kelambakkam in Chengalpattu district, and to restrain Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) officials from disturbing the power supply in future.
The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, permitted Anna University to deposit, in three monthly instalments, an amount of ₹73.23 lakh before the Central Government Industrial Tribunal (CGIT) as a condition to hear a statutory appeal preferred by the varsity against the Coimbatore Regional Provident Fund (RPF) Commissioner’s order to pay dues to the tune of ₹2.44 crore to contract employees.