<p>Bangalore before it became Bengaluru was a lovely place. Tree lined, leisurely, gentle pace of life, salubrious weather - do not blame the change of name for the decline but the callousness with which we citizens have treated this beautiful place. Fortunately, the quaintness of the city in the form of the very many names it has given its localities, roads and establishments, continues.</p>.<p>Let me take you to Hope Farm Junction in Whitefield. There is no farm anywhere in the vicinity. It is a traffic junction where you can get stuck for absurd periods of time . You are reminded of Dante’s ‘ all hope abandon ye who enter here’. Some person with a perverse sense of humour seems to have named this junction Hope Farm, indeed! </p>.From better roads to waste management: Residents outline Bengaluru's new year wishlist.<p>You go past a board that reads ‘Mad about Bullet’. You do a double take and look closely for guns and notice motorcycles – I wonder how many are aware that this was originally a needle manufacturing company which started making cycles with the trademark, ‘Made like a Gun’, which then began manufacturing motorcycles in 1932 and named them logically, I guess, ‘Bullet’ . If this was imaginative naming, you come across a shop beyond Budigere named Cukado Coo Chicken Shop, which sells , yes, you guessed right, chickens! Guess we can expect a meat shop named ‘maa’ or ‘baa’ meat shop! And then there is this restaurant in RT Nagar named Shaadi ki Biryani, Nausho ka Nashta! <br>( The Biryani of the Wedding, the Breakfast of the Bridegroom )</p>.<p class="bodytext">You come towards Ulsoor, and see a Meanee Avenue. To make matters meaner, Meanee Avenue is in Meanee Layout. A gentlest being , a close friend of mine, used to stay there to disprove the fact that residents there are mean. You see a tailor shop proudly displaying ‘Alterations – A to Z’. While one can understand size 42 being reduced to 38, you wonder if this tailor who does the whole range can do it the other way around. Then you see a shop selling ‘AI biryani’. AI! Things have some to such a pass that even Bengaluru’s favourite dish is now made by AI! You go closer and heave a sigh of relief--the 1’s extension has with time (and by AI ?) got obliterated. The shop is A1. Fair enough, who will like to name a biryani selling shop Z26 ? </p>.<p class="bodytext">You go towards Banaswadi and come across a shop which simply says ‘Carrom Board Repair Shop’. Does anybody really repair carrom boards? After avoiding without much success the multiple potholes which dot our roads you make your way back and pray that some magnanimous businessman levels the roads like Enaythullah Mekri did, apparently not bearing to watch the buffaloes suffer carrying loads–the circle is named after him. You cannot argue with that. And you sigh, lucky buffaloes!</p>
<p>Bangalore before it became Bengaluru was a lovely place. Tree lined, leisurely, gentle pace of life, salubrious weather - do not blame the change of name for the decline but the callousness with which we citizens have treated this beautiful place. Fortunately, the quaintness of the city in the form of the very many names it has given its localities, roads and establishments, continues.</p>.<p>Let me take you to Hope Farm Junction in Whitefield. There is no farm anywhere in the vicinity. It is a traffic junction where you can get stuck for absurd periods of time . You are reminded of Dante’s ‘ all hope abandon ye who enter here’. Some person with a perverse sense of humour seems to have named this junction Hope Farm, indeed! </p>.From better roads to waste management: Residents outline Bengaluru's new year wishlist.<p>You go past a board that reads ‘Mad about Bullet’. You do a double take and look closely for guns and notice motorcycles – I wonder how many are aware that this was originally a needle manufacturing company which started making cycles with the trademark, ‘Made like a Gun’, which then began manufacturing motorcycles in 1932 and named them logically, I guess, ‘Bullet’ . If this was imaginative naming, you come across a shop beyond Budigere named Cukado Coo Chicken Shop, which sells , yes, you guessed right, chickens! Guess we can expect a meat shop named ‘maa’ or ‘baa’ meat shop! And then there is this restaurant in RT Nagar named Shaadi ki Biryani, Nausho ka Nashta! <br>( The Biryani of the Wedding, the Breakfast of the Bridegroom )</p>.<p class="bodytext">You come towards Ulsoor, and see a Meanee Avenue. To make matters meaner, Meanee Avenue is in Meanee Layout. A gentlest being , a close friend of mine, used to stay there to disprove the fact that residents there are mean. You see a tailor shop proudly displaying ‘Alterations – A to Z’. While one can understand size 42 being reduced to 38, you wonder if this tailor who does the whole range can do it the other way around. Then you see a shop selling ‘AI biryani’. AI! Things have some to such a pass that even Bengaluru’s favourite dish is now made by AI! You go closer and heave a sigh of relief--the 1’s extension has with time (and by AI ?) got obliterated. The shop is A1. Fair enough, who will like to name a biryani selling shop Z26 ? </p>.<p class="bodytext">You go towards Banaswadi and come across a shop which simply says ‘Carrom Board Repair Shop’. Does anybody really repair carrom boards? After avoiding without much success the multiple potholes which dot our roads you make your way back and pray that some magnanimous businessman levels the roads like Enaythullah Mekri did, apparently not bearing to watch the buffaloes suffer carrying loads–the circle is named after him. You cannot argue with that. And you sigh, lucky buffaloes!</p>
