Bangalore IT owes a lot to Benevolent Mysore Wodeyars!

What is the relation of IT industry to the Wodeyars of Mysore? It needs few ‘Why’ questions to ask before we get to the root. In Software development, there is a concept of Why-Why analysis or 5 Why analysis. So lets do that.

Why Bangalore became IT capital of India?

Because Texas Instruments the first MNC IT Major chose Bangalore to start its technology centre in India to rope in best available scientific talent in plenty here. Then many foreign MNCs followed suite. Then came Infosys, Wipro etc.,

Why scientific talent is plenty in Bangalore?

Because all premier scientific research and development centres from the central government were favored to be established here. For example, DRDO, ISRO, HAL, NAL, BEL, etc., Hence there is plenty of scientific talent developed in Bangalore.

Why so many central R&D institutes came to Bangalore?

Because there was India’s premier scientific institute IISC here and Raman Research institute was also here. And it was quite natural for research based centres to find a good backing from the premier education institute.

Why IISC was established in Bangalore? Why CV Raman chose Bangalore to establish is Research institute?

Because of the great statesman Nalvadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar (KR Wodeyar IV), Inspirational Swami Vivekananda and the great Industrialist Jamshedji Tata.

The story goes, that Swami Vivekananda the walking, talking dynamo who could explode positive thoughts around him in anyone, inspired Jamshedji Tata to establish a world class scientific research institute. Tata readily agreed and wanted someone to lend him enough land. Swamiji asked Wodeyar of Mysore. He brought them together. He told them, that any technology can be bought, but what the country needs is, to develop scientific temper in the young minds. For which a world class facility, labs, research and education in basic science is necessary.

Wodeyar readily agreed to grant all the necessary land for its establishment. It is locally known as Tata Institute also.

Similarly, CV Raman who had worked extensively in his research career, in Kolkata and then in Pune, chose to establish his own institute, the Maharaja convinced him to set it up right here. CV Raman also had worked as the Head of IISC by that time.

Benevolence of Mysore State Under Wodeyars

Under the Wodeyars, the Mysore state enjoyed benevolence. There were many firsts to their credit. They were first to understand & appreciate British modern administrative excellence. They quickly accepted it and established it in Mystore state for the benefit of the people.

The district level sessions courts were established in Mysore state first outside British held administrative area. Mysoru Anche was first state wide Postal system. This lead to the establishment of Indian postal system. Mysore had its first radio station in India, Akashavani. This gave raise to All India Radio later. Bangalore became the first electrified city in India. Shimsha water reservoir near Bangalore, was India’s first electricity generating unit. It was established specifically to supply electricity to Kolar Gold Fields to help the British privately held company to dig deeper to mine the Gold and loot them out of our country. When the Maharaja raised the rate of electricity due to obvious increase in cost of production, the British pinned the request down citing we have a world war to fight. (WW I was going on at that time at our cost, financials as well as sending our soldiers). The Macaulay British education system was quickly adapted and some convents came up in Coorg & Coastal areas. While the British Modern education system has arguably impoverished us Indians, it was important to adapt to the changing power equations and adopt administrative, education policies accordingly to the benefit the common man.

All in all, the Mysore state under Wodeyars after the befall of Tipu was in righteous hands who looked after their subjects with love and care.

British termed Mysore as a Modern welfare state. Gandhiji always hailed the Maharaja for establishing a benevolent state and a Modern welfare state.

There are many other achievements like, Mysore University establishment, KRS dam commissioning, Bhadravathi Iron & Steel works, Importing sericulture technology which lead to Tata Silk Farm which further lead to Central Silk Board (now famous for traffic jam on Hosur road junction!) establishing Mysore Silk industries. All of these and many other establishments have great stories of resilience, fighting spirit of the Maharajas of Mysore. 

Now in Bangalore we see many landmarks rightfully named after wodeyars. For example, we see KR Market, KR Road, KR Circle etc., Nalvadi Krishna Raja Wadeyar had much contributions in all of the previously mentioned feet of the Mysore state. Of course there are many who joined his endearing efforts in making the Mysore state a peaceful and modern welfare state. Like that of Sir M Vishweshwaraya, Sir Mirza Ismail, DV Gundappa etc., to name just a few.

Before Nalvadi KR Wodeyar (Nalvadi in Kannada means fourth, Mummadi is third), Mummadi KR Wodeyar also had significant contributions to the Mysore state. He patronized art & culture greatly during his time. The great names like Veene Sheshanna, Piteelu Chowdaiah, Honnappa Bhagavatharu etc., are known to have flourished under his tutelage.

There is a natural connection between the fine art and science. Where there is a cultural growth & freedom, there is harmony which gives raise to scientific temper. This is well exemplified here.  

Injustice to Wodeyars in current School Education

There is absolute injustice done to the Wodeyars in our school syllabus. There is very little mention of their achievements even in Karnataka state syllabus. Krishnaraja Wadeyar IV alone commands a depth of gratitude from the children of Karnataka for making a state worth flourishing in all walks of life today.

While Tipu & Hyder are hailed as fighters for freedom & there are dedicated detailed chapters on them, Wodeyars and their benevolence is completely ignored by today’s school system.

The locals all over Karnataka consider Tipu as a villain of their community, locality. For Chitradurga people he was a perpetrator of independence, for people of Coorg he was a mass murderer; The people of Melukote near Mandya don’t celebrate Deepavali even today as they mourn the mass murder of several Brahmins by Tipu on that day. For the people of Shivamogga, he was a cruel king as he jailed and tortured their kings. The people of Malabar in northern Kerala today are victims of his atrocities for decades. Maximum forced religious conversions happened during his undignified rides there.

British for their benefit and foresightedness of divide and rule, hailed Tipu as a great warrior. The current education system carries forward that folly in appeasement of his fanatics & in fear of them too.

It is our responsibility to educate our children on the great dynasty of Wodeyars and their benevolent rule of Mysore state for nearly five centuries. 

Hope this introduction gives more interest for you to read more about the Wodeyars of Mysore. 

Cycling Benefits

The primary benefit I saw was the fitness as discussed in my previous blog. But there are other benefits that might interest others.
In no particular order I have listed what I think are the benefits of commuting by cycling.

Health and fitness:
For cycling, your body energy is the fuel and heart is the engine. Hence good cycling keeps the heart healthy and exercises all parts of the body.

Feel Fresh
In car I take about 60mins to travel 15kms through the Bangalore traffic. That means about 30mins I sit idle at signals or get frustrated at slow pace of traffic. So when I reach office or home my mind is restless and tired. When I’m on cyle, balancing and agility keeps my mind busy thinking of presence. When your mind is in the state of presence, you feel fresh, active, agile and peaceful. Read the book - http://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230602689&sr=1-1
I actually have felt the freshness and less tired when I reach home or office on cycle.

Eat what you like
This is one of the primary reasons I took up commuting by cycle. I can not resist yummy chocolates, sweets that are in plenty in our diet. Every weekend there is some function to attend to. And every often somebody returns from onsite with foreign chocolates or somebody comes from thirupathi prasadam. Intake should be around 2000KCals per day if BMI is normal. One Samosa or mysore pak if I take I need to skip my meal. But I take couple of them almost everyday. So now with some cycling around everyday I burn enough cals. So I think it should be ok to eat what I like!

Time saver
In most cases it is either equal or less than car commuting time from home to office. In my case I travel from JP Nagar 1st phase to GVC mapped at – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105755152128773253825.00045d9e05628a5fb2648&ll=12.968011,77.605287&spn=0.371368,0.725098&z=11
I take about 45mins to 60mins depending upon the traffic. Signals are the hurdles for the cars, similarly main roads crossings are the hurdles for the bikers. The main time savers for bikers are the short cuts which save about 10-15% distance, maneuvering through the traffic clog at main junctions and crossing like a pedestrian at traffic lights. But I spend about 5-10mins crossing the main roads on my way at Hosur road crossing, Bannerghatta crossing, and Inner ring road crossing in front of Dell office.
Also as our lazy lifestyle demands some kind of exercise, you need to set aside some 7-8hrs of exercise in a week. And if you are exercising while commuting that is saved for some blogging .

Clean and Green Environment
Needless to say you do contribute your bit for saving the environment.
Reduces noise pollution, air pollution. No depletion of fossil fuel reserves. You save that much space on the road to just occupy enough for yourself only not for the entire car.

Cost savings
Cost savings can also be worked out based on your fuel expenditure for office commute. For me if I do 3 days a week consistently I can save probably upto 2000Rs per month. You can count in also the gym fee savings. Also gym builds up some muscles which if you don’t maintain will become too sexy..

City exploration
If you are a cycling commuter then you are not limited by choice of roads. You can keep exploring the shortest route by going through less known roads, gullies, areas you have never seen before. It avoids city maddening traffic also although not completely.

Disadvantages

Safety and security while driving
The biggest fear is to be run over by an errand bus. In car accidents keep happening denting and scratching your car resulting in some road rage, but nothing happens to you. Little careless ness while riding bicycle is also dangerous. You have to be very agile and well balanced. Try to avoid main roads for that reason as much as possible. Take the by lanes running parallel to the main roads. Always wear helmet.
For night riding put many reflectors and blinking lights to be seen by other speeding vehicles.
Dogs chase you in night sometimes in by lanes you have to get down and get friendly with them!
But overall it is not as scary as you think. It is just the mindset that needs change. By moving around in cars and bikes we only have made our city unsafe. But cycling makes the city safe overall. For that we have to inspire more ppl to get on to it.

Theft
Easy to lift and take it off. The chain lock doesn’t guarantee the safety but it makes that much hard for anybody to steal. So place it in much visible area where people can see if there is some theft happening. And chain it to some stationary object. I use either the running water pipe or grilled gate to chain to.
Traceability of bike is not easy after theft.

Bike parking is not available in all places
Yep. So we have built big parking lots for cars and bikes but not cycles. We have to grow our community to voice our concerns. All we need is some iron loops in a line in front of our office to chain to.
Other places in city also have the same problem. So we have to find some odd stationary object to chain to.

Tendency to violate rules
Well I took to biking primarily to cut through the traffic snarls. So we get on the footpath meant for walkers, but since we don’t have cycling lanes there is no other go.
We are like amphibians changing to vehicle riders or pedestrians when necessary. We tend to cross as pedestrians where there are road dividers. Oneways are meant only for speedy vehicles so we tend to go there as pedestrians.
Safe riding is important without getting hurt and without hurting others on the road.

Cycling Solution to Traffic

This is one of the best Bangalore specific presentation on traffic problem and possible solution.
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/das-125207-bangalore-traffic-solutions-bangaloretrafficsolution-travel-places-nature-ppt-powerpoint/

This guys from our biking community dreams in this presentation of having a large network of bike rentals in Bangalore. I fully endorse him!
http://www.slideshare.net/rajivmathew/ananth-ranganathan-freewheeling-presentation

This presentation is from Hasiru Usiru an NGO working towards saving environment by promoting related causes.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3841727/Bangalore-traffic-solution-presentation

Each and every day 500,000 people ride their bicycle to work or school in Copenhagen. This blog highlights who they are, why they do and how it was made possible.
Forty years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 36% of the populations choose the bicycle. Copehagenizing is possible anywhere.
www.copenhagenize.com

Just imagine Bangalore in the 70’s and 80’s. The same width of arterial roads, no one-ways, no signals. 50% non-motorized like walkers, cyclers, tongas and about 50% motorized vehicles. Now the situation is hardly 5% walkers and cyclers and no tongas. Rest is black vehicles.
Now imagine if we can Copenhagenize Bangalore, that means about 30% green vehicles and rest black vehicles on the road.

I attended a workshop in Bangalore recently on the biking solution to traffic organized by BMLTA in collaboration with various like minded organizations. There were case studies presented from Delhi, Pune and Nanded, first, second and third tier cities. The city planning especially in Nanded was very well appreciated. It was designed on a concept called ‘Street’. Streets typically host lot of activities. It needs to cater to Pedestrians, Buses, Cars, motor bikes, cycles, Hawkers, cobbler corners, parking, bus stops, trees etc., Some of the roads are so well designed catering to most of these items which is marvelous. And there is no road widening done here. It is just the best utilization of the space available. Percentage allocation changes to each item all along the stretch of each road. I think we need to think in those directions for Bangalore as well.

FAQ on Cycling

After my first blog some of the commonly asked questions are answered here:

Where do I rent cycles?
http://notebook.bumsonthesaddle.com/lists:rent
Also for non-geared bikes you can check out at your local cycle shops which costs around 30-40rs per day.

What about sweating once your reach office?
Checkout for a shower room in your office sports complex.
Else you can get into the rest room wipe your sweat, put a spray of deodorant, change to formals.

Is gear necessary for cycling?
When we were kids, cycle carried less weight and we were more agile. If you are still so, you can go for non-geared. Also if the distance is less gear is not necessary.
Apart from this you can ask your friends who would have junked their old cycle and get it upright and take a ride. Feel it, get comfortable, then get on a new bike and commute!

My distance from home to office is very long. Is it feasible to cycle?
You must try out to find the benefits. If it is not found beneficial drop the idea. But generally in Bangalore bikers club I have seen most people travel around 25-30kms per day and few travel around 50kms per day. Geared bikes wont tire you that much.

Do I look funny on cycle?
Yes you do if funny is being different from most others. Man has evolved. Many used to ride cycle to office in 60s and 70s. Now most drive car or motor bikes or come by bus. Now Cycle commute is not so common and hence is funny. But benefits are driving people to take it up now-a-days.

Opposition at home? Safety on road?
Those are some of the disadvantages you need to handle. But if you are ok world around you is ok. So take the plunge and see if you are safe on the road. Take all safety precautions like hand gloves, knee cap, lights, reflectors, helmet etc., It is necessary. I ride with all of them. You do get some comments on the road too. Hey see this guys needs that funny helmet on cycle :)
For girls it would be hard to take it up for commuting. So riding for fitness in the morning should be alright. I didn’t want to discourage but it is better to know. But you are welcome to checkout at Bangalore bikers club to see if any girls are commuting and take some tips there.

If everybody takes this initiative it would be cleaner world?
Yes. But everybody won’t take it. So please spread the word. Some of you might be interested to take it to the next level. Lets help health improvement, environment cleanliness. It is good to possess one at home. It would be useful for anybody in your family for at least short travel for shopping etc.,

If you have more questions post it here, I’ll enhance this FAQ.

Other useful sites for Bangalore bikers and others also are below. Everything you want to know about biking are here and the links to other sites where further information are available here.
http://www.bumsonthesaddle.com/
http://www.bikeszone.com/forum/index.php
http://groups.google.co.in/group/Bangalore-bikers

Tryst with Cycling

I never thought one day I take it this far. Yes I’m now cycling to office from home each away about 14kms. I intend to keep it up by doing at least 3-4 days per week.

It all just began as just another fitness exercise in the morning. When I saw someone just zooping past me in a cycle while jogging I realized its fun. Jogging, brisk walking was becoming boring. Then I borrowed my brother’s cycle that had junked in the garage. I could do about 6kms easily in 1/2hr and cover lot more by-lanes of Jaynagar and appreciate those good houses old and new and their architecture.

It started boring again and I thought of office commute by cycle. But it was overwhelming to do that much distance and back in one day. I had recently read that in Delhi some university has invented the solar powered cycle rickshaws. So I looked for fixing up some electric motor. In Bangalore there is couple of companies doing this. But it is more like Luna and could never be doubled up as a cycle cum luna. Got disappointed and looked up the net for office commute by cycle. I could find many links to my surprise.

Then I went into the details and found geared cycles make life easy. Met some big shot who is a cycle freak in a bike shop and he suggested rent bikes on the net and trying out first. I did that. And I commuted to office for 3 weeks. Got comfortable and confident to buy one. So now I have a sexy Trek 3700 to boast of.

And yes I’m enjoying every bit of the journey. Now I’m spreading the word and making others buy into this idea. Jinesh and Arun have already rented bikes. Actually I was surprised to see so many techies are on cycle these days. When I went to buy on weekend 2 more were sold the same day. Good to possess a cycle. Especially in Bangalore it is fantastic in winter to cycle around. Next I’m planning to start long distance cycling in weekends. I’m enticed by http://www.tourofnilgiris.com/ So probably next year I’ll hop onto it.

In the next blog I’m writing some more info around the cycles, parts, websites, cycling benefits.
Do drop your responses here.