In the year 1120 AD, the Chola King, Veera Ballalla ruled the Deccan plateau
or the South of India. On a hunting trip in the forest he lost his way.
After a long search he met an old lady in the forest who offered him shelter
for the night and served him baked beans for dinner. To show his gratitude
to this lady for having saved his life, the King constructed a town and
named it as Benda Kalooru which means Baked Beans. Later in 1537, a local
chieftain, Kempe Gowda helped design this town and give it its modern shape.
From Benda Kalooru it later on came to be called as Bengaluru. It was during
the British rule that Bengaluru became Bangalore due to accent of the English
people & their inability to pronounce the word. Bangalore is the great
visionary, the respected Kempegowda's dream city. It was he who designed
and built Bangalore.
Another great visionary was Kengal Hanumanthaiya who has planned & constructed
a great building like VIDHANA SOUDHA. His idea of a double road from Bangalore
palace to Sarakki layout remained a dream.
Banglore
has produced great men like Dr.C.V.Raman who discovered the
famous 'Raman Rays' which enabled him to bag the great 'Nobel
Prize'. Then there is Sir M Visveswaraiah, Dewan of Mysore,
Engineer & Statesman who had been awarded the Bharat Ratna
and famous writers and poets who have contributed for kannada
literature like :D V Gundappa, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar ( who
won the Jnanapitha Award), Shri K Venkatappa (the great painter & sculptor
P Kailasam( the renowned theatrist), T S Venkataramaiah, K
V Puttappa or Kuvempu, Navaratna Rama Rao, B Seetaramaiah,
G P Rajaratnam, K V Iyer are only some of them.
In
the area of sports we have Shri M Chinnaswamy, Dr K Thimmappaiah,
Mr. C Nagaraj who have all sacrificed a lot to bring out KSCA
to present level. Bangalore has produced great cricketers to
the country like E A S Prassanna, B S Chandrashekar, G R Vishwanath,
Brijesh Patel, Syed Kirmani, B Sudhakar Rao, Roger Binny, Anil
Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, David Johnson, D
Ganesh, Sujit Somasundaram, Sunil Joshi & Rahul Dravid.
Then in Tennis , All England Badminton champion - Prakash Padukone,
former president of Table Tennis Federation of India- Mr. Kabinipathy,
K.Jayanth and Lakshmi Karanth were National Champions.
Now we have Mahesh Bhupathi creating waves in the Tennis arena.
In
the Police Department we have people like Chandy, Sangliana,
Burman, Malukar, Srinivasan, M F Pasha, Subash Bharani, Rama
Murthy. In the Legal field, we have Sundarswamy, Nagesh, Padubidri
Raghavendra Rao, etc. Other prominent personalities are former
corporation commissioner Ravindra, Great Educationalist Narasimhaiah,
G P Rajaratnam, Dr D M Nanjundappa & in the athletic field
Deanne Syma, Irene Saldanah, Kenneth Powell & sprint queen
Ashwini Nachappa.
In
the tinsel world the one & only Dr Rajkumar, Puttanna Kanagal,
Jnanapith Award winner Girish Karnad, Ananth Nag & his
brother Shankar Nag & many more.
Today
Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka ranks as one of the fastest
growing cities in Asia. Bangalore has a very cool, pleasant
climate throughout the year. So it is also called as 'The Air-Conditioned
city'. This factor along with the mild, balanced, affectionate,
hospitable people of Bangalore called the 'Kannadigas' has
attracted people
from all over the country as well as the world. So a peaceful
city also called as a 'Pensioners paradise' in the 50's is
fast transforming into the 'Silicon Valley of India' with almost
all Computer related multinationals setting up their Indian
head office at Bangalore. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime
Minister termed this as "India's city of the future".
Besides there are lot of beautiful and comfortable
hotels in the city which will make you feel at home by providing
utmost hospitality and food that will instill ever lasting
memories in you.
Even
though senior citizens here feel that the city has lost its
old world charm, but for a new entrant the city does mesmerize
with its beautiful gardens all over & rows of flowering
trees of jacaranda, may flowers & hundreds of other species
like Sampige which has the honour of having a road named after
it.
That
is Bangalore for the unaware. This is just a glimpse of this
wonderful city & each one discovers more for himself once
he is here enthralled in the beauty of the place which is modern
but historic , beautiful with a tinge of ugliness,
which is quiet yet buzzing with people & traffic. Do visit
this place once in your lifetime to know what it is.