Think you know Bangalore? Then take the quiz’’....says Arun. To my exasperation, I couldn’t answer most of them.. how Bangalore’s mosquito contributed to medical science, or what is Tom Hanks’ connection to the city. To be sure, they’re arcane stuff, but would get a history buff interested.
Arun refuses to give answers. Instead, he wants you to get up early, very early in the morning on a weekend and go on a walk with him, so he can show you. You’ll have to pay him, of course, but you’ll get answers, and more ...
Tiring of Bangalore’s less than charming traffic and pollution? Jaded from one too many weekend spent with the bartender or wandering the malls ? Do something different this time. Get another perspective - see Bangalore as it was, find its little secrets...renew your passion, as they say..give the city another chance to seduce you. (Yeah, I know :) weekend highs)
Arun is Arun Pai, an ex-IITian MBA who lived and worked outside India for a number of years, before he came back, to start Bangalorewalks.com. Realizing the city lacked a good guide to its history, he came up with an idea already well in use in other capitals of the world (London, Singapore, New York)...a walking tour by an informed insider.
He’s a charming and well-rehearsed guide, with a knack of bringing history to life, of filling your imagination with long-ago events, and showing you the unexpected. Even veteran Bangaloreans come away surprised at things they walked past every day and had no idea.
Those mysterious places are being unlocked ...one walk at a time. The historical walking tours usually begin early (6:50 am) on a weekend. You dont have to do a lot of walking, its rarely more than a couple of kilometres, and the pace is comfortable even for seniors. It lasts about 3 hours, and ends in a buffet breakfast at the Ebony restaurant, watching BLR high up from the 13th floor. Each walk focuses on a different era that left its stamp...The Victorian era and Churchill’s stay in the city, the End of Empire (early 20th century) and the British cantonment that made Bangalore a military base..even a tour of 300 year old Lalbagh.
More recently, he’s added a cycling tour of Cantonment, and (here it comes!) a 3 hour pub crawl named Beer History Walks..an Sunday evening tour of four of Bangalore’s pubs(Koshys, 1912, Museum Inn, 13th Floor), plenty of beer swilling and dinner while you imbibe the history of brewing in Bangalore and its current pub city tag.
All details on the website. Take a walk, I tell ya, its worth it.
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U still here ? Cant get enough of me (right !!)
Tulleeho.com is the partner on the Beer History Walks of Arun. A friend came back raving about their stuff, and out of curiosity, I popped in on their Smirnoff Tastemaker Session in Sept (its a class on amateur bartending).
The class was being conducted by Shatbhi Basu, a mixologist, and as it is sponsored by Smirnoff, most of what you’ll drink is their vodka. The class does some bartending basics (bar setup, equipment), then gets into the cocktails..Appletini (green apple and vodka), Bloody Mary, Cosmo, Black Russian, Moskowski (peach, Apricot and vodka), etc.
Nothing new here, average bar stuff for the amateur.
Star of their turn is the Caipirojka (pronounced Caipiroshka) which is what the trendy drinkers are calling out for in bars across India. Its a take on Caipirinha (the cane brew from Brazil), and is muddled with mint and stuff. (Too much for GNS-more alcohol, less mint, please) Lunch was included, a 4 course buffet. There was so much free stuff being handed out by Smirnoff and Monin (the liqueur and syrup makers) that we calculated the value outweighed what we’d paid for the class.
Shatbhi was sporting...she tried to make it fun going. Egged people on to try flambees (the flaming shots). Gave helpful hints, showed off some bar tricks, and took requests for new cocktails.
The one big downer...the class. And they cant do much about that. About half were IT and call center guys, young and rambunctious but way too new to the scene to be much fun drinking with. They all huddled at a couple of big tables and giggled. (Yes, giggled, not laughed. Its very girlie, a major turnoff). Of the rest, some shippies, adgirls, four (!) bartending students from Cochin (what’s going on over there-Big party? GNS must pay a visit), couple of mysterymen (never did find out what they do), and a forest officer.
My advice, invite your own friends/date along...just dont tell them they’re paying for it ;-)
I recommend the Wine Trails from Tulleeho..they’re usually in January, Feb, when the grapes are on the vines. There’s a long waiting list for them (extremely popular) so get pre-registered.