41st anniversary of The Times of India, Bengaluru: Welcome to walkaluru; a walkable city is not just a 'nice-to-have' idea to be discussed in conferences, it's a basic need

It was a typical chilly Bengaluru summer morning in May 2005 as I welcomed 15 sceptical Bangaloreans on the first Victorian Bangalore Walk on M G Road. They walked for three hours on a road they all thought they knew, and the unfiltered joy of discovery they expressed all along the way (OMG, I didn’t know that!) convinced me that I was on to something special here. Anniversaries are a time to reflect and that walk 20 years ago was a life-changing moment for me, and dare I say, for the concept of walking tours in my wonderful city.

I had just quit my corporate job and decided to do a startup by becoming a walking tour guide full-time. This was seen as a lunatic idea, especially in a city like Bengaluru, where, as everyone knows, ‘there is nothing to see’ and ‘where is the place to walk?’ I had been running and walking the city’s streets for years, and I always felt that the best way to explore a city is on foot. I was considered crazy then. Twenty years later, I see that there are multiple options for walking tours on varied themes (from heritage to food to nature to whatnot), and exploring on foot is not only going mainstream, but also acknowledged as perhaps the best way to experience the city. I couldn’t be happier.

We forget how our sleepy little town has changed in 20 years. The city’s first mall (Forum) opened in 2004 (yes, that recently!) while ORR was still being built through the rural countryside of coconut plantations and ragi fields, with a few tech parks popping up on ancient lake beds (Manyata 2001, EGL 2004), and the city’s first international air connection ( Lufthansa from Frankfurt) suddenly making namma ooru the international gateway to 21st-century India.

And just like the city exploded and embraced global business practices and trends, I found there were lots of takers for my 7am weekend morning walks – from die-hard locals to recent immigrants to those who had just landed at 3am on their first-ever visit to India! And when the audience is global and diverse, the content and delivery standards need to be global, and I soon found myself becoming a cultural ambassador for my beloved city. It’s not so much about hyperlocal stories like the best dosa in town, it’s more about how Bengaluru rose to become a tech powerhouse and its role in shaping and being shaped by global events over the centuries.

As Bengaluru became the showcase for a new India, the period from 2005–2010 was boomtime for software companies, hotels , and anyone hitching their wagon to the rising BLR star. And with the boom came the political and diplomatic visits, endless delegations of business visitors, and an entirely new set of people who wanted to understand India, in Bengaluru. And as there is ‘nothing to see’ in Bengaluru (no Taj Mahal, no elephants, no ‘touristy’ spots), the need for storytellers and quality curated city walks and tours skyrocketed.

Being one of the few tour guides in town and being in the right city at the right time, I was fortunate to host the who’s who of the global business world on my walk and got a ringside view of how my city welcomed and wowed those who came. And with it came the realisation that our entire tourism industry focused on keeping visitors ‘inside’ hotels, ‘inside’ cars and gated communities, and far away from the madding crowds and filthy broken footpaths. I was determined to change this – by literally walking the talk. No part of the city was offlimits, no delegation too VVIP to be made to walk the streets.

Things have come a long way. During G-20, Bengaluru hosted more than 15 high-powered international delegations, and I worked extensively with the govt to design short walks and visits showcasing our city. And it is only when decision makers in govt step out of their cars and offices and go out and walk, and experience a city on foot, does the realisation dawn that a walkable city is not just a ‘nice-to-have’ idea to be discussed in conferences, it is a basic need of the city that can have huge second-order benefits. We have worked hard to make our tech parks ‘world-class’ and succeeded, and now that the world is here, how about making the public areas outside our tech parks walkable! Sounds like a crazy idea today, doesn’t it, but stranger things have happened.

On a visit to Europe, I found their cities highly walkable, and most of their cultural infrastructure – from walking tours to museums to tourist spots – are based on a foundation of excellent pedestrian infrastructure. I am convinced Bengaluru has the potential to become a walking city, given its wonderful weather and shade-giving tree-lined avenues, and I have been on a mission to prove that the city is walkable by curating walking tours all over the city.

Last December, I conducted the inaugural BLRWalkFest in partnership with BBMP, BMRCL and BTP – a series of 15 themed walks over 15 days covering 100kms of the city’s footpaths (10,000 steps per day). I aimed to showcase the various parts of the city and also get a focus on pedestrian infrastructure. And how Bengaluru responded! More than 1,500 citizens joined me over 100 km (more than one crore steps were cumulatively walked) and the walkers included senior govt officers and ward-level footpath maintenance teams. It was the ultimate celebration of the city’s stories and its walkability, as well as a shared desire to explore the city and enjoy it.

I spoke at a Mobility Symposium and arrogantly presented myself as the self-appointed ‘Footpath Mayor of Bengaluru’ (till someone else takes on that mantle!), and declared that I would walk the city’s footpaths, one footpath at a time, telling its stories and rating the footpaths. Surprisingly, nobody seems to want this post (I keep offering it to anyone interested). Rather, I have received huge support from the govt and citizen groups who work to improve footpaths. Because let’s face it – everyone wants better footpaths. And I am thrilled that walkability has moved from an afterthought to a focus area.

Over the past two months, and most unexpectedly and happily, I have been leading footpath walks of the city with Maheshwar Rao , chief commissioner (BBMP) and his senior colleagues, all of whom are avid walkers, and we have covered some 50 km of footpaths over 15 walks, touching each zone of the city. And when officers and policymakers walk, change happens, as they get a first-hand view of the pedestrian infrastructure issues. I am an optimist and am confident that by December, I will be able to showcase far more than 100 km of walking trails on the city’s footpaths.

It’s been a wonderful 20-year journey – from starting heritage walks as a new idea to a point where this activity can have an impact of making Bengaluru a Walkaluru! If you are wondering where you can walk in the city, trust me – this city has excellent walking routes and public spaces. You just need to get out of your homes and vehicles and go and discover them. Hint – go out before 7 am, when the weather is great and the twitter you experience is from actual birds.