SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
kiran8 - 5 May, 2008 | nostalgia | Bangalore | Bangalore | Metro Rail
Work on the Metro Rail on MG Road has begun to progress ....Looking back..... A bird’s eye view of the Parade Grounds had a grassy central area and a large body of water at one corner, surrounded by dense vegetation on its south-western periphery. That brief verdant section, after the rains, momentarily took you to the lush richness of the Malnad. In more recent times, separating the historic military grounds and the road is a splendorous evergreen bush bearing purple-pink flowers, and a walkway. The radiant plant has a hoary background. A French Navy Admiral, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, ‘discovered’ it growing in wild splendour in Brazil in 1768. He carried the exotic plant to the western world from where it eventually found its way to British India, and the famous embankment on South Parade. South Parade, that stretch of Mahatma Gandhi Road between present day Anil Kumble Circle and Brigade Road, became one continuous trendy mall with upmarket stores, chic fashion houses, Marks & Spencers and other English brand outlets, dancing halls and piano bars, restaurants, and a place where the rich and famous were to be seen. Around the 1930s, the Civil and Military station’s hungry souls and saccharine-toothed crowds often made a beeline to a hep ice-cream kiosk facing the water body across the elevated ‘bund’. The Lakeview Ice Cream parlour, even with many changes in ownership, retained its hold on customers. Elsewhere on the bund children played or couples sat near the illuminated cascading fountain opposite Liberty cinema, or some came just to shoot the breeze.... In the ’60s and ’70s the bund was a favourite hangout of students, young couples and retirees.On Saturdays and Sundays, invariably after the movies and a coffee at Koshy’s, youngsters ambled across with friends there. The bund protesters and others interested in preserving Bangalore’s heritage will continue to protest. Meanwhile, old timers are bound to feel nostalgic about the changes wrought on the historical bund. On the other hand, there are many who after experiencing the Singapore or Kolkotta or Delhi metros, don’t see what all the fuss is about. After all, Bangalore does need a faster and better mass transportation system...
COMMENTS
check these out. http://flickr.com/photos/rednivaram/sets/72157604888442506/ nanda road nimmadallalve? park alla road idu!!
TS - thanks for those lovely pics - This makes me think do we need a metro there - I am sure we will not create a road like that given todays condition - hope Metro will not touch any of those trees and parks..
Check out theses links...interesting!
http://www.discoverbangalore.com/oldbangalore.htm
http://www.children-of-bangalore.com/appeal.htm
http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/bangalore/
http://kiran8-various.blogspot.com/
we call junctions as circles..why?
Thats cos not long ago we used to have huge traffic islands/circles at every junction and traffic would circumvent them peacefully..blr was so peaceful..
Trinity circle was one big circle..vaugely remember riding back seat on a bsa-bond and doing a 70 deg turn to reach lido for a weekend movie..
Does anyone have pics of these? Havent seen any of them anywhere!
One of the last circles to be removed was the gopalgowda circle near vidhanasouda..have very fond memories of these circles getting decked up for republic day and independence days..
Can the metro re-instate these circles??
Thanks for the links, kiran8 - reminds me of our childhood days in this once peaceful city.
Blrsri - Yr question, Can the metro re-instate these circles ?? I too sincerely wish this were possible & am prepared to work for it, but we all should be ready to use more public transport & reduce using private vehicles.
Judging by the demands being raised here on praja for more flyovers, underpasses, wider roads, multi-level garages, 'de-bottlenecking', etc. instead of asking for better & more of public transport, such a dream may never be realised.
Mr Antony Loach had recently written to me to express his concern over photos he said he owns but are no all over the internet without credits to him.
"Today on browsing around on the computer I found that
my pictures that I took in 1946 in Bangalore were popping up
on web sites, (other than Ronnies who had permission) without giving me any credit.
I have no problem with letting people use my photo's but they should at least give me credit.
I am maybe directing this e-mail to the wrong person, if so I apologize. Perhaps I can ask you to pass this message along.
All the very best
Antony Loach
Vancouver
Canada"
I have written to him again today to see if we can get some pictures of him hosted here at bangalore-praja. Meanwhile, see some photos from his collection on his/Ronnie's website
I heard back from Mr Antony, and he has offered to re-scan his pictures of old Bangalore (1945) in high resolution and provide those to praja.in
Stay tuned.
There was a time when all those circles , at National high school,Lalbagh West gate, Trinity circle and many more around the city made a splash of color, with neatly trimmed flower beds and dancing fountains!If i am not mistaken they even had a competetion going for the best maintained circle gardens? And what do we have now?-The other day, I was appalled to see a little concrete garbage bin(promptly used by our enterprising citizens to dump their waste) kept in the centre of the road at one of the places, it is difficult to know the purpose for which it was put there in the first place ....and our politicians have the audacity to say that Bangalore will be another Singapore... http://kiran8-various.blogspot.com/
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