Bangalore moves back to the future

Offbeat

 How does a city like Bangalore, which is so distinctive, come to cover itself with so much of faceless glass and concrete? Landmark buildings disappear by the day, to give way to huge edifices that do not even try to replicate some of the old graciousness.

 A visiting friend recalls how he loved to stay at the Victoria hotel and sit on its terrace. The hotel, right in the heart of town, opposite another distinctive building, Mayo Hall, is gone, soon to be replaced by a massive shopping mall.

 Those who have an interest in the past and care about the future have different theories. V Ravichandar, marketing consultant turned member of BATF (Bangalore Agenda Task Force) which is trying to give the city a new kind of distinctiveness by making it more liveable through public-private initiatives, prefers to begin on the solid foundations of economics.

 There would not have been so much of glass in the software construction phase of the city