After Mumbai and Delhi, Bangalore is the next in the series to have books being based on it. The red carpet, Pinging from Bangalore and finally Beantown Boomtown. This anthology tries to cover many facets of the city, but because it does not have the kind of vibrant history as the other two cities most of the extracts in the book just fleeting touch upon it.
R.K.Narayan talks about Bangalore in the late 70's where he mentions Basavangudi, Chickpet, Jayanagar among others.. a time when Indiranagar, Domlur, Electronic city were barren lands.
Irappa Kambali then talks about life around Majestic whose significance is strangely lost among the IT expanse of the city.
Most of them like Shashi deshpande talk nostalgically about the city gone by..
It even has extracts from Thomas Friedman to Winston Churchill.. from Uma MahadevanDasgupta to Deborah Moggach.. but the one I liked the best is Yusuf Arakkal recollecting his childhood in the city that gave him his identity.
A lot us who have had the opportunity of having experienced Bangalore before and after the IT boom would surely connect to the book.
