Sunday, April 3, 2011

Multiple City - Writings on Bangalore

Editor:        Aditi De
Published:   2008
Publisher:    Penguin Books India Ltd.
Paperback: 350 Pages
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51 short pieces of writings with a common theme - Bangalore, cover the entire life span of the city right from the days of its foundation being laid by Kempe Gowda to its current transformation into IT Capital of India.
Selections (both originals and translations) from a wide variety of literary genre - stories, poems, plays, articles, book extracts, blogs etc. are employed to convey the multi-faceted, multi-cultural nature of Bangalore.


Some of  the notables ones:
  • The legend about the origin of the name "Bangalore"; 
  • An historical account of Battle of Bangalore fought between British army and Tippu Sultan's forces near what is now Ulsoor Gate; 
  • Translation of the Kannada song " Beledide Noda Bengaluru Nagara" from the1966  film 'Manekatti Nodu'.
  • Century-old photographs of South Parade Road (Now M.G. Road), Commercial Street; Bull Temple; 
  • Several nostalgic memoirs about  life in Cantonment, Gandhi Bazaar, Majestic; 
  • An account of Mahatma Gandhi's stay in Bangalore;
  • An article about Sir C.V. Raman on the role he played in Bangalore's emergence as a Center of Science; 
  • An essay on budget restaurants serving high quality food - Kadambam, MTR, Adigas, Vidhyarthi Bhavan etc.;
  • A biographical piece on Veena Doreswamy Iyengar who lived in Malleswaram;
  • Articles about the  IT and Call Center business in Bangalore.
The authors  featured in this anthology include - R.K. Narayan, U.R. Ananthamurthy, P. Lankesh, Shashi Deshpande, Geeta Doctor, Winston S. Churchill, Anita Nair, Ramachandra Guha, Rajmohan Gandhi, Mahesh Dattani, William Darlymple and Thomas Friedman.


In short this anthology  is a sumptuous buffet spread of delicious dishes prepared by Master-Chefs to suit every palate. A must read for every  present, past and aspiring  citizens of Bangalore !


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