For Arun Bharadwaj, Bengaluru’s buses have always been more than a mode of transport. His fascination began as a schoolboy travelling on BTS, the Bangalore Transport Service, which later became BMTC. What stayed with him was the remarkable ease with which a bus could connect seemingly distant parts of the city. Over the decades, that fascination grew into an interest in the evolution of Bengaluru’s public transport—and the stories embedded within its routes.
Bengaluru’s bus system has continually experimented with new ideas and services, from double-deckers and Pushpaks to Janapriya Vahinis, Ladies Special services, Janti Vahana, Vajra and Vayu Vajra buses. Each represents a different moment in the city’s growth and changing mobility needs. Yet, alongside these innovations are bus stops whose names preserve memories of a Bengaluru that is steadily disappearing.
Names such as JD Mara, Hunasemara, Swastik, Central, Majestic and Borewell evoke landmarks and landscapes that have changed dramatically, even when their names remain familiar to generations of commuters. For Arun, documenting bus routes therefore became an exercise in documenting the city itself—its landmarks, people, neighbourhoods and transformations.
Some of the most ordinary-looking routes can reveal extraordinary stories. Route 500, for example, once operated as a circular route beginning and ending at Banashankari. As Bengaluru expanded and traffic intensified, a journey that originally took about an hour and a half could stretch beyond three hours. Eventually, the route was discontinued. Its history reflects not simply a change in public transport, but the physical and environmental transformation of the city.
This is why public transport can offer a particularly revealing way of understanding urban change. Bus routes demonstrate how people move, but they also reveal how neighbourhoods evolve, how communities connect and how the city’s geography shifts over time. A transport map, in this sense, becomes a map of Bengaluru’s social history.
Looking at public transport through personal stories can also offer urban planners a perspective that statistics alone cannot provide. Data can indicate passenger numbers, travel times and congestion, but it cannot always capture what a journey means to the people making it. A bus connects homes to schools, workplaces to markets and communities to one another. A route that appears inefficient on a spreadsheet may be indispensable to a particular neighbourhood, while the removal of a seemingly insignificant bus stop can have a profound effect on an elderly commuter, student or daily-wage worker.
Ultimately, Footboard Diaries hopes to encourage readers to look at public transport differently. A bus need not simply be a vehicle that takes passengers from Point A to Point B. It can be an invitation to explore. A familiar route might reveal an old building, an unfamiliar neighbourhood or an unexpected conversation.
The larger message is simple: Bengaluru is best understood not only through its roads and landmarks, but through the people and stories moving along them. Sometimes, the best way to discover the city is simply to get on a bus and see where it takes you.
Read more about his book Footboard Diaries and the full story that first appeared in Our Bangalore dated Aug 29-Sep 5, 2026 here:
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