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| Edited By: Malavika Sangghvi |Source: |Updated: Nov 19, 2013, 11:17 PM IST
The spectator...
At 6.45 am on Saturday morning when most Bangloreans were enjoying a well-deserved weekend lie-in, Arun Pai, a pleasant featured man in a Fab India kurta, was standing outside the Trinity Church on Mahatma Gandhi road with a shoulder bag that contained a thermos of hot coffee, ancient maps, enlarged sepia photographs, biscuits and tetrapak refreshments.
Pai, a one time high-flying management consultant is the moving spirit behind Bangalore Walks, (www.bangalorewalks. com), a company which serves up Bangalore on a platter to those curious, fascinated, enchanted or confused by the city.
On this particular Saturday Pai is about to take his flock through a four hour walk down Bangalore’s main arterial Mahatma Gandhi road to unearth traces of its Victorian Heritage.
At the Trinity Church Pai asks his group to shut their eyes and imagine they are back in the 19th century. “You are on horse back, you are a soldier in the British Army and you are advancing through difficult terrain on to Bangalore.” He says in an excited voice, before scrambling up the Church’s ancient wooden staircase to its terrace to point out a stellar view of MG road “This was Cantonment area, and the most powerful members of the British Empire lived on both sides of this road.” He says.
Next are stops at tucked away Victorian bungalows on the busy thoroughfare built in the style that’s come to be known as ‘Bangalore Gothic’ which most people would miss on a normal day. The inhabitant of one such Bungalow — the principal of a Catholic school — Pai points out is known for his penchant for keeping farm animals in his garden. “Imagine sheep and Yahoo’s headquarters on the same street,” he says wryly.
By 11 am Pai and his little group are walking down Rest House Road an unbelievably quiet lane full of sleepy bungalows running parallel to the busy cacophony of Brigade Road .
“These properties are invaluable and are naturally the target of real estate developers. Most families succumb to the temptation and sell out to business houses who want to construct high rise office blocks and malls in their place. On our walks we’ve been seeing that we lose them at the rate of one a month.” He says.
The tour finally ends at one such office block on MG road, a building as unremarkable, as it is modern.
“Look carefully at this one.” He says. “This is as significant as any of the other buildings I have pointed out.” He says “It is the first office of Wipro — and twenty years ago it could be said that the birth of Bangalore’s Silicon Valley happened here. History is not always in the past.” Says Pai. “I try and show my groups that Bangalore is as much about the future as it is about the past.”
