The Weather of Bangalore

Every city has an unique weather pattern; In my view point temperature, aridity, rain and winds dictate the weather of any place or city. Some time back while walking through Singapore I was suddenly caught in a bout of rain and it rained for more than two hours and I had to walk in the rain all the way through bencoleen street. For some reason stretch of land near the sea experience such sudden bouts of rain.

If we study Bangalore and its location it is mid-way between the Arabian and Bay of Bengal seas and is around 3000 ft above sea level. Ooty is another place proclaimed for its weather and this place is some 6000ft above sea level and is a special peak on the western ghat ranges and the temperature touches to a very low degree in ooty. Bangalore must be some 1000km from the Indian ocean and note that the city is on the Deccan Plateau.

Generally to my observation unlike the coasts the city of Bangalore receives a jolt of intense rainfall  the kind of rainfall seen at least in the western coast only for about a week in the months of June or July. The rainy season of Bangalore stretches from June to October. Rains during this time is generally moderate barring for a few occasions sometimes stretching all day. It used to rain in the summer months especially in the evenings once upon a time but such rains have become scarce of-late.

One of the characteristics of Bangalore is a limited summer generally stretching for three months between the months of March and May where the mean temperature would be above say 20 degree Celsius and the mean temperature falling below this limit in non-summer months. Summers of Bangalore are not very arid as in many cities that add to the summer heat ..the aridity largely absorbed by the vegetation and water bodies of the city.

What make Bangalore as a city is the largely protracted winter in my view point starting well in September and stretching into the end of February a full six months or more which is at least half the year. There are few cities in the world to my opinion that shows a predominant winter. In the western coasts of India it is a predominant rainy season caused by the monsoons and people prepare for it. Winter of Bangalore is not extreme but mild in many ways but nevertheless cold because of winds and temperatures touching upto 10 degree Celsius  on the lower side and about 20 degree Celsius on the higher side.

I read with dismay deaths due to extreme cold in cities like Delhi and it is a matter of Governance of the country that some form of warm set-ups be created for the public to thwart the cold and some public policy be created for the same.

Many different people would have differing views about the weather of the city but the matter written above would be adequate for any individual curious about the weather cycles of the city. At the most all any one need to have handy is a couple of sweaters as warm wear with socks and a rain coat of some kind and they would suffice to counter any weather condition of the city at any point in time.

One more point to note is that one cn safely say Bangalore gets much of its rains in the evening between 4:30 and 8:30 and is a peak hour with people returning home from their offices and the roads of the city are a picture of chaos with traffic jams with water rushing into the drains and water pools at many spots all pointing towards a discouraging and uncertain environment. I believe this situation needs management and monitoring and action.The focus must be to reduce the traffic on the roads and the populace. A weather office could forewarn of an impending down pour and the offices could foreclose for the day say at 2:00pm itself and employees return home much before the onslaught of the rains and the work compensated on some other day.Such kind of a forecasting system in my view is a must and must be implemented with the consent of the various agencies.

Sir M Vishweshwariah

The story of  Bangalore is incomplete without some discussion about Sir M Vishweshwariah . Some time back I had the opportunity of  visiting KSDL  Karnataka Soaps and Detergents ltd in Yeshwantpur and happened to see many dozens of photographs of Sir MV along with many dignitaries of his times including JRD Tata. I hope someday to instill these photographs on this site and would be a rare collection for many to see. I had also seen a bust of  Sir MV in the lobby of KPCL.. Karnataka Power Corporation Limited. I used to meet Mr. Nelliappan who was head of personnel here and also the MD Mr K Jairaj an IAS officer. 

There was a time in Bangalore when a child was asked what he would like to become when he grew up ans some would say ..he wanted to become like Sir MV ..what a lofty goal of an idealistic era..things must have changed now but to the credit of the people of the Karnataka state and more so the Mysore kingdom this person is still revered and held in veneration.

Sir MV was Diwan of the Mysore kingdom between 1912 and 1918 may not be a large span in time and more than anything also has the credit of mentoring many successive Diwans like Mirza Ismail and also initiating many developmental projects. He was a successful civil servant from an Engineering background to sum things up ans one of his projects was the KRS dam. Apparently the KRS was built for two reasons in my view point. Firstly to act as a reservoir for agricultural needs and secondly to control the flow of water into the Shivanasamudra Power generation set-up. The second factor being more demanding than the first. Shivanasamudra was the only power generation set-up for this part of the world and supplied power to a large belt for many years and conserving water at an higher elevation meant perennial power generation.

What makes Sir MV special . He is an Engineering person blessed with sound wisdom more than anything else who used his Engineering background  for public good and ran even non-engineering activities with an Engineering mind-set. This casts him into a special mode and note that he was an initiator of Banking institutions like the State Bank of Mysore. He understood well at a strategic level a wide variety of social and technical issues with a spontaneous insight and acumen and was largely selfless in his approach to the tasks he undertook. The pride of Mysore ..its pomp...and above anything else the strong confidence of the future in large measure comes fro the relentless contribution of this man to a large extent in my view point. It also bears credit to the Engineering institution he studied and the many who mentored him here and gave him the lethal confidence to develop and motivate things in this part of the world. Mysore minus Sir MV according to me would have been like any undeveloped belt in the world.

Some time back I had visited the REC at Nagpur and to my satisfaction found it to be named over  Sir MV and I appreciate the state of Maharashtra for having taken such an unprecedented step. There is a relationship between Maharashtra and Sir MV for he studied Engineering at the COEP (College of Engineering Pune) one of the few engineering colleges established in Asia in the 1850's.

I am  told the 15th of September every year is observed as Engineers Day in many parts of India and I would definitely enjoin every single engineering  institution of India from the elite one's downwards to observe this day as 'Engineers Day" and no engineering institution in the country is worth the salt if it calls itself so and does not spend some time in veneration for a lad from Kolar with a not so amicable background traveled all the way to Pune to study and come back and serve his home ground and contribute to Engineering progress and above all used the principles of Engineering in diverse situations to emerge a transformer and a revolutionizer of communities and people who never imagined such leaps were ever possible.

THE KEY ROADS OF BANGALORE

Any city for that matter consists of some key roads and locations. Many of these roads start as small approach streets and with time growing in importance with commercial establishments finding their place. I mentioned somewhere before British occupation Bangalore must have been some kind of a village with many lakes small and big abound and with hutments and note that there was large thick vegetation making the weather of the place much much colder than present even touching 2 degree Celsius in the winter..with the disappearance of vegetation the city becomes warmer by the decade.The British cantonment is the birth-place of modern Bangalore and before this event the city was probably full of temples both big and small the remnants of which is strewn all over the city..there is no road in the city which does not have temple like structures at least they exist at the middle of M G Road and at the commencing point of    Kempe Gowda road..possibly many have disappeared for want of maintenance.

MG Road in the early 1900's

Plaza theater on MG Road presently razed

Kempe Gowda Bus terminus

State Bank of Mysore building on Kempe Gowda Road

War Memorial on Residency Road

The Kalasipalyam Bus Stand in the early 1900's

The Residency the present Raj Bhavan

I have posted some old photographs of Bangalore and some of them might be recent and in these photos is hidden the chronology of how a sleepy hamlet suddenly and gradually but surely progressed into the metropolis of the future it is going to be. See the mix of the Victorian and modern era trapped in these photographs.

The roads that were prominent before Independence and the one's that became prominent after independence are distinctly different. Residency road , M G Road, Palace Road and few adjoining roads were prominent during the British era but with the loosening of the city from European hands the significance of these roads began to be redefined.

If one were to somewhere ask me which of the roads in Bangalore would be prominent today it would be difficult to answer as the Ring roads define the city today as against the earlier benchmarks.

This is the most significant metamorphosis of the city of today and various concentric circles of such ring roads will take shape with time.

But I would still try to name the following roads as prominent roads;

M G Road

Residency Road

Chinmaya Mission road

Kempe Gowda Road

Bannerghatta Road

The M G Road or the Mahatma Gandhi Road continues to be a prestigious road of the city but may be loosing perceptive importance and was called South Parade in the past. A metro line runs on the road now. This was a stretch of road possibly used to parade troops once upon a time and this road technically starts from Trinity Circle and ends at the Queens park and must be some three kilometers in all. M G Road of today has many business offices today built on demolished Victorian style houses. On either sides of this road were Victorian style houses and some of them continue to this day. The Mittal Tower is a prominent business Centre here.

The Residency Road shoots diagonally off the M G Road and leads to the Residence of the Resident who had the role of controlling the overall affairs of the Mysore Kingdom and a prestigious post by English standards.It is the Raj Bhavan today. There were many theaters on this road like Galaxy once upon a time but demolished now..technically the Ricmond crcle comes at the end of this road. Richmond Circle was a big circle once upon a time and the circle dismantled in the late 1970's. What is this road known for - maybe-shopping centers and restaurants.

The Chinmaya Mission road is a modern road of Bangalore and could be called as some kind of extension of the M G Road and jets into Indira Nagar. I somewhere believe this road would gradually replace the M G Road for what it was known for. This road is much abound with young people at the various eat-outs in the evenings and the key aspect of this road is that it crisscrosses the residential area of Indira Nagar.

Any one from major part s of the city maybe barring Malleswaram area and Mysore road area must use the Kempe Gowda road to reach the  Central Railway Station. This road has been made one way now and is a key road of the Majestic or Subash nagar area of the city. Once upon a time this road was known for being in the Guinness book of world records for having the highest number of cinema halls. This place is ideal for shopping in my view point as against many other roads of the town and is a one stop store for entertainment and is easily accessible from the Kempe Gowda bus terminus.


One of the key features of the present day Bangalore is the emergence of Bannerghatta road as one key area that houses various business offices to the exclusion of various other locations and this road intersects the Nice Road which is a toll road of International standards and this belt would resurge as a corporate hub of the city and is a long stretch of road running some twenty kilometers and is a business zone for professional people and employees.

Thus about the various roads f the city and I have missed many and a novice to the city of Bangalore would find reading this an intitial orientation to the aspects of this city and a etail understanding of sorts obtained from various other sources both text and graphical.

The Utility Building

The UTILITY  BUILDING of Bangalore somewhere in the middle of M G Road and the only sky-scraper of Bangalore City with some 24 floors. Adjacent to this building is the Mayo Hall and gives a striking contrast to the Old and new of Bangalore city.

The Mayo Hall- It was built during 1875-1883 and named for the sixth Earl of Mayo, Richard Bourke, who was the fourth Viceroy of India, who was assassinated in 1872 in The Andaman and Nicobar Islands.The word "Mayo" has Irish roots.

Richard Bourke

Diagonally opposite to the Mayo hall today there is a Shopping mall which used  to be the site of VICTORIA HOTEL  which was a bungalow converted into a hotel.

The Bangalore University

The Bangalore University has for long been a key aspect of the educational climate of  Bangalore . This University owes its existence to Mysore University from which it emerged first as an outfit at the Central College campus which has largely Victorian style structures in the heart of the city. For long all the educational institutes of the city and its surroundings were affiliated to this university. Today the trend of creating independent private Universities have been the order of the day owing to huge demand for education and the inability of Universities to meet dead-lines. I used to know Mr. Thimappa who was the vice-chancellor of this university and was an eminent and eloquent speaker and an scholarly person per-se.

The main campus of the Bangalore University can be seen on Mysore road called as Jnanabharathi  and is a junction on this stretch of highway and the Mysore-Bangalore railway line runs overhead and there is a Jnanabharathi railway station near-by where only passenger trains stop. This campus like any other University campus in the country is impressive with many buildings and departments over a large area..apparently it appears this area and the areas adjoining it have been some kind of forest once upon a time.

It appears to me that the British made a mistake of not creating an " I Ed S  " Indian Education Service on the lines of other civil service like the IAS where youngsters are taken to hold academic posts in statutory institutions. There is so much of clamor and uncertainty when the Govt. has to appoint a Vice-Chancellor to some university for the sheer confusion it creates for want of a clear-cut and merit based formula. Simply said some of the better academicians do not get into the post or is difficult for them to sustain for long. A service as mentioned above would give instantly a pool of people who can govern a University. It is high time the Government embarks on creating such a service or move some of the existingand willing  IAS ; IPS and similar cadre into I Ed S and formally initiate them through some mechanism and the yard stick or guideline must be the ABILITY TO TEACH.

Bangalore University has produced many distinguished luminaries in various feilds and has a legacy of its own which the University has to preserve and let that culture of Compassionate teaching for personal excellence for which educational processes in this part of the world was known for since time immemorial continue to be a guiding factor as always.

Raja Rajeshwari Arch

The Raja Rajeshwrari Arch on Mysore Road supposed to be have been constructed by Shri M S Ramaiah. The Rajarajeshwari temple is close to this point and leads to it. This point must be some ten kilometers from the city bus station and City market.

MY TRAINING INSIDE INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES

During the fag end of my stint at the technical school I spent about a month or so purposefully as an un-paid trainee inside the Indian Telephone Industries which needs elaboration. On being given a pass I could move in and out of the factory at will and also had the opportunity of using the canteen.

On the first day I was led to the training department. I remember the names of few fellow trainees from the REC  Kurukshetra by name Sunil Kharit a resident of Dandeli and from the colony of its paper works and another by name Gopalakrishnan. I found that ITI had a well stocked library with many books relating to Technology and was well designed and maintained. I couldnt help feel a sense of sentiment that my father worked in this set up for nearly forty years largely doing a very good job at manufacturing a skill he had in abundance.

ITI to my understanding made three things. Exchanges, Telephones and  Relays. Strowger exchanges gave way to Crossbar and finally to Electronic exchanges and I happenned to see all these varieties. Crossbar had a very short  lifespan being replaced by the electronic genre almost instantly. ITI from a scientific stand-point was a factory largely involved with electromagnetism that finds application in telephony. This meant winding and winding machines were a key component of what ITI did. The founders of ITI and what it stood for needs appreciation for one reason that had it not been for ITI  India would not have had a basis for the Telecommunication revolution we see today..because ITI largely personified both advantages , problems and pitfalls of telephony as it stood during these times. ITI  acted as an  R and D base for telecommunication in India which grew at a slow pace and then grew in leap and bounds somewhere making its basic crucible and master called ITI redundant in the process.

It was nice to see a strowger exchange work with various kinds of electromagnetic selectors working in rotational and vertical axes. It was a crude technology but acted as a basis for exchanges which more or less work on similar principles today called Switching..though we use Computer based systems or IC technology.  I could see some elderly people work fanatically at winding the selectors and the like. But much of the work was done manually. Today exchanges are a different cup of tea quickly assembled using electronic components on fast robot like pre-programmed machines.

ITI made Telephones first of the rotating type followed by push-button at assembly lines in F-51 a code name given to Factory - 51. What I saw inside ITI was an effective and hard-working Industrial enterprise run on modern lines of these times contrary to what is generally spoken of a public-sector. I saw enthusiasm a the work place and a dynamic Industrial organization. ITI gave me a good foundation on telephony and I cherish my stint at this place and was an educational experience par-excellence.

Two R and D departments adorned this place a Transmission R and D near the main-gate and a Switching R and D near the Hospital gate with many engineering graduates manning things. The lawns of ITI in front of the administrative office also added charm. The corporate office of ITI was for many years in the Bangalore city atleast shifting locations once.

ITI  has slowly become the grand-father of Indian Telephony ..its son being the fast Electronic Exchanges and its grand-son being Mobile telephony but this Grand-father is eternal and needs to be taken care of in some form and all its resources oiled and re-furbished come what may from time to time and ITI must continue to do without deviation Telecom activities of various kinds related to modern times and in the process retain all its resources and composure. Government must think on an incessent and on going way to re-invent ITI from time to time.