Bangalore, now Bengaluru: Bangalore – a flourishing city, capital of Karnataka, industrial center and garden spot all in one. Besides being the hi-tech headquarters of India, it is the center for some of the country’s foremost scientific technological and research bodies.

King Veeraballa of Vijayanagara lost his way in forest. Hungry and tired, he came upon a hut in the thick forest. He asked the residing old woman for food, and she gave him baked beans (‘Benda Kalu’ in Karnataka). The King found this meal tasting better than the richest fare his chefs could prepare. To commemorate this incident, he called the place “Benda Kalu Ooru” (place of baked beans). Bangalore’s fame continues to be associated with beans – though now they are coca beans for all the coffee shops one sees around the city.

Visit the Lal Bagh gardens developed with lavish care since the Muslim era and which now offer a variety of century-old trees, fountains, lotus pools, terraces and an assortment of herbs and plants spread out over several acres. In the center of the park is the Glass House where thousands of colorful fragrant flowers go on show ever year in January and August. Visit the 500-year old Bull Temple, the monolithic deity being the Nandi or celestial bull, a marvelous work on granite. The Mysore Arts & Crafts Center, and drive through Commercial Street past the magnificent Neo-Dravidian structure, Vidhana Soudha, the government secretariat. Bangalore Fort built by Kempe Gowda and expanded by Tippu Sultan. Within its walls is the well preserved 16th century Ganapathi Temple.