Gandhi Bazaar

For a change, a different topic - as suggested by one of my ardent readers :)

Gandhi Bazaar which is an integral part of Basavanagudi is a special place to live in. Coming back from good old days of mid-80s where in Ramesh Bhat (Veteran Kannada Actor) was one of our neighbours, we used play lagori and cricket on the roads. Sanman Hotel and Vidyarthi Bhavan used to be landmark (Vidyarthi Bhavan is still a landmark, but the quality of a Masala Dosa has gone drastically).

Later during Early 90s, the IT boom started in Bangalore. One of the first outlets of Food World opened in Gandhi Bazaar, and the first day I remember, me along with all my friends attacked FW cos he was giving some chocolates / coffee for free ...

Later during 01/02, Gandhi Bazaar started to play a new role - Hunting grounds of South Bangalore along with Jayanagar 4th Block. We used to roam the streets of DVG Road and Gandhi Bazaar main roads for bird-watching and hunting. But since we were not that talented couldn't catch one :-(

In the meanwhile GB (Gandhi Bazaar) had attained a kind of saturation level - Crowd, Traffic, no place to park the vehicle. This was a result of the advent of the likes of Adyar Anand Bhavan, Coffee Day, Roti Ghar, innumerous no. of Sagars and Darshinis etc etc. Also worth a mention is the advent of Banks. I guess even MG Road do not have the no. of Banks Gandhi Bazaar main Road has. Starting from Tagore Circle to Ramakrishna Ashram -> Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, UTI Bank, Citibank, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC, Standard Chartered, Axis Bank, HSBC , Vijaya Bank (Hope I have not missed out anything)

In some of the roads like Govindappa Road and Surveyor Street, every other house has a music teacher, and a street has some 4-5 bharatnatyam teachers. As far as i remember MS Subbalaksmhi used to come to 3 places in Bangalore to sing - Bhavani Kalyana Mantapa (Heart of GB), Gayana Samaja (Very much in Basavanagudi), and Fort High School (during ramanavami for years together - next to Basavanagudi)

Gandhi Bazaar is hardly an area of 500 mts / 500 mts and so many diversities.

Though I crib a lot about being in GB, am proud to be a Gandhi Bazarian ;-)

16 done !!!

Feeling proud of having seen 16 states across the nation - United states of India :-)

I have put in a lot of time and effort to write this mail recollecing all my memories. Kindly go through this till the last line, whenever you are free.

And also, people normally travel only for business requirments, or only when there is a need workwise (relocation, central Govt job etc), I have travelled all these places out of passion and not for business or compulsion.

• Jammu and Kashmir - Could be easily divided into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Had been to Jammu to see maa VaishnoDevi during early 1990s. Need to trek around 15 kms from the base camp.
• Rajasthan - A state that attracts the max no. of Foreign tourists. As the name suggest, it indeed is a place of Raja's. Had been to
  Jaipur & Udaipur - both seem to be the same - Forts, temples etc ...
  Jaisalmer - a must see place, which is a part of the desert - sand dunes, camels, no water, dry, but extreme temperatures. Was there in Jaisalmer on the 31st of December - party-time.
  Pokran - the town that makes the country Nuclear. Felt really proud visiting this place.
• Gujarat - According to me, Saurashtra which is the west Gujarat is the actual one. The rest of Guj is just the new Guj, like HSR layout is for Bangalore.
  Rajkot, Jamnagar, Junagadh etc are all beautiful (traditionally they are like Malleshwaram and Basavanagudi of Bangalore)
  Veraval is known for it's huge underground caves.
  Porbandar - the land of Mahatma.
  Somnath - one of the finest and cleaneset beaches I have ever seen. One of the 12 Jyotirlingas.
  Ahmedabad - My birth place and a pakka business establishment.
  Dwaraka - there are two dwarakas, one is the one which we actually see, and the other one is the one that is submerged under the sea. This is the western most point of India on the map. One of the four mathas that AdiShankara has established.
• Uttaranchal - Land of piligirmage centers (I saw the below places when Uttaranchal was a part of Uttar Pradesh)
  Kedar - one of the jyotirlingas, situated some 14K feet above sea level. The linga is pretty amazing like a mountain. Need to trek some 14 kms from Gaurikund, the best trek I have ever had in my life. My then-60-year-old Grandpa too trecked.
  Badri - one of the 4 places where AdiShankara established Shankara Mutt.
  Dehradun - One of the beautiful capital cities on India. Probably next to Shimla in cleanliess
  Mussorie - perfect honeymoon spot, not too far from Dehradun.
  Sahasradhara - best spot in Uttaranchal, river flows down from thousands of tributeries.
• Himachal Pradesh - As the name says it's full of snow.
  Shimla - most pretty capital city, Kalka-shimla train is a lovely journey. Pretty cold, and going in a meter guage will take u some 7-8 hours to cover a very short distance.
  Kulu and Manali - Beautiful Himalayan Ranges, nice weather across the year, superb places.
  Rohtang Pass - I have no words for this.
• Uttar Pradesh - terribly bad state, which I have seen.
  Haridwar, Rishikesh - the start-place for people to begin the piligrimage - Ramjhula, Lakshman Jhula, Ganga Arti - a sight to be seen. Ganga is already polluted before she reaches Hardwar.
  Nanital - a naturally formed lake (very difficult to believe that it's there at such a high place) - a beautiful sight of the slow-clad mountain Kanchanajunga.
  Agra - Tajmahal
  Mathura - KrishnaJanmasthan (closely coupled with a masjid, some bloody person has destroyed the lovely temple and built this tomb). Same with Somanath.
  Bariely - nothing worthwhile to mention.
• Delhi - the best place to shop for anything, otherwise like any other metro - pollution, crowds etc .. One additional thing is the 'Delhi Metro'
• West Bengal - Kolkatta.
  I really don't remember anything as I went there some 24 years ago.
• Orissa
  Puri and Konark, the only thing i remember was the Sun-temple. This was some 20 years back.
• Maharashtra
  Mumbai - A city where life's mechanical, that doesn't function without the local trains, Juhu is the most ugliest beach. Otherwse a normal metro.
  Pune - A city that's more compared to Bangalore due to IT and due to the youth's population. Had been there for an interview long back.
  Kolhapur - One the towns on the superb National Highway - NH4.
• Goa - what to say about this small little state.
• Andhra Pradesh
  Ahobilam - place where Narasimha avatara took place .. nice, in fact a very hectcic trek place as well.
  Have crossed some places like guntakal some 20/30 times, there used to be trains to Ahmedabad or Delhi and even Mumbai only thru Guntakal, since that used to be a big junction.
  Tirupati - Have treked this up and down some 3 times.
• Karnataka
  I have seen most of the districts in the southern part, leaving some in the north karnataka - Bangalore, Mysore, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Kolar, Tumkur (I enjoy going to Rural Tumkur again and again - lot of amazing trekking spots), Shimoga, Chamrajnagara - enjoyed Gopalswamy betta from where u can see three states - KA, KL and TN, Chikmagalur - best district and might be the richest one also.
  Belgaum - chikkodi , hukkeri, Chitradurga, Davangere, Hubli, Dharwad - hey wait .. what shall I say etc ...
  Some other places which I need to mention here are Gopalaswamy Betta, Siddara Betta, Agube, Kemmanagundi, Kudremukh, in fact the whole of Malnad .. right from karwar to madikeri, Kodugu
• Kerala - Another state that attracts max no of tourists, next to Rajasthan and Goa.
  Wayanad - a sacred place for us (myself and my wife :-))
  Tiruvananthapuram - capital city. The sacred city which was known for it's culture since ages, has gone to dogs (CPI/M)
  Kovalam beach - the beach that attracts a huge no. of Foreign tourists.
  Kaladi - I consider this as a very sacred place - the place where Adi-Shankara was born, visited this place just last month.
• Tamil Nadu
  Kanyakumari - tip of India, southern most point. Vivekananda rock. the calm beach.
  Rameshwaram - an island by itself, the place from where Rama built the setu. the city that is conneted by Pamban bridge (Pamban is an engineering marvel - never knew that such a bridge existed in India), place for one of the jyotirlingas.
  Dhanushkodi - is the tip of Ramasethu - RamaSethu startes from here. People who visit Rameshwaram don't visit this. Less knwon place. It's now (since 1964 cyclone in which the whole town vanished) is a place of remains. Very speacial town, one can see the old remains - railway station, temples, churches , post office etc .. Sri Lanka is just 13-14 kms from there. need to go there on a special vehicle.
  Srirangam - the temple is really good, just like other temples of TN.
  Nagapattinam / Cuddalore - had been to these places during Tsunami. Ferocious waters in the beaches. People say that there were some 5000 deaths during Tsumani in TN. But according to me, after having a look at the places, there were more than 20, 30 thousand deaths, in TN alone.
• Pondicherry
  French City and Indian City - Pondicherry is a speacial city which consists of the French city and Indian City. Nice to see such a place. The french city is just like Paris, the names of the roads start like 'Rue de ... " etc .. fun. The beach is a hopeless place at pondicherry.
  
• Hope I have convered all the places I have seen. Moreover the following are the states I have passed thru' in the trains / Roads.
  Madhya Pradesh
  Haryana
  Punjab

Let me know if you need any help regarding any of the above places. I can always guide you guys.