Explore Bangalore Series XXVI – Ulsoor Walk by INTACH

This seems to be a season of city walks. This Sunday I had the opportunity to go for the Ulsoor walk organized by INTACH. INTACH is in the process of organizing ‘Parichay’ series of walks, and this was the third walk in that series. The idea is to make people aware of the rich culture and heritage that is scattered around us, both in terms of built heritage and living heritage.

Here is an excerpt from the invitation mail for the walk:

The Ulsoor walk started from Someshwara temple, which is one of Bangalore's oldest temples. It dates back to the Chola period with several additions made during the Vijayanagar period by the founder of Bangalore, Kempegowda. The interesting thing is you can see the architectural elements from both these periods quite clearly in the temple. Ulsoor is, of course, one of Bangalore's oldest settlements. 

I had always wondered what the Vijaynagar style of architecture is, and it was on this walk that I could understand it a bit. When you visit Hampi, look at the stone pillars, notice that pillars are square at the bottom and the top and round or with many faces in the middle. This is the typicality of the Vijaynagar style of architecture. I was also told that all the colored Gopurams that we say at the temple entrances and on top of the temples were originally not supposed to be colored, they were plain carvings in stone, but over the time they have been painted in multiple colors. INTACH team also introduced to the various carving and motifs on the temple walls, and shared the stories behind a lot of them. They told us how to identify the insignias of the Kempegowdas, which would typically tell that the construction had an association with the Kempegowdas, either by way of building it or patronizing it. They shared a story which indicates that temple was built way before the actual settlement happened around it. It is associated with Markandeya (not sure of the name though) rishi, who was doing his tapasya and Lord Shiva instructed him to construct a temple at that spot. 

There was a festival going on in the temple premises and there were celebrations with music and dance. Another interesting but intriguing thing that we saw was piercing of tongue by some of the dancers of the festival. There were small dagger like objects that they held in the middle of their tongue, which forced them to have their tongue stuck out all the while, and these people, including few old women were dancing while holding their dragger pierced tongues out. 

I had written after my visit to Madurai temple about the bad state of Hindu temples and the absence of basic cleanliness. The same holds true for almost all temples including the Someshwara temple in Ulsoor. The inner areas of the temple have been completely changed by putting granite and ceramic tiles, which by logic would have been put to keep the temple clean, but I guess once the tiles were laid they assumed that cleanliness has been taken care of by itself. Things stick to your feet all the time as you walk around. The beauty of the temples is lost when the modern electrical fittings are fixed without any thought and wires are hanging everywhere.

We were also told that Ulsoor derives its name from Halasuru which is Jackfruit in Kannada. Apparently, the area was once a huge Jackfruit plantation. Like the rest of Bangalore, Ulsoor had people from various parts of the region coming and settling down. The area has some 150+ year old houses with center courtyards, and had well developed water management system so that the area would never get flooded. 

We had to miss the last part of the walk as it starting raining heavily. But look forward to more such walks to know the city that I live in…. :-)

Explore Bangalore Series XXV – Walk through Basavanagudi

I had written about the Victorian Walk on M G Road by Bangalorewalks couple of years back. Last week I was invited for the trial run of their to-be launched ‘Basavanagudi Walk’. As expected the walk was interesting and informative, punctuated by some awesome food, traditional Bangalore stuff and lots of interesting trivia about Basavanagudi and Bangalore. 

If you have migrated to Bangalore in the recent past, as in last few years, in all probability Basavanagudi is not the area that you frequent. You may be aware of couple of famous attractions in that area, like Bull temple and Ramakrishna Math (I had written about these two places after our heritage walk). But you may not know a few other hidden treasures that are scattered around that locality. And I am quite sure that you would not know lot of stories behind the origin of Basavanagudi and a whole lot of things that have their origin in Basavanagudi. As you walk around with the enthusiastic walk guide, she takes you through some of the landmarks of the area and talks about the evolution of Basavanagudi which at some point in time would have been a town in itself. 

There are beautiful buildings from various eras that you would have passed by at times but may not have noticed, and there are connections that you may never establish. There are temples that you may have heard of but never visited. There are origins of culture, education, migration and lifestyle, some by design and some by default. It’s a place that has seen many bygone eras and you see the remnants of these eras lying here and there, which would escape your eye in the usual hustle bustle of everyday life. By walking around early morning, you get to see them, listen about them and wonder why you not saw them earlier.

As an ardent ‘Walking Tours’ fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this walk too. All the best Bangalorewalks for this new walk…

Autonomous Robotics Workshop @ Bangalore

Advanced Robotics Research Organization, a non-profit organization, has scheduled a workshop on Autonomous Robotics to be held in Bangalore from July 16th to July 20th, 2008. The workshop covers hands-on building and understanding of robotics. It also motivates students towards Robotics Research. The workshop is open to all engineering students from all branches as well as technical professionals who are willing to gain knowledge in the field of robotics. For course information please visit http://www.arro.in/ar.html.

To register for the workshop please visit here - http://www.arro.in/register.html "

Explore Bangalore Series- XXIV – Innovative Film City

If you have enough money in your pocket, all the wonders and attractions in the world will walk up to you and park themselves near you, so that you can visit them as and when you want, without having to go around the world and hop cities. Innovative film city is one such ambitious project that brings a lot of world attractions to India. It is a place that is aiming to be one stop shop for all forms of modern day entertainment.

Innovative film city is located about 40 kms from Bangalore on Mysore road, a good strategic location as it will be accessible from both Bangalore and Mysore. The whole city is said to be spread over 58 acres, but to me it looks like it should be slightly larger than that, at least it gives the illusion to be larger. The place is still under construction but was opened formally in April, 2008. There are few attractions and amusements which are operational, some are in the process of coming up and some are planned to come.

Film city is planned to provide 360 degree solutions for entertainment, both for the customers of entertainment industry and the industry itself. It’s website says three major planned sections of entertainment. First is Innovative Attractions which covers amusements, attractions, museums and entertainment. Second is Innovative Style which covers shopping, dining, leisure & lifestyle. Third is Innovative Studio which would have an academy, studio and facilities for film shooting and production.

Of the attractions, most are ready or almost ready. You have museums like Tussuad’s wax museum, Ripley’s Believe it or not museum, Guinness book of World Records and Jurassic Fossil museum. There are attractions like Dinosaur world, miniature city, Snow Park, mock sets, cartoon city, haunted mansion. In Amusements they have Funplex where you can play whole lot of video and high end games and also see a 4-D movie. Then there is go-karting, mirror maze, mini golf, aqua kingdom where you can go and play around for some time. There are two amphitheatres, one an open one with a sitting capacity of more than 5000 people and another for children. A 21 screen multiplex is planned too. The other too segments Style and Studio are yet to come up.

The façade of the city gives a magnificent look. As you take a turn from the road, and enter the city it makes you feel as if you are entering something majestic. As you go inside, at this point in time you see a lot of construction going on, but you can also see that something world class is being built, both in terms of attractions and the way the facility is being managed. There are a lot of employees spread across the length and breadth of the city who keep guiding you towards various places, though there are well printed maps and guides that they hand you over with the tickets. The facility is very well maintained even though half of it is still under construction. There is a food court where you get various cuisines at reasonable prices, and there are coffee day outlets for your caffeine and snacks needs. Drinking water is available at various places.

Entry to the city is priced at Rs 50/- per person and each attractions comes at an additional cost which ranges from Rs 50/- to Rs 200/- . You can plan for Rs 800-1000 per person for a day to visit to the film city, and I am sure you can see only a part of it in a day. Once it is complete, it looks like there will be many things that will keep bringing people back to the film city, specially the huge and well designed amphitheatre. I think this is going to become a major destination for the future shows in the city. Parking is outside the film city on the road at the moment, I am not sure if a proper parking is planned, but I hope there is one, otherwise that may become a bottleneck very soon. Probably they may also want to come up with differential pricing for people who may not be able to afford the current or the future pricing. May be something like happy hours on weekdays…

Overall a good project that brings something new and different to the city to keep it engaged. I usually do not like visiting artificial places but I would still say that is definitely worth one visit, post which you can take a call if you want to visit it again or not.