Treasure Hunt- TV Annaswamy's Book on Bangalore

Bengaluru to Bangalore: Urban History of Bangalore :

from the Pre-historic Period to the End of 18th Century.

T. V. Annaswamy, published in 2003 by Vengadam Publications

“And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” so wrote Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist. My search for this rare book on Bangalore got me to various articles and I must thank some fellow Bangaloreans for the knowledge and information they have shared over time.

Meera Iyer for her excellent article in Deccan Herald titled 'A Journey From Rags To Riches' on Dharmarathnakara Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar , a philanthropist par excellence who understood the importance of education, especially for the lesser privileged class and gender of the then society.

Divya J Shekhar’s 'Date with history: A century on, Mudaliar's philanthropy is helping the needy' article in The Economic Times adds more to the long list of Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar’s contributions, and a conversation with his great grandson Dr BA Anantharam. a renowned plastic reconstructive hand surgeon with whom I have had the fortune to work with doing some lab tests and signing a few lab reports for his patients.

Another excellent article is by Nila Tamaraa Blog-Magazine titled 'Gandhi At A 140-Year-Old Heritage Building In Bangalore' speaks about a Gandhian event in RRBANMS heritage auditorium, the contribution of the stalwart to the town from Attara Kacheri to schools, dispensaries, choultries and temples and a conversation with TV Annaswamy, the book’s author who is in fact the great grandnephew of Arcot Narrainswamy Mudaliar.

A recent article 'Schooling Bengaluru since 1873' by Akhila Damodaran in The New Indian Express turned out to be a booster. With a dozen mentions about the book on how well researched the work of TV Annaswamy is and the references that are cited about Bangalore my desire to read this book had grown enormously. Bookstore visits, request mails and online searches continued.

A fortnight ago Udaya Kumar P L of Inscription Stones of Bangalore posted about the greatness of this book saying “Every Bangalorean must have a copy in his/her home…” which pumped me up. Following this a random search on Facebook while travelling in Namma Metro brought me to a page called Art Tipsy with a post about promoting this book in 2014. Curiosity surfaced, I contacted the owner of the page hoping for some luck and ta-da! A few conversations and days later the book reached home, thank you Asha Ramamurthy and Ramamurthy Annaswamy for the gesture and love given to a fellow Bangalorean. I am indebted forever.

It is the collective experiences like these that transcend beyond time from the 1900s to 2019; beyond places from Whitefield to Kengeri through benevolent and insightful people who make the city of Bangalore what it is, not just the weather.

Bangalore indeed feels like home.

The ‘Kannada Gothilla’ and ‘Dead End Right’…

The ‘One and Half’ and ‘Traffic Saar’...

…are bearable because of the Bangaloreans who love and live in this city.

Happy reading and sharing!

-R.