HERITAGE

Citizen Matters is looking to work with citizen writers/photographers for a new series: Disappearing professions of Bengaluru. Through this series, we are looking to capture the essence of a Bengaluru that is slowly disappearing, and create a repository of what could perhaps become history in a few years. The series will offer an insight into how Bengaluru is coping with all the change, as the city and her people move forward in the race to become a true metropolis. Disappearing professions of Bengaluru Do you remember the knife sharpeners, kulfi walas/ice cream carts, salt sellers, son papadi sellers, metalware repairmen, etc…

Part I: How C V Raman came to BangalorePart II: The Raman Effect on Indian Institute of SciencePart III: Raman, his research institute and his many hobbies The collection of specimens in his museum and his reputation as the greatest scientist of India attracted many visitors from around the world to Raman’s institute. But not all were welcome. Proposals made by government representatives to offer Raman the much-needed funds, only if he could in exchange provide the government with certain kinds of research helpful for Defence Ministry, had enraged him. He had developed a natural distrust and aversion towards politicians.…

For part 1 of the series, click here: How C V Raman came to Bangalore. For part 2, click here: The Raman effect on IISc C V Raman with his Nobel prize. Pic courtesy: Raman Research Institute While still serving as a professor at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Raman had planned for a private institute where he could carry out research work on subjects that interested him personally, without having to go through a long and tedious procedure of getting approvals from a complex bureaucratic system at IISc. He had saved a considerable amount of money for this purpose…

To read part I of the series, click here: How C V Raman came to Bangalore The house of Tatas had always hoped to have an Indian director for the institute one day, which was not very feasible in the colonised country. But the opportunity to economise on the weight carried by Raman’s international reputation, by his knighthood and the Nobel Prize, was quickly seized by the Tatas, and for the first time ever since its inception in 1909, an Indian was appointed as the director of IISc in 1933. Many nationalists at that time harboured a feeling that the…

C V Raman in his classroom. Pic courtesy: Oldindianphotos.in November 2015 marks the 127th birthday, and the 45th year of demise, of Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman, one of the greatest minds produced in the twentieth century. Bengaluru was home to this great mind, nobel laureate who is popular as Sir C V Raman. The city bears many landmarks and institutions in his memory,  such as Raman Research Institute,  Panchavati - C V Raman’s home in Malleshwaram where he lived, and C V Raman Nagar. Born in Thiruvanaikaval near Trichinopoly to Chandrashekar Iyer and Parvathi Ammal on November 7, 1888, Raman was…

Jörn Rhode, German Consul General, Anne-Katrin Fenk, MOD Institute, Rachel Lee, MOD Institute, Habitat Unit @ TU Berlin and Madhavi Desai, CEPT University, Ahmedabad at the launch of OK India. Pic: MOD Institute In early September 2015, MOD Institute, an urban action and research institute based in Berlin and Bengaluru, and the German Consulate General Bengaluru, released the book, Otto Koenigsberger: Architecture and Urban Visions in INDIA. The books traces German architect Otto Koenigsberger’s time in India, and how his planning and design concepts continue to be relevant for urban development in India even today. Koenigsberger in India Story has…

PNLIT is happy and thankful to be honoured with the "Prakrti Mitra Award", instituted jointly by BNM Institute of Technology, Bangalore and Heritage, a non-profit NGO. The award was received on behalf of PNLIT by trustee Nupur Jain, former trustee Prasanna Vynatheya and volunteer Divya Shetty, at a function held at the BNM Institute of Technology campus during the institute’s Srishti Sambhrama Festival on 23rd September 2015.   A beautiful citation was given to PNLIT: "In recognition of the exemplary service rendered to the community, and to the Nation, extending itself to protecting, preserving, and promoting the cause of the Environment…

A house made of glass That belongs to times past. Dreaming in the sunshine In a world now paced rather fast. The sun, however, rises Just as it used to do When people from other shores Walked around and watched the view. Twice a year, it gets filled With an array of dazzling flowers. But it looks just as beautiful In its peaceful, empty hours. Oh, house of glass, lying beneath A bluu, cloud-mottled sky... You were a jewel before we were born; You'll be a gem after we die.

Volunteers, attendees and others join hands along the line representing the old border of the fort. Pic: Holly Thorpe As the clock struck 11 and the city was all set for sleep on Friday July 24th, a group of around 200 men and women gathered in front of the Tipu Sultan Fort gate at the otherwise busy KR Market road in Bengaluru. Clad in red, they braved the night and assembled at the centre of the market area to retrace some of Bengaluru’s lost history. This was the scene at the Heritage Party, organised with the tagline, “Let’s Paint the Kote…

If we are apathetic to Nature today, and view the natural world as being something separate from our daily existence, certainly there was a time when it was not so. Much of our rich mythology deals with rivers, trees, and other natural features, and indeed, our ancients imagined mythical beings which combined several features of living creatures. We all know Narasimha, the half-man, half-lion avatar of Vishnu, but Bangalore, and Kannada culture, in particular, has some interesting depictions of some other mythological beings. As a woman who regularly uses Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses, (which means that I travel…