Welcome.
This blog has been a longtime coming and I'm glad I have finally taken the first step. I have been in India for nine days now and I'm still just getting my bearings.
Bangalore, my new home for the next few months, is very much the epitome of new India. It is the country's IT capital, the subcontinent's messy and bursting Silicon Valley. The city has grown in leaps and bounds with the emergence of the tech industry. The population was roughly two million in 1990 and is estimated at six million today. Honestly, it could be much larger.
I have taken up residence in a central part of the city known as Richmond Town, an area originally part of the British cantonment. For my American readers, a cantonment is a semi-permanent or permanent military establishment. During the Raj, Bangalore was once the largest British military base in southern India. (See the map below from 1924).
However, to call it an encampment really doesn't do it justice. The cantonment was a city unto itself. At 13 sq KM, it housed barracks and parade grounds but also contained markets, busy commercial avenues, churches, and rows upon rows of exquisite Victorian and Edwardian bungalows.
For the most part, those bungalows are gone, replaced with new apartment buildings, schools, temples and mosques, but the cantonment's British influence remains thick. I live just off of Alexandria Street, next to the Baldwin Boys School. Alexandria Street runs into Wellington Street and Wellington Park which join Richmond Road. Walk further and you might find yourself on Brigade, Residency, Infantry or Museum Roads. If it weren't for the cacophony of screeching rickshaws, motorbikes and horns you might almost be able to imagine British regiments marching down tree-lined streets and officers lounging, scotches in hand, puffing on their pipes. Or, maybe even playing a little polo (note the photo at the top). Well, almost...
I'm intrigued with this place and hope to provide a glimpse at the new, vibrant city as well as the relics from its rich past. More soon.
The blog looks good, buddy. We're all pumped for you and it sounds like you've found yourself in a cool area. Additionally, the irony that you moved half way around the world only to live on Alexandria street is not lost on me.
ReplyDeleteI like it too. I'm not sure whether your writing for your readers, or purely for yourself, but don't forget to post about the little things that you (in your second trip) might be used to but can be wondrous to most.
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