Do you google for offbeat things to do in Bengaluru or Offbeat places to visit in Bangalore? When friends visit you in Bengaluru, what do show them in the city?

With the city growing into being popularly called as the IT city, Silicon city and the Pub city of India, a pub-crawl to one of the hundreds of breweries and restaurants in the city is a must on every visitor’s list to do in Bangalore. But these are for the millennials of Bengaluru. If your visitor is someone from the 90s or perhaps older, the pubs might be of little interest to them. They have probably grown up hearing about the garden city’s rich green and red canopies of Gulmohars, filter coffees and pleasant weather. They perhaps had relatives from yester years either working or studying in Bangalore as it was reckoned with talented people, better job opportunities, some of the premier organizations of the country, rich cultural heritage, polite and soft-spoken folks etc. In either case, anybody who has lived in this city for a little over a couple of years likes to call him/herself as a ‘Bengalurean’. That’s like adding a price-tag, it kind of gives them a sense of pride!

Talking about the second category of visitors, often when friends and relatives visited Bangalore with 2-3 days in hand and asked me to take them around, I used to wonder as to what’s there to show them around for so many days. The hugely popular Vidhana Soudha and high court complexes, the Lalbagh and Glasshouse, Tippu’s summer palace and the Bangalore palace are landmarks and historical monuments that can all be done in a day. The old charm of Cubbon park and the famous Boulevard of MG Road that boasted of being the city’s lung-space and shopping hubs aren’t the same any longer.

So, this led me to exploring the city and what I found is something that EVERYONE who claims to be a Bengalurean must know! What’s the use of associating with a place or thing when you don’t have enough knowledge of what you proudly brag about in your social circle? Isn’t it?

Bangalore (as every someone from the Old Bengaluru likes to still call it) is a city that has witnessed its growth through harmony between technology and rich history. It is one of the earliest technical hubs and home to some of the premier institutions of the country. The museums in Bengaluru are proof of its association with science and the heritage buildings scattered across the city are testimony to it’s history. You are not a true-blooded Bengalurean if you haven’t been to these places in the city!

NOTE:

• These places are picked from across categories and hence are listed in no specific order or choice. Rating them against each other would not mean any justice.
• All these places have been personally visited, studied and documented by me. However, these are places of certain confidentiality and hence, photography is prohibited.

ƥ What if dinosaurs were replaced by aeroplanes in Jurassic park?
HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited), Asia’s largest and India’s first aerospace establishment was founded and is headquartered in Bangalore. If you want to walk down this journey of how aviation industry has evolved in India, a visit to the HAL Aerospace Museum, India’s first aviation museum located at the HAL premises is highly recommended. Get yourself amused in another world by taking a walk between vintage planes, flight simulators, mock ATC and all the things associated in this subject of fantasy. Now, this place leads me to my next destination: The IISc (Indian Institute of Science).

>• How about a meal cooked in a Hydrogen plant?
Well, I didn’t even know this thing all the while as I feasted on the sumptuous plate of idlis for 5Rs. every morning for breakfast during my fellowship at the Indian Institute of Science. Interestingly, I used to be surrounded by the best scientists of India and abroad discussing new experiments over a plate of food cooked at the same place where a bunch of people discussed a war plot in history. What is now the top-of-the-notch science and technology institution in India, served as a hub for maintenance and repairs of US aircrafts during World-War II. And, the kitchen of this tiny vegetarian restaurant on campus made hydrogen gas to supply for the US fighters during their battle with the Japanese. Eventually, the need for skilled personnel in aeronautics by the HAL workforce at this facility to help the US forces, lead to the establishment of what is today known as the Aeronautical engineering department at IISc campus.

∆• Ever wondered how you could touch someone’s heart and tickle a human brain?
A visit to India’s first ‘Human Brain Museum’ located on the premises of NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences) can help you do just that. NIMHANS is India’s premier and apex medical institution for mental health. The museum has a large collection of brain samples of several animals and human beings suffering from various forms of mental and neurological disorders. Not just that, the visitors taking a guided tour of the museum get to hold and feel various human body parts, ranging from brain, spinal cord, heart, lungs and the like. It was indeed an experience of a lifetime for me to hold it in my palms (without a degree in medicine :P). Another information centre on the same campus gave me a walk through the history of NIMHANS thus leading me to my next destination: The Mysore Bank building.

>• What if you were counting coins at a Lunatic Asylum?
Don’t be surprised! Mysore Bank is a popular landmark located at Bank circle in Gandhinagar and is one of those few places in the city where a vending machine dispenses coins of various denominations if you fed it with currency notes. While you were busy at it, you might not have taken note of the fact that the very building where the bank functions today used to be the first mental hospital in India, established in the 1800s by the Mysore Kings. Country’s first institution for Post-graduation in Psychiatry was started here eventually leading to the establishment of NIMHANS.

ƥ How does a ticking clock look if all characters from fairy tales danced around it?
People from far and near flocked to Lalbagh as the word about ‘The Garden clock’ spread wide back in those days without YouTube and WhatsApp. That scientific marvel was a seven-meter-wide solar powered clock ticking on a dial made with flowering plants and popular characters from fairy tales like snow-white and the dwarfs dancing around it. This is a functional clock till date and speaks volume of our country’s strength in technological evolution. The creator of this unique time-machine pulls me down to my next destination: HMT watch factory.

>• Have you stacked up your ‘time-machine’ to go back in time?
While I spent a couple of years living in this locality surrounded by the HMT(Hindustan Machine Tools) properties like the HMT officers’ quarters, HMT sports club, HMT theatre etc., I also remember the time when I was brought back to time (read it- ‘Back to life’) by the doctors at the HMT hospital when I had once gone into coma or my blood pressure plummeted down or whatever that was! All the memories aside, HMT has opened their museum in the locality to showcase the journey of the company. HMT watches are those perfect souvenirs that truly represent Old-Bengaluru as they say it was the country’s timekeeper (Read complete article). Since the original manufacturing company of these watches has shut its functions at their facility at Jalahalli, the last few pieces are being assembled at their factory outlet/showroom itself. Go, grab your piece of old times from Bengaluru before stocks last.

ƥ How often do you come across a Military museum?
Well… Bangalore’s association with Indian Military system dates to centuries and what’s of my particular interest is that India’s oldest regiment of the Corps of army engineers is headquartered in Bangalore. The Madras Engineer Group (affectionately called as the ‘Thambis’ of the Indian Army) have their regiment’s history and achievements chronicled at the ‘Madras Sappers Museum’ located within the premises of MEG centre. However, it is not open to general public and special permission from the Army is required for entry. Once an opportunity had struck me to participate in a city walk tour to this area and the army blood inside me had this Bengalurean beaming high in pride. So, here is one thing from MEG centre walk tour that led me to my last but most important bits of Bengaluru’s history: The Kempegowda towers.

>• So, that brings me to my last question: How big is Bengaluru?
It is believed that Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru had got four watch towers installed to mark the four corners of the original Bengaluru. These towers were located at elevated places so that he could get a good view of the entire city from these points. One is installed within the MEG premises near Ulsoor, one at Mahakali temple near Hanumanthanagar, one atop the Gneiss rock inside the Lalbagh gardens and the last one inside the Ramana Maharshi ashram near Palace Orchards. Well, it is unimaginable how this city has grown beyond these corners today, but our pride of ‘Namma Bengaluru’ knows no boundaries…

Do you agree?