Some facts about Bangalore.

Is it not interesting to know that some of the names in Bangalore city that we use often today dates back to centuries? We all know Kempegowda built the city of Bangalore, but least do we know that the city he built constituted just Chikpete, Doddapete, balepete and other surrounding areas, which are the most congested parts of today’s Bangalore. If we look back a little over 100 years, today’s KR market, KG road (in front of Mysore bank) were the outskirts of Bangalore. Just 58 years back when Vidhana Soudha was built, I presume, they built it outside the city of Bangalore as they needed a large space to build it. Can we imagine today, Vidhana Soudha, KG road being outskirts of Bangalore. Isn’t it interesting that domlur and ulsoor were independently ruled few centuries ago. No doubt, every major city in the world would have gone through such phases of expansion, but it is interesting to know about Bangalore as we traverse through all these places very often.

Near today’s Hudson circle, there is a police station called ‘Halasooru gate police station’, any guesses why is it called so, though Halasooru (Ulsoor) is near Trinity circle. My guess is (now I believe I am correct), during those days, buses plying between Bangalore and Mysore were traveling via today’s KG road (it was not a one way then), KR market, Sirsi circle, Raja Rajeshwari Nagar. And the road to Halasooru (via today’s Kasturba road, MG road, trinity circle) must have been a narrow village road and no (or very few) buses used to take that road to halasooru. To reach Halasooru one had to get down near Hudson circle and walk the 3 km distance to Halasooru. As we still see in rural Karnataka, buses do not enter all the villages, people living in interior villages will have to walk to the main road to catch the bus and usually that junction is called as ‘xyz gate’ where xyz is the name of the village it connects to.

Here is an extract from Wiki, I felt is an interesting read about Bangalore.
Kempe Gowda was a great ruler. He was concerned in the welfare of his subjects and spent lavishly in the construction of tanks, agraharas, temples and forts. He conquered Sivaganga principality, 30 miles from Bangalore on Bangalore-Poona Hwy. Next he annexed Domlur which is on the road from Bangalore to Bangalore Airport. Within this vast forest area he erected a fort and built the Township of Bangalore in 1537.
Kempe Gowda next annexed Ulsoor and Hesaraghatta. Bangalore four main streets Chickpete and Doddapete leading to Ulsoor gate, Sondekoppa gate, Yelahanka gate and Anekal gate were laid. Kempe Gowda shifted his capital from Yelahanka to Bangalore. Emperor Achuta Raya granted Kempe Gowda the neighboring villages of Begur, Jigani, Varthur, Kengeri, Banavara and Kumbalgodu, besides many other hamlets yielding a revenue of 30,000 varahas. Kempe Gowda built the cave temple of Gavi Gangadhareswara at Gavipur, the Bull Temple in Basavanagudi, the Kempambudhi Tank and Dharambudhi Tank. His successor Kempe Gowda II built the Ulsoor Tank, the Karanjee Tank, the Sampangi Tank, the Someswara Temple of Ulsoor, the famous four Kempe Gowda Towers and the Ranganatha Temple in Balapete, Bangalore.

Near Madivala (on Hosur road) there is a bus stop called ‘check post’ BMTC still uses the same name for this stop, though there is no check post today. One might not have heard about this stop unless traveled by a BMTC bus. This could have been a forest check post or a border check post while leaving/entering Bangalore or even Karnataka for that matter. Bangalore has grown beyond electronic city in the recent years, but the check post is still in Madivala. Isn’t it interesting?
Now Bangalore has grown so much that, some people are calling Malleshwaram, the outskirts of city, what an irony.

There are many such places around us, we just need to keep our eyes, ears and minds open to explore and enjoy them, but where is the time to open them all at once. I try to do it sometimes and I enjoy it.

Any guesses why is Sirsi circle called so? I know there is no road to connect to Sirsi (a town in Uttara Kannads district) from there. I would like to be enlightened by any facts or even guesses.