I identified a few places to visit in the south-west of Bangalore.
The first was Tipu Sultan’s Palace. This was reached easily using Bangalore’s two metro lines: purple and green. A taxi driver told me a third line was being built.
Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) was a ruler of the Kingdon of Mysore. He was responsible for many advances to Indian life. He modernised the military and developed a rocket artillery that influenced later European military developments. His economic and cultural changes included developing a prosperous silk industry. He encouraged trade with foreign nations. He supported literature, art, and architecture. This enhanced Mysore’s cultural heritage. He also built many palaces, forts, and public works, including Lalbagh, Bangalore’s botanical gardens. He did not build the stunning Mysore Palace, which I went to on my first visit to India. That was built by the Wodeyar dynasty. They also built Bangalore Palace.
Tipu Sultan was an innovator and reformer. Apart from those listed above, he
- Changed the administration to reduce corruption
- Established new coinage and a banking system
- Introduced a new calendar
- Changed the system of weights and measures
- Promoted education and scholarship
- Improved agriculture by introducing land reforms, new crops, and new irrigation systems.
Although he stopped British colonial expansion to South India, he died defending his capital, Srirangapatna, against British forces.
The Palace is a shadow of its former self, now hollowed out.
Continuing south-west, I went to what is popularly called the Bull Temple. It’s name must come from the stone bull statue in the temple. The temple was nothing to shout about. The only saving grace was that I didn’t have to queue for a long time to see it.
The temple is next to Bugle Rock Park. Like Japan and South Korea, there was an outdoor gym. Women (mostly) were working out. The park, curiously, had statues of animals.
I wasn’t sure where to go next but then remembered Gandhi Bazaar was nearby. I walked to it and thankfully it wasn’t as busy as the KR Market the other day.
The only thing I bought was a button battery, which turned out to be difficult to buy. Eventually, someone pointed me to GK Electricals, which wasn’t a shop you could go in. You asked at the outward facing counter for what you wanted.
It took an hour to get across town to the restaurant I’d planned on eating in. I made the mistake of not using some combination of metro and auto.
When I got to Copper+Cloves, it had already taken last orders. I tried to persuade the young and friendly greeter to get me a table. He tried a few times. The manager then appeared. She said I could order a takeaway. I, rather cheekily, asked if I could order a takeaway but eat it in the restaurant whilst people were still there! She agreed. I ordered quickly and sat down. I wondered what the in-house ‘chorizo’, consisting of whipped tofu ‘feta’ and chimichurri green peas would taste like. The food, when it came, was tasty. It was accompanied by a few slices of sourdough bread. To drink, I had the miso caramel banana and sesame shake, which was surprisingly good despite the odd ingredients.
I didn’t mind that the meal wasn’t that substantial or that it was relatively expensive by Indian standards. The modern design and light, airy atmosphere were clearly catering for middle-class Indians. The price I paid would have fed five people. They would need to be content with masala dosa, which I’m always happy having.
The following day was quiet. I’d been doing too much every day and wanted to slow down. The heat can exhaust you without you realising.
I went to Church Street Starbucks. A started talking to this retired accountant who was with a student friend. They were sitting next to me. I’m not sure how the conversation started. I think the ex-accountant may have asked, “Are you working?”. I replied that I was writing my blog. This triggered a conversation about travel and Bangalore. The ex-accountant used to work in Mumbai then settled in Bangalore when he retired.
At one point, the student noticed from laptop screensaver that it was running Linux Mint. He asked why I was using it on my laptop. He said everyone he knows runs Windows. He used Linux Mint too. When he found I had a background in technology, he started asking me various technical questions.
We eventually turned to politics in India, USA and UK. The student said he’d heard a few things about the UK on social media. He wanted to know if they were true. Was knife crime in London out of control? Were Africans regarded as British by British people? And so on. He said no matter what he did on YouTube, he ended up being shown right-wing videos!
I asked them about the traffic in Bangalore. I mentioned that an auto driver told me traffic was heavy between 4pm and 9pm. They agreed that this was a gross underestimate. From the morning rush hour, the roads are busy. I said I had started using the metro more and they said that was what they did also. Two more metro lines were being built. This was one more than I was told yesterday!
Bangalore, they said, had expanded considerably. The population in 1950 was 764,000. The projected figure for 2025 is 14 million. That’s an eighteen-fold increase. Infrastructure development had not kept up. I’m not sure any country could cope with that sort of population increase.
Nowadays, my usual routine was to get an auto to the metro when it was hot, which is always so far. Take the metro to the nearest point to my destination. Take another auto to my destination — if it’s too far/hot to walk.
One of the curious things about India generally is how bad the paving is. The ex-accountant said that apart from contractors abandoning the work, there were two causes. Firstly, rats were eroding the pavement support, causing pavements to crack and collapse. Secondly, the tree roots were expanding, causing pavements to crack and rise.
We spoke for a couple of hours. So not much of my blog was written. The student asked for my blog website. When he saw it, his face lit up. It turned out the ex-accountant’s surname was the same as mine! He said one of his grandparents was from the same place in Gujarat as my parents. Even in a country of 1.46 billion people, it’s a small world.
That evening, I went to a local restaurant that someone had recommended and had a simple masala dosa 😁.
