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Nov 22, 2005 12:46 pm |
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Bangalore Bytes |
Avinash Mudaliar
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Hi,
I had this programme called Bangalore Gyaan happening on RadioCity...this link brought back some pleasant memories.
Hope you all find this interesting...
Munch on...
Starting off with my favourite watering hole in the whole of Bangalore - Koshy's
P.O Koshy was a banker, who, after the closure of the Quilon Bank looked to catering as a career, and with the help of Canon Elphick and Dewan Bahadur K. Matthan, set up his establishment on St. Mark's Road. And the rest is history! Koshy's, earlier called The Parade Cafe, was host to the filming crew of Harry Black and The Tiger, starring Stewart Granger! The Jewel Box, an attachment, was started in the 1960s, complete with jazz band, and dine and dance!
A certain person moved to Mysore from Mokshagundam, a village in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh in the 19th century. And the rest is history!Sir M. Visveswaraya, was born in 1861 in Muddenahalli, a short distance from Bangalore. He went on to form the Mysore University and the Mysore Bank, serving as Dewan of Mysore from 1912 for a period of six years! He was also responsible for the Krishnarajasagar Dam, and for the operations of the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works. The technological museum is one of the tributes to the brilliance and vision of Sir M. Visveshwaraya, one of the pioneer architects of modern Karnataka! + Registered in 1966, the Karnataka Mountaineering Association began it's rustic origins from the steps of the Kanteerava Stadium, not to mention meetings on rocks and open grounds, with ropes borrowed from the fire department! It was with the patronage of the likes of Brigadier V. P. Naib, Shri Nettakalappa and Shri Kondajji Basappa, that the association grew in size, and a breakthrough came when the Government Karnataka gifted them a piece of land at Ramanagaram for the construction of a fully equipped Rock-Climbing Institute. The foundation stone for the Institute, incidentally, was laid in 1977 by none other than Tenzing Norgay! Ever wondered how the Town Hall gets it's name? The Puttanna Chetty Town Hall, was named in honour of Sri Puttanna Chetty, who was the President of the Bangalore Municipality from 1913 to 1920.Responsible for a number of donations, and constructing a boarding house for Veerasaiva students, and an outpatient ward in the Victoria Hospital, Sir Puttanna Chetty was also responsible for a substantial grant, in the construction of the Town Hall, which took place during the 1930s, alongside the construction of the Corporation offices! A statue of Dewan Rajyadurandhar Sir Seshadri Iyer in bronze, was unveiled by Lord Hardinge, the preceding Viceroy on November 20th 1913 - and if the location is a doubt, then one hasn't visited the Central Library enough! The red brick structure located in the heart of Cubbon Park, was dedicated to Sir Seshadri Iyer, a Dewan who was in post for eighteen years, and houses one of the most massive collection of volumes in Bangalore! Did you know while walking through the annals of the main gate at Lalbagh, that it had a name? The Cameron Gate, named after the Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens in 1874, namely John Cameron. Cameron incidentally, was also responsible for the proposal for the construction of the Lalbagh Glass House, which is modelled on the Crystal Palace. The three gates constituting this main entrance, were manufactured by Walter Macfarlane and Company, Glasgow. An interesting feature in this premise, is the statue of a person called Dr. Mari Gowda, who was the one responsible for the development of the Seed and Soil Testing Labs, and the Plant Protection Lab at Lalbagh! What is the Garden City of India without gardens! Early planting in Bangalore owes itself to Krumbiegal, a German born botanist, who was responsible for laying the foundation of the significant parks and gardens in the city. During the planning phase, Krumbiegal and his disciples Dr. H. Marigowda and Javaraya conceived flowering trees as an integrall part of the city's aesthetic philosophy, which explains the tree lined avenues in bloom at different parts of the year! Sir Mirza Ismail, the then Dewan, continued the trend, and planted peltophorum in many roads and an avenue with champaks in Malleshwaram, calling it Sampige Road! Other botanical species found in the city include cassias, cassia siamea and cassia spectabilis, peltophorum, sampinge and the likes! The St. Francis Xavier's Cathedral was built originally, in 1851, by Father Chevalier, on a small site of five hundred and fifty square feet, and sold for one thousand rupees by the French Catholic widow of an English commander. When the ritual became too large for the premises, and the cross of the old Church collapsed in 1905, the need was felt for a new building, and in 1911, the foundation stone for a new Church was laid. Unfortunately, tragedy in the form of World War I struck, and the Church lived to see it’s completion only in 1932! Father Sarvanton went from home to home collecting donations for the construction of the Church! September 1987, found ISKCON Bangalore operating from a rented house in the city with a handful of devotees. With the incentive of the temple president, Madhu Pandit Dasa, ISKCON Bangalore applied for a seven acre hillock from the Bangalore Development Authority, which the BDA anyway titled “karaab land”, meaning “waste land” as it was basically a huge monolithic rock and could not be converted into individual plots! On Lord Balarama’s appearance day, on September 1988, the Deities of Krishna Balarama were moved to a temporary shed on this land. The master plan was conceived by Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa, a civil engineer from IIT Mumbai!
A telegraph office storehouse, and a scattering of large cable drums - this is the neglected campus of the infamous hotel of yesteryears - the Cubbon Hotel! It originally consisted of a main building with an annexe that was built to house bachelor guests, where today Mrs. Joey Wilson , wife of the late Leslie Wilson, famous Sports Editor of Deccan Herald, resides. The hotel is located beside the statue of the Unknown Soldier War Memorial, and faces the Central Telegraph Office, and was a popular hangout of the heyday, especially with the military crowd! The statue of Chamaraja Wodeyar in Lalbagh was originally constructed and erected in Curzon Park, in Mysore City, and shifted to Bangalore only in 1908. The structure consists of four alcoves in the pedestal, which supposedly house a statue each! Today, statues can only be found in two of the alcoves, and the entire structure stands in a landscaped garden! The statue is found beside the Aquarium. Achyutadeva Raya, the successor of Krishnadeva Raya, while in reign, was so pleased with Kempe Gowda's prowess, that he granted him a revenue of thirty thousand pagodas, which were basically gold or silver coins having a value of around three rupees, for future development. Kempe Gowda immediately went on a campaign of development, including layouts within the city. Most noted of his planning, were the temples he built in Bangalore, including the Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple in Gavipuram, and the Venkataramanaswamy Temple in the Fort!
The heyday of the 19th and early 20th centuries saw riding becoming one of the key activities in Bangalore, so much so that polo was finally introduced to the town. Winston Churchill wrote of polo being "the serious purpose of life" in Bangalore, commenting on the facilities available for the same. In fact, the polo club in Bangalore was once supposed to have planned to buy out the Poona Light Horse's collection of twenty five ponies! A polo club finally emerged around 1850, which in 1860, was converted to the United Services Club. rgds,
AvinashPrivate Reply to Avinash Mudaliar (new win) |
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