Know Your City: How guided tours are bringing Bengaluru to tourists, residents

However, in the early 2000s, Arun noticed that business-oriented visitors often had nothing to do in the city, which was set out in a structured way. This was when Bangalore Walks started operating in 2005, inspired by a similar phenomenon in London, where guided walks happen every day on a very large scale.

He added, “We decided to do a walk every weekend in Bengaluru, rain or shine, in M G Road and Lalbagh. For about 14 years, at a ticketed price, the walks were conducted. The Lalbagh side of the walks was conducted by the late Vijay Thiruvady, who was one of the foremost experts on Lalbagh in the city as well as a font of knowledge on its trees – despite not being formally trained in botany. Arun often fondly remembers him as ‘The David Attenborough of India’, a man who was ready at the appointed time to guide a group of three or thirty.

Another group that has been consistently conducting heritage walks (non-profit in this instance) is INTACH, Bengaluru chapter. While they have been doing this since the early 2000s, they are still conducting two tours a month, in addition to any special or custom tours. Their convenor, Meera Iyer, said, “We get a mix of people who moved to the city a few years ago, but we also get people who have been living here a long time. Sometimes you might get someone who has lived all their life in Chamrajpet but still wants to know more”.

Arun Pai recalled the hardships of going around colleges trying to get tourism professionals to take up guiding. “But no one has shown much interest. In India we do not value the tour guide; a lot of people spend a lot of money to travel to Hampi etc and then haggle with the guide.” Pointing out that the city has a large young and migrant population, he said there existed a market for this sort of thing, with podcasts and trivia about Bengaluru all over the internet.

Assembling a heritage walk is also not as simple as drawing a line on a map. Take one of INTACH’s walks, for instance, in one of the various historical neighbourhoods of the city. Iyer said, “They need to be backed by a lot of research on archival documents, etc but merely having a lot of information does not make for a good walk. You have to create a narrative arc, a theme. One of our walks near the Cantonment station talks about the communities that contributed to making the city.”

Arun Pai is bullish on the potential prospects of guided walks driven by the private sector. He said, “One part of being hospitable is to showcase the city to those who want to know more. The culture for guided walks is increasing. There is room for 100 people to get in and do guided walking tours in Bengaluru.”