Silicon Valley

from 2012-08 Sydney (2)

Bhullar and Jaypee Group Joint Venture

With ‘jobs being Bangalored’ as the western world quotes, my ‘Garden City’ is now crowned with her new title, ‘Silicon Valley of the East’.

Main picture: State parliament building

Clockwise from top: Spectacular blooms

Garden city

Park Plaza Hotel

Former Royal Palace Bangalore Club

High-rise housing Shoppers’ paradise

Indian metropolis that is steeped with history and culture. The warm hug of welcome didn’t disappear.

I enjoyed my time watching the blend of old and new and left with a promise to return soon.

It took me another four years to step in there again and guess what welcomed me? More changes!

This time I walked out of an ultramodern airport located 40 km away from the city centre; wafted around the city-hub using the new metro rail; visited new trendy restaurants; saw more luxury hotels like the plush Park Plaza near Marathahalli junction; found that streets have become swirling sea of cars and pedestrians while I stumbled on overhead cranes, bulldozers and dug up streets in every direction, a clear message that something neater and bigger is on the way.

I am told now that over 10 million passengers move annually through the new airport which hints that the city hasn’t lost its charms, other than Time changing its offerings. What surprises me the most is the return home of many young NRIs mainly from the US, who prefer Bangalore to New Jersey or Los Angeles, from a lifestyle and employment point of view.

I came across a good number of international tourists. They trundled over popular stretches of MG Road, Commercial Street and Brigade Road taking pictures of colonial buildings; crowding the summer palace of Tipu Sultan, an elaborately decorated structure with ornate arches and minarets; visiting the 300-year-old Venkataramanaswamy Temple: and lighting candles inside St. Mary’s Basilica, the city’s oldest church. I felt pleased to see my favourite city well-placed in the touristy circle.

Churchill like Bangalore? Perhaps during his time there was not much of action and entertainment in the sleepy cantonment to keep young Englishmen like him amused and occupied.

The thought came back to me when I visited the legendary Bangalore Club established in 1868 to meet the social needs for the city’s European inhabitants. It is said that young Churchill, who was miserably bored, spent time at this club, perhaps drinking lots of whiskey. It didn’t do him any good; rather he left the city with a debt of Rs 13 owed to the club. The ledger book of the club from June 1899 is now displayed in the club premises and has ‘Lt WLS Churchill’ named as one of 17 defaulters! It is really amazing to see documentary evidence of a later-turned-mighty Prime Minister owing a small amount of money to an establishment in a country that came under his rule. Many British citizens visiting the club, after seeing the debt have offered to clear his dues, but the club authorities always politely refuse, saying that history is history, and can’t be rewritten!

The ledger book of the club from June 1899 is now displayed in the club premises and has ‘Lt WLS Churchill’ named as one of 17 defaulters!

Travel noTebook BANGLADORE

GETTING T h ERE

Singapore Airlines (www.singaporeair.com) has convenient flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane

Adelaide and Perth to Bangalore via Singapore.

AccO m mO dATION m ORE IN f OR mATION

Situated in a meticulously chosen location, the newly opened 234-room Park Plaza Bengaluru is part of Sarovar Hotels & Resorts (www.sarovarhotels.com) and offers 5 star services comparable to the highest international standards.