A tale of two cities within a city

A tale of two cities within a city
New Indian Express

BAMGALORE: Underneath the thick layer of filth and grime that covers the streets of KR Market and below the high-rise malls on Brigade Road and the erstwhile South Parade Road, behind the busy facades of the people that make up India’s newest metropolis, there exists the last vestiges of a little city that grew beyond its four border towers.

It is this ‘Bengaluru’ of the old timers that gave the city many of its earlier names like Pensioner’s Paradise and the Garden City. As the dot coms erupted into the plush air-conditioned offices of the multi-national companies, ‘Bengaluru’ became the fashionable Bangalore.

The change happened before the roads were widened, before the flyovers and the one-ways, before the people were ready for their role as the centre of an ever-burgeoning industry.

What K K S Murthy, one of the city’s knowledgeable old-timers, recollects most about 1956 is the joy of walking. With infrequent buses and with all the time on their hands, people enjoyed walking long distances just for a cup of coffee or simply to while away the time.

Fans were almost unheard of because the city was naturally air-conditioned. Motor cars were a novelty reserved for the very rich, while bicycles were a luxury of their own. Films, drama companies and the company of friends were the only means to de-stress. But then, the pace of life was so relaxed that stress itself was alien to Bangaloreans.

Cars could be parked just about anywhere. Young boys had plenty of empty spaces to play cricket and gilli-danda. Old bungalows lovingly preserved the history of various cities within its tall ceilings. And the only noise you heard was those of the birds, the feathered kind.

Fifty years on, the bungalows have made way for malls and the only empty spaces are above the buildings, in the air. But look long and hard enough and you see that the two cities continue to exist side by side, the IT capital Bangalore and the older, slower Bengaluru.

They don’t often meet. But when they do, they are cordial and therein the history is preserved, even as newer stories are being created.