Ode to Bengaluru

After 12 years of living in various cities across the world, third-generation Bangalorean Roopa Pai returned to her beloved city in 2004 as a "sort of outsider."

- NEHA KIRPAL

"My laid-back city had exploded, embraced capitalism with a vengeance and made space for the tens of thousands of dreamers newly arrived at her gates," she recalls. Over the next two decades, Ms Pai explored her hometown, leading children and adults on heritage walks around the city and state, as part of her work with Bangalore Walks, the city's first heritage walks company that she co-founded with her husband.

In a sense, she rediscovered her city by researching its history, walking its neighbourhoods, exploring its restaurants and cafes, and meeting its people. Filled with historical anecdotes and insightful observations, the essays in this collection are an outcome of this, capturing the unique essence of Bengaluru, and its evolution from being a small 16th-century settlement on a hill to the global metropolis that it is today.

One of the first things that strikes visitors about Bengaluru is its pleasant climate through most of the year. Despite the traffic, the heart of the city has two large public parks, both of which are over 150 years old. In 1760, Hyder Ali set up Lalbagh, a botanical garden that continues to be a popular spot in the city. Then, British army officer Sir Mark Cubbon founded the Agri-horticultural Society in 1839 and Sir Richard Hieram Sankey designed Cubbon Park. Further, John Cameron, known as the father of horticulture in Karnataka, introduced apple cultivation to the city in 1887.