Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Dr.Y Rajaram and Myself

It was in 2005 or so I was introduced to Dr.Y Rajaram with whom I had a long term professional association.He was a colleague of another friend and mentor of mine by name Dr.G Venkatesh who is a physicist from Raman Research Institute.Dr.Y Rajaram is a doctorate in banking from an university in central India.He guided me during my M Phil project on "Indo Singapore trade".




I have also met many times the brother of Dr.Y Rajaram , Dr.Narahari at the School of Automation at the Indian Institute of Science IISc. Dr Narahari I was told at a International Symposium of the society of Operations Management is an expert at Supply Chain modelling.

Dr.Y Rajaram is also an administrative expert with high degree of Operational conformity and above everything a very supportive and helpful individual. He was the Dean of RIMS Ramaiah Institute Of Management Studies for many years.

Dr. Sampath Loganathan and Edwards Road

There used to be a child specialist in Bangalore by the name Sampath Loganathan who was a consulting specialist at the ITI Hospital and due to some acute whooping cough my father took me to him at his clinic in his house on Edwards Road which runs parallel to Cunningham road.My brother was also with me during this visit.

He had very higher order consultation skills to my memory and did a detailed examination for more than an hour and prescribing a medicine Linctus Cordinae. One thing was sure after visiting him for many years thereafter I had no cough.So there was some miracle in his cure.

VISITING SINGAPORE

Visiting Singapore can be an interesting experience..Singapore is a very important commercial hub with a busy Airport with flights to almost all destinations in the world and is a well organised country.Singapore is a very small country with a radius of may be 30 km and is an island with close proximity to Malaysia.




Most up-market Bangaloreans must have visited Singapore at least once and is some four hours flying time from Bangalore and is a pride of Asia as the city matches to the best and most sophisticated in any part of the World and is totally English speaking.
Sir Stamford Raffles

Singapore was a British colony for many years and is also called Raffles city in honour of Sir Stamford Raffles who laid the English foundations for the township after taking control of the city from its Malay rulers.Singapore comes from the word Singapura the land of the Lion and is also known in some quarters so.The coromandel coast of India had for long lasting and enduring ties with this island since time immemorial..Singapore was originally a forest land infested by wild animals and later becomes a fishing village and later a trading post for chinese tea passing through the Malacca strait and then an English colony and presently a dominant population of main land chinese who drifted into this island through the centuries with Indians and Malays. English,Mandarin,Malay and Tamil are spoken here.Singapore was called Temasek at an earlier time in history.

It must be stated without delay that Singapore has a good local transport bus system, a world standard MRT(Mass rapid transport) and also a formidable taxi system manned by disciplined personnel.Some of the budget hotels seen in this place are well designed and postured for any traveller with rooms oriented in small sizes with ingenuity and gives total comfort to a tourist.

Those keen on visiting Singapore could get their visa through some travel agent and visa sometimes requires proof of room booking in Singapore.Booking of rooms can be done on the internet and on setting foot at the Changi International airport taxi drivers would guide you to the hotel in no time.Most of the Taxi drivers are friendly and well behaved.I used to enjoy staying at the waiting Lounge of Changi International Airport all night for an early morning flight out of the city.Local Singaporeans are most of the time busy with their chores and may not be very friendly upfront.There are small and elegant restaurants in Singapore that serve clean food.

Friday, August 10, 2018

THE BANGALORE MYSORE HIGHWAY

The Bangalore -Mysore state highway is an important highway which is four laned now and connects the city to Mysore another growing metropolis the distance being almost 140 kilometers or some 90 odd miles.This was one of the earliest roads to come up in this place created for administrative reasons and now has become a stretch of commercial significance.

The road once upon a time was a single lane structure and some twenty years back converted into the form in which it is today.Mysore is an important city and an exit point into the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The earliest bus services can be traced on this route with buses plying between these cities from Kalasipalayam may be the steam driven buses taking eight hours to reach the destination..may be in the early parts of the 20th century.

The entire 140km stretch can be divided as follows. 60km from Bangalore to Chennapattana..another 30km from this point to Mandya..Maddur being on this part of the road...30km or so from Mandya to Srirangapattana..and the rest 20km from Srirangapattana to Mysore.After Chennapattana there is a bifurcation the left road going to Malavalli and Shivanasamudra and also to Talakkad and Someshwara temples.

Each of the towns are becoming town ships in their own right with sophistication setting in and growth of civilisation and the city of Bangalore as it is seen today is slowly lava-ing itself into this stretch and corridor.A day may not be too far when these two cities of ancient origin would merge in some form and the travel  time between these two cities reduced to more than half of what it is today.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

CUNNINGHAM ROAD IN BANGALORE

Many roads in Bangalore city are getting renamed deprived of their Anglican ancestry..Even Cubbon park gets the title Jayachamarajendra Park..a sign of changing times and the decline of the reminiscences of the English raj to some extent.

There was a silent benefactor and a endorser of Indian view of things or a sympathiser  of Indian demands and views in FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM who served as a deputy to Mark Cubbon and tried to restore the Mysore kingdom back to the rulers of Mysore and for many years served the military.

The Cunningham road of Bangalore has retained fully its English title largely due to the favourable disposal of this Englishman to Indian needs and aspirations.With the exit of Mark Cubbon he loses office and settles down at a villa in the present day Cunningham road before leaving for his home town in England.

The Cunningham road extends almost from the end of the Shivajinagar bus stand  to golf course and is a prestigious road by many standards.The Cantonment railway station is close by and so are hotels like Le Meridian and Windsor Manor.

Monday, August 6, 2018

RICHMOND CIRCLE IN BANGALORE

The Richmond Circle is a very important point of Bangalore and  has been so for many years,named after the city of Richmond in England and the English elite lived around this place and in the past there were many victorian style structures and houses some of them are seen even today.Many key roads empty themselves into the Richmond Circle..the Richmond Road, the Lavelle Road,the Residency road and the double road or the Kengal Hanumanthaiah road from lalbagh.

Not many would beleive that there was a large circle here in the 1970's which was demolished and traffic lights placed responding to the growth in population.Though this point is still called Richmond circle the circle is non-existent.

Some of the key installations around this point are Kanteeriva stadium, Lalbagh and even M G Road.The City Market and Subhash Nagar are close to this place.

Sunday, August 5, 2018

M BHAKTAVATSALA PASSES AWAY

I was having a nap at home when my brother called me up and said M Bhaktavatsala more popularly known in Bangalore as Bhakta passed away.He is the first son-in-law of Mr.O K Nambiar.A veteran movie enthusiast and a writer and investor was a key figure in dynamics of the city for many decades.




Bureaucrat  Chiranjeevi Singh IAS and Prema Bhaktavatsala are seen here 

I immediately paid a visit to their house on Richmond circle and was given to understand that he had a regular morning swim and passes at around 7:00 AM.I paid my respects to him and was told he was 83 years of age.

Friday, August 3, 2018

NICE PORTRAITS







A NICE WILD LIFE PHOTO PANTHER


CHINMAYA MISSION TEMPLE IN INDHIRANAGAR

Indhira Nagar is a upmarket posh residential and business township of Bangalore close to M G Road and Ulsoor. To me the M G Road of modern day starts at the tip of the Chinmaya mission temple and extends all through the Chinmaya Mission road into Trinity Circle and ends at The Bible Society of India.This is the enormity of this road and Indhiranagar. At the junction of the 80 feet road and Chinmaya Mission road is the Chinmaya Mission Krishna temple, a fairly large structure with a hall in its neighbourhood.



Many frequent this temple and it is worth visiting it once.The Chinmaya mission hospital is close-by.The chinmaya mission road is also accessible from the 8oft road from old madras road. Indhiranagar metro station is close to the Chinmaya Mission temple though with some walking.

CHYK also known as Chinmaya yuva kendra also operates its activities at this temple.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

SATELLITE BUS STATION ON MYSORE ROAD

Let me enumerate the background of the Satellite bus stations of  Bangalore. There is one on Mysore road and I have seen one on Tumkur road and there must be few other.

In the absence of the Satellite bus stands the main bus stand at Kempegowda was fully cluttered with heavy vehicular traffic and many KSRTC busses missing their schedules by hours because of jams and lack of space.Many of the buses going towards Kerala were badly hit because of such commotions.




One of the constructive ideas of the Government was to bifurcate and a result of such options the Satellite bus terminal on Mysore road was born largely catering to services to Mysore and inter-state services to Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The Satellite bus stand is some fifteen minutes from the Kempe Gowda bus terminus and some five minutes from the Deepanjali Nagar Metro Station on Mysore Road. Note that there is a metro station called Mysore Road station which is slightly farther but none the less close by.

The Mysore road satellite bus station has two components the front component for BMTC buses.All BMTC buses going towards Mysore road pass through the Mysore Road Satellite bus station.The component behind this is the KSRTC terminal with buses to Mysore, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and also may be to other places.

The Government deserves praise for designing and erecting such a wonderful bus stand which is the pride of Bangalore city.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

KARNATAKA DGP Mr.OM PRAKASH AND MYSELF

It was possibly in 2014 or so I was invited to a function in the Bangalore Town hall to receive a momento.The chief guest of the function was Mr. Omprakash who was then the head of the Fire Services. Nagabharana the film director was another guest.



I had few minutes of interaction with Mr.Omprakash who later was appointed DGP of Karnataka state..DGP meaning Director General of Police and had a fairly long tenure. I was given to understand he is from Bihar.


Mr.Om Prakash

What happened later left me spell bound..his speech in the Kannada language for more than half an hour with a high degree of clarity and eloquence which was appreciated by many. In this context I must also appreciate  Mr.Loknath  Behera the DGP of Kerala whom I have not met but speaks the Malayalam language with enthusiasm  on TV.


Loknath Behera

It shows beyond doubt that the selection procedure for the Police Services in India is truly top class and capable people get to be at challenging posts.