Taking a suggestion from another team’s manager, I began searching for information on a city tour called “Bangalore Walk’s”. With one of our executives visiting next week this would be an excellent way to show him the city, as well as a way to for “us locals” learn more about our current place of residents.
Scheduled to start at 8am (which I now consider early), we all met at our desks. The tour would consist of a tour guide showing Matt and his wife Stacey as well as Neal and me, several different aspects of the city starting from when it was under British rule. The tour guide, Arun, is well known around our India offices as he went to business school with our General Manager. After school he spent some time working and traveling around India, the United Kingdom and the United states, eventually returning to India. Tired of the corporate lifestyle he started a tour company to bring him back to something he loved.
Getting a brief description of the planned activities, we loaded into the car and started the tour. Having stated that Arun would not take offense to any of the questions we asked we started firing away. Arriving at Ramana Maharshi Park our questions stopped as Arun began the standard tour speech. In 1537 as a reward for his duties to the army, Kempe Gowda was sent to lay claim to a new city. Upon arriving in the area in which Bangalore stands today, he sent 4 cows off in opposite directions. The city boundary would be staked by marking the spot in which the cow stood at nightfall. Kempa Gowda then built 4 identical watch towers overlooking his city. This park houses the northernmost watchtower, the other 3 can be found at Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, Bugle Rock, and inside Tipu's Fort in the City Market. Few Bangalorean’s have seen all four of them, Stacey and I have seen two. Like many parks in Bangalore this one was beautiful. Vibrant yellow trees surrounded by flowers of all colors, open areas filled with well manicured grass and completely trash free. Enjoying the fresh air, which is hard to come by in this city, we took some snaps and then regrouped in the car. Back in the air conditioning we headed to off to our next destination, Mahatma Gandhi Park.
Located just off MG Road (standing for Mahatma Gandhi), which come to find out every town in India has, was a little park with a statue of Gandhi. Like the other park, this one was also in excellent condition and free of trash. This is mainly due to the 2 rupee fee required for visiting the park. Adorn with flowers and walking paths this too was a beautiful park. Walking across the street we ventured into the much larger Cubbon Park. Standing in front of a statue of Queen Elizabeth, Arun described the many British presences that can still be seen in Bangalore today. Relating Cubbon Park to the last park he explained the role that Mahatma Gandhi played in getting the British to leave the city and return back to their home lands. Walking through the park, we learned that often the people sleeping on the park benches are not homeless; in fact they often hold well paying jobs and could even be high class citizens. It is very common in India, much as it is in Mexico, to take a break from the busy work day and head to a park to take a nap. As we continued to walk we realized that humans were not the only mammals that enjoyed a nap in the park. This park is popular for early morning runners, people needing an escape for the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and is simply a common place to relax. Many Indian families grew up going to parks as it is a free activity.
Exiting the park we now stand in the government district of the city. This area is surrounded by magnificently designed, extraordinarily massive buildings. Bright red in color, the Karnataka High Court building is home to the states supreme judges. Across the street, Vidana Souda, is home to Karnataka’s state legislature, which happened to be in session as we wondered by. Constructed mainly of marble, visitors admire the comical entrance which states “Government work is God’s work”.
Once again we entered the now much needed air conditioned car we headed to our next destination. Traveling through the city we passed many of the buildings that were built for the British officers that still stand today. Reaching the end of MG road we pulled down a drive which lead us to a tiny church. Looking like a small town church we ventured inside. Looking around Arun showed us all of the plaques on the wall. A plaque was put on the wall after each war, battle, or conflict to remember the fallen soldiers from a unit. He pointed out one plaque in particular as it had 24 of the 25 member unit on it. The only name missing happened to be a member of this church, Winston Churchill.
Packing back into the vehicle we headed to our final destination. Shiva Temple, located near Lido mall. The street looked like a typical Indian street, lined with a variety of shops on either side. These shops consisted of clothing makers, tailors, Jewelry stores, sweet makers, and many others. Getting out near a sweet shop, we watched the employees in the back room making a fresh batch of product. Made primarily from milk and sugar, the sweets are all hand made in the back room. It was similar to watching them make food at McDonalds, once you see it you will not want to eat their again… Past a shoe salesman, we headed down an alley. Curious to the random white people walking through their area the locals stopped to chat. They even showed us how they clean jewelry with a nut that naturally creates a soap like texture when dipped in water. Once through the alley it opened up into a court yard like area. Hidden in the back was the Shiva Temple. Taking off our shoes we placed them in a pile like we knew what we were doing. We then walked around the corner and just hoped our shoes would be there when we returned. Heading into the temple Arun told us to repeat everything he did. Reaching the middle of the temple a gentleman asked us our names, he then said a few words which none of us but Arun understood. He then handed each of us a Banana and some jasmine flowers and we headed on our way. On the way out we walked through a back tunnel that had several statues embedded in the wall. Every so often a bell was hung from the ceiling; each of us tapped it as we passed underneath. Why, I am still not sure today. Walking to the backside of the temple Arun began explaining what we just took place in. We then went into an in depth discussion about “what is Hinduism”. He explained that Hinduism is like Linux….yup that’s right a computer OS. The reason for this is that there are no rules and regulations to Hinduism. Many people of the Hindu faith worship different gods depending on which version they practice, or their location. For this reason you will see people worship in a temple or to the tree in your front yard. The Hindu gods have presented themselves in many different forms throughout the years, some represent good, and some represent evil. During different times of year people with pray to the Gods to bring them goodness, and other times pray to keep the evil gods away.
There were also many other random things we learned while on this tour. Below is a list of some of those neat random facts:
• Even though you see cows that appear to have no owner wondering around the streets, someone is always watching them. Don’t believe it, hit one with a car, or try to take it and you will quickly learn who owns the cow.
• The fact that cows are not eaten is not necessarily due to religious reasons. To the Indian culture cows are more valuable alive than they are on a plate. They provide milk to the people, help plow the fields, and pull carts. This is an everyday occurrence and not just one meal.
• When we asked about the accuracy of the movie Slumdog Millionaire we were informed that a lot of the people that live in slums are not necessarily poor. Many of them will move to cities like Mumbai for a job before they have a place to live. Since there are so many people, and the cost of real-estate is so high, they are forced to move into the slum region. You will find that some of these shacks have cable TV, internet, power, and many of the other amenities that the rest of us enjoy every day. With the population growing and growing
• As the population grows so does the number of telephone connections. Like the states many new subscribers are opting not to get a land line for the mobile phone. In India there are more new connections each day, than there are people in the state of Missouri.
• The country of India actually has heavy machinery but it is rarely used. This machinery would include street sweepers, pavers, cement trucks and many others. Though this may seem like a very slow and in-efficient method of doing business it is the preferred method. The reason for this is that the government can pay 200 women XXX.XX rupees a month for their entire life to clean one section of road, or they can pay 1 street sweeper twice as much to clean the same section. They can actually save money and employee 200 people that may not otherwise have jobs.
Bangalore Walk Tour Web Site
"Bangalore Walk" Pictures
Blake
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