Well, this is a review of the Bangalore beyond the girls and the bars. Point one about Bangalore is that it is young, and only for the young.
The rest of the review is a list of Did u knows:
Did you know that
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The word Malgudi actually comes from Malleswaram + Basavangudi, two of the oldest localities in Bangalore. Disclaimer: However, Malgudi is based on Mysore and not Bangalore.
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Bangalore was originally meant as a hill station for the colonials and that Winston Churchill spent his formative years here and wrote a memoir of his travails here.
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Bangalore transformed into a city from being a run down hill station when C V Raman discovered its weather and established the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here.
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The IISc campus was barren land before it was established. It is probably the world’s most diverse artificial forest including facets of tropical, deciduous and temperate forests.
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The best dosas are available not in Chennai, but in Bangalore. For the eclectic, try the Masala Dosa at the Chalukya Hotel on Race Course Road. Roasted to the colour of dark brown, with delicious cashewnuts placed inside and dark green pudhina chutney to go with, it is a veritable treat at 25Rs. The Chalukya hotel is famous for its other cuisine too, and u cant get a seat on weekends.
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However, Bangalore best cuisine (within the constraints of my wallet) is available at MTR, which is just beside the LalBagh gardens. Yes, this is the same MTR that prepares the world famous instant south indian recipes, pickles, masala powder etc. Ambience is not its strong point, there is not even a board which can be noticed (reminiscent of ’’The Boardless Hotel’’? of Malgudi fame). Since it is inevitably packed, u get to wait on rickety wooden benches (it u r lucky, otherwise it is the road 4 u). What matters is the cuisine. What u should have here is the special South Indian meals at lunchtime. At 80 bucks it is as filling as anything.
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The best bookshop in South India is Prestige bookstore just off MG Road . It is run by a cousin of Mr G S Shanbhag, who runs the Strand bookstall in Bombay, arguably the best bookshop in India. For more anecdotes about this shop and its owner, google Ramachandra Guha+Hindu+Shanbhag. By the way Ram Guha is also the city’s residing historian, apart from being the best writer on cricket today.
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The world’s most boring people are Bangalore’s innumerable software engineers, who venture out of their closeted fifth floor cubicles only to play ping-pong and stare at the practise sessions on the Race Course .