A Morning Walk in a Bangalore Park.

While Bangalore may be better known internationally for its Software Technology Parks, a rather large number of public parks with varied plant content do dot the city, and provide valuable infrastructure for exercising and socialization. Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park, of course, are two of the more famous ones. The few of them I visited in recent years are indeed very well designed to encourage walking, or jogging, as a means of exercise for the local inhabitants. The photo depicted on the right is a morning scene from Dhanvantari Park in J P Nagar 2nd Phase, in the southern part of Bangalore.

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A morning walk in such a park can be refreshing in more than one way. The obvious physical benefits of exercising before a breakfast is, of course, well-known. An unstated rule in most of these parks (with endless walkways) is to go clockwise from where you can enter the walkway. This is perhaps an influence of how devotees go about doing pradakshina in Indian temples.

In addition, in a morning walk in a place like the Dhanvantari Park, you see additional entertainment and intellectual benefits as well:

A Master Plan for Bangalore's Development?

In Girish Karnad Reflects on Bangalore, India, you learn of Girish's view on haphazard growth of the city, with no effective, central, theme to aid in the city's growth. As a collective bunch, either the city fathers are overwhelmed, or clueless, depending on your point of view.

Several questions arise in anyone's mind, particularly if that someone has some experience of having lived in the city.

1. Is it too difficult to analyze the effect of a new high-rise, or any major structure, before sanctioning its construction?
2. How happy are Bangalore's citizens regarding how Namma Metro has evolved?
3. As any local economy grows, it is bound to generate some discontinuities. Have the city fathers created a satisfactory template that can guide the city's growth? 

I, for one, would like to see a master plan at the BBMP web site.

Happy Yugaadi, 2012.

"Gandhada Gudi", a Shadow Play, 2011.

When you are away from the land of your upbringing, any activity that you run into in the far away region has special meaning to you, particularly when the activity involves unique talent. And, what talent among the troupe, identified only as "Gaampara Gumpu"¹, that presented "Gandhada Gudi", a special shadow play describing the history and diversity of the State of Karnataka!

Happy Yugaadi, 2012.

This was a very beautiful, carefully selected, presentation of the various aspects of the State of Karnataka, with very appropriate musical backgrounds. This was performed as part of the cultural Yugaadi 2012 program that the Kannada Koota of Northern California presented on 7 April 2012 in Campbell, California. (The embedded video in this blog post, however, is what was presented in Sacramento in 2011, but is very representative of what was presented in Campbell).

Kannadigas everywhere, take note! The "Gaampara Gumpu" troupe of Sacramento, California, ought to make you feel proud. This presentation is an excellent realization of the motto of the State of Karnataka: "ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡಂ ಗೆಲ್ಗೆ, ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡಂ ಬಾಳ್ಗೆ".

Kannada is living well in California.

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¹The quotes are not mine: the troupe refers to itself with the quotes. For those who know Kannada, it is ಗಾಂಪರ ಗುಂಪು.

Bangalore and a Specialty Snack (ತೇಂಕೊಳಲು).

Although Bangalore is famous for Masala Dosa, there are many other tasty snacks that are somewhat unique to Bangalore in general, and South India in particular.

ತೇಂಕೊಳಲು

One such eatable is known in Kannada as ತೇಂಕೊಳಲು — pronounced tenkolalu, see inset picture — and, being able to enjoy a home-made version of that snack in America is a very special treat.

Recently, a very special "guest"¹ to our home in California blessed us with not only her visit, but with ತೇಂಕೊಳಲು and a whole host of other snacks. (If you know how to read and understand Kannada, you can read about it on a separate blog).

My best wishes to you, the reader, that you get a chance to enjoy this savoury soon.

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¹I have used the word "guest" only to avoid needless publication of the guest's identity.

Google Maps and Bangalore's Namma Metro.

(Cross-posted from a post on Musings of a Computing Professional)

Google has seen it fit to map different parts of the world, and Bangalore, India, is no exception.

Recently, on 20 October 2011, a segment of the Bangalore Metro, between Baiyappanahalli & M G Road, went online for passenger traffic.

Namma Metro Route Map

While the route map of the Namma Metro, shown here and provided by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), offers a logical view that is helpful in a lot of contexts, it is sometimes also valuable to have a view that is superimposed on the geography-based map of Bangalore, of all the stations that currently serve passenger traffic. There is also a list of stations in the rail network, provided on the BMRCL web site.

It is said that the rail system offers free Wi-Fi connection on the train to all of its riders.

This Google map given below is a public map and I expect to update it to match the state of the Namma Metro in the coming months and years.

View Namma Metro (Bengaluru) Google Map in a larger map

Other information Namma Metro on the Internet:
Namma Metro on Wikipedia.
Bangalore Metro Map by MapsofIndia.com.