- “Learn from the past – Live in the present – Work for the future” –
In the initial shock to that which is foreign, we turn to familiar things to help relate and retain what would otherwise seem inexplicable and chaotic to mind...
In the history of the formation of these two cities - Toronto (from which I come) and Bangalore (in which I am currently), it is possible to uncover some 'method behind the madness' that I've been experiencing while trying to relate the two.
The city of Bangalooru-Bangalore-Bengluru (respectively) has changed hands a number of times in its 433 year history. In its original format, the city was birthed within 'Bengalooru Fort' - demarcated by four watch towers. [As myth goes, it was said that it would be to the ultimate peril of the city if it were to grow outside these towers, which now lie in various districts within Bangalore] Two main streets divided the city, intersecting at Doddapete Square at the heart of the city. The city switched ruling hands a number of times throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, ultimately becoming part of the Kingdom of Mysore - ruled by Hyder Ali and then his son Tipu Sultan, who would engage the British East Indian Company in a series of wars (Ango-Mysore Wars). In the fourth of these battles, control of the city shifted to the Brits, as the Mysore Kingdom was dismantled in their only defeat in three decades.
The initial British occupation of the newly dubbed city of Bangalore was an arduous one. Water shortages, famine (1875) and then a bubonic plague epidemic in 1898 forced sanitation development to be one of the chief concerns of the new rulers. In response to the plague, telephone lines were laid across the city, sanitation regulations were implemented in the construction of houses, and hospitals and temples sprung up across the city. During the 19th century British rule, Bangalore became a 'twin city' joining the British developed 'Cantonment' with the pre existing 'pete'... In 1906 Bangalore became the first Asian city to have electricity, and developed the reputation of India's 'Garden City' due to a campaign to 'beautify the city' that saw the installation of a number of parks, public buildings and hospitals. Following India's independence, there was a quantum leap in the population of the now metropole. The congestion which developed from this has threatened the 'Garden City' image which once brought vacationers on retreat from surrounding cities...
