Bangalore Once upon a Time

Not long ago, city of Bangalore is known as peaceful hamlet of Pensioners. The city had total population of merely twenty lakhs in the year 1991 it has crossed more than one crore in recent years. There were more trees around the garden city, as it was known. When winter kicked in it was like wearing muffler, full arm sweater and then blowing out the air from the mouth to see who has thick fog.One could reach any part of the city in 20 minutes in the Lambretta, Vijay, Enfield, Chetak,...
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Not long ago, city of Bangalore is known as peaceful hamlet of Pensioners. The city had total population of merely twenty lakhs in the year 1991 it has crossed more than one crore in recent years. There were more trees around the garden city, as it was known. When winter kicked in it was like wearing muffler, full arm sweater and then blowing out the air from the mouth to see who has thick fog.One could reach any part of the city in 20 minutes in the Lambretta, Vijay, Enfield, Chetak, IND - Suzuki, TVS. It had Red colored BTS buses, Pusphak buses were considered as luxury, double decker bus on few routes, Auto which had engine in the front seat and everyone loved Premier Padmini, Ambassador, Fiat, Maruti 800, Contessa cars.Then there is great metamorphosis of the city. Time has blown away all the aura of yesteryears, peaceful lazy life of the city had suddenly transformed into a vibrant mega city life with a small span of time. But, the age old religious culture and its deep rooted social bonding of the people of this place never changed but rather peacefully went parallel with changed scenario of other Bangalore. I wanted to peep in the past of the city and the life of those days. Glimpse of the social system and culture the city that moved along with the transformation of life. Many historical character of the time came in my essay and I wanted to be true with fact as much as I could. Since this a fiction novel there may be some difference with history and I request historians not to search absolute truth in every paragraph of the book. My north Indian eyes tried to rediscover the essence of the city in my own way and if this effort is adored by the people of Karnataka and rest of India, then I will feel that my dream is fulfilled.For writing this book I acknowledge my debt from many books, Media references and electronic sites that I have enlisted at the back page of this book.To his holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who is always behind me with his blessings and I have dedicated this novel to his name andRoopa Kemparasa, who came into my life for a short period and always tried to enlighten me the social system and culture of the people of Karnataka, I acknowledged her debt and also dedicated this novel to her also.Many other friends and known persons directly or indirectly helped me for writing this book, I acknowledge them too.Last, but not the least, my family members, who always encouraged me to write this novel.