Where My City Breathes: A Walk Through My Favourite Place

Where My City Breathes: A Walk Through My Favourite Place

Every city has a heartbeat — a quiet, rhythmic pulse that only those who pause long enough can hear. In Bangalore, the city I now call home, that heartbeat echoes in many corners: in its ancient temples, its scientific institutions, its gardens, and its unassuming lanes of food and culture. Yet among all these, one place remains my favourite refuge — Lalbagh Botanical Garden, a sanctuary where history, nature, science, and serenity meet under an ever-changing sky.

A Garden Older Than Memory

Lalbagh is not merely a garden; it is a chronicle of time. Conceived by Hyder Ali in the 18th century and nurtured by Tipu Sultan, it carries the fragrance of historical transitions. Here, one can almost hear the whisper of the Mysore rulers as the breeze moves through the centuries-old trees. The Glass House, inspired by London’s Crystal Palace, stands as a shining reminder of Bangalore’s colonial past and its embrace of global ideas. It is a place where the present bows respectfully to the past.

Where Science Meets Soil

My fondness for Lalbagh deepens each time I stand before its legendary Lalbagh Rock, a formation older than the Himalayas — around 3,000 million years old. For someone with a background in Physics, touching that stone feels like touching the Earth’s first heartbeat. It reminds me that while cities rise and fall, nature endures silently.
Botanists and scientists continue to shape Lalbagh into an open-air laboratory, a place where one can learn without opening a book. Every species of tree carries a scientific tale, from the rain trees that create their own microclimate to the majestic African tulips that burst into flame-like flowers.

Culture in Every Corner

Lalbagh is not an island; it is a melting pot. Walk a little and you hear Kannada, Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Hindi, English and even French from passing tourists. Morning walkers chant Sanskrit shlokas, children giggle on the pathways, and photographers crouch near dew-dropped leaves capturing the theatre of nature.
And during the famous flower shows, the place becomes a festival of colours, a cultural mosaic celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and community spirit.

Beyond Lalbagh: The City’s Many Jewels

Although Lalbagh remains my favourite, Bangalore offers a tapestry of many remarkable places:

Cubbon Park, where British-era statues, the State Central Library, and children’s laughter weave a story of recreation and heritage.

Bangalore Palace, a Tudor-style marvel echoing royal history.

ISRO and the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, where India’s scientific dreams take shape.

Nandi Hills, where sunrises teach lessons in humility and hope.

Vidhana Soudha, a symbol of democratic architecture and political legacy.

Each of these adds a note to the city’s symphony — historical, cultural, scientific, or spiritual — yet it is Lalbagh where my soul feels most at home.

Why Lalbagh is My Sanctuary

Because it allows me to think without interruption. Because no one demands an explanation from the wind or from a man walking slowly under a 200-year-old tree. Because time moves gently here — neither too fast to overwhelm nor too slow to bore.
Lalbagh allows me to return to myself, to observe the world with quieter eyes, and to remind myself that life, like the garden, grows in seasons.

Where morning dew on petals lie,
I find my thoughts begin to fly,
For in this garden’s silent grace,
My heart discovers its resting place.

Among the rocks older than light,
I learn the strength of ancient might,
And trees that sway with wisdom’s art,
Teach patience to my wandering heart.

O city of gardens, dreams, and rain,
You heal my spirit’s hidden pain,
And every path in Lalbagh’s shade,
Is poetry that nature made.