For those who regularly cross the Queens Road-Cunningham Road junction in the heart of the city, this stone building, halfheartedly bordering the road leading towards Shivaji Nagar, is not a rare sight. A few may even know that it’s called the Lady Jehangir Kothari Memorial Hall, but what marks it out as special is the fact that it is dedicated to a Pakistani woman who died in 1923 in Bangalore.

Goolbai, better known as Lady Jehangir, was the wife of Sir Jehangir Hormasji Kothari, a rich merchant of the Parsi community, who was born in Karachi. Sir Jehangir was famous for his philanthropic ways and was the first Indian from the provinces of the Punjab or Sindh to be knighted. A globetrotter, Sir Jehangir visited Bangalore with his wife as part of their south India tour in 1923. The journey ended on a tragic note with his beloved wife taking ill in Bangalore, where she breathed her last. She was interred at the Parsee Aramgah or burial ground in the city.

At that time, Bangalore only had a handful of Parsis. The Iranian Zoroastrians started migrating to Gujarat from their homeland Persia (now Iran) following the Arab invasion in the 8th century AD, says Yezdi N Unvalla, a member of the Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman, tracing the earliest days of the community in the country. “After his wife’s death, Sir Jehangir visited Bangalore again and decided to build a memorial in her name. He felt Bangalore’s Parsis need a place to get together and celebrate community functions,” adds Unvalla. The hall today belongs to the Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman.

The distinctive feature of the building is its archaic Tudor architecture. Even the ceiling is made of granite slabs. Sir Jehangir, who was an unofficial world ambassador for the British Empire, had good contacts with the officials who were in charge of the Bangalore Cantonment. The construction of the hall started in 1931 and it was declared open in 1932. Today, the community pays tribute to the Kothari couple by celebrating Annual Club Day with a prayer ceremony.

“The building is now used for community functions and recreational purposes and is given on rent for conducting exhibitions and annual fairs,” the Parsi association’s president Dinshaw Cawasji says.

Though the once tranquil place has now been engulfed by the expanding city, the community’s timely repairs have ensured that the decades-old building has withstood the vicissitudes of time.

Parsis arrived in Bangalore in view of increasing business prospects and settled in the Cantonment area by the end of 18th century. They maintained good relationship with the Europeans and the hall might have been built in old English Tudor style to suit their cultural taste. Bangalore Palace built by the Mysore royal family is another fine example of this style.

Dr. SK Aruni, Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Bangalore

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatoday.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore / by M. Ashtitha, TNN / April 07th, 2014

by M.L. Krishnaswami

The old Halladakeri is now renamed Mahaveernagar and all the broken tiled roof houses have been demolished and in their place, modern constructions of two or more storeys have come up. The whole area is inhabited by Rajasthani and Sindhi Merchants and gives an entirely new look. A Jain temple has also come up in the area and during early mornings, one can see worshippers — both men and women in their traditional religious dresses — making a beeline to the temple.

A month or so back, in the early morning hours, a having dropped my wife in the suburban bus stand, I decided to park my car on the eastern wing of Irwin Road, opposite the Wellington Lodge and then proceeded to take a stroll along the stretch of road in between the Suburban Bus Stand on the East and Ashoka Road on the Western side. It is about a kilometre or a little more long and was way back called by a peculiar name “Halladakeri” or a street with lot of pits, I do not know why and how?

This Halladakeri, about 60 years or so ago, was dotted on both sides by old tiled roof houses and some of them nearing dilapidation with broken walls, ramshackled in nature, and with low doorways of wood with very small openings in the walls — an apology for windows also of wood. Most of these houses were inhabited by Brahmins and some of them were occupied by a few other people who sold butter, oil etc.

Towards the Circle near the Mysore Bank and Central Police Station — now called Nehru Circle — there was a Choultry by name ‘Jaggulal Chathra,’ a very big building (single storey) built of thick mud brick walls and with tiled roof, I do not remember exactly. If I am not mistaken, this Choultry belonged to members of the Sindhi Community who were a small minority in Mysore in those days. This Choultry building is still there — unused and unkempt — like an ageing elephant in distress. Let it be. If my memory is correct, the small by-lane housing the Jaggulal Dharmashala — that was its real name — was called ‘Hamsarajagalli’, whatever it means or refers to I do not know.

Apart from the above, the old Halladakeri is a remnant of the past. It was early morning when I strolled through — about 7.30 am — and not many people were on the move. There used to be a Ganeshothsav celebrated in a grand scale for about a fortnight or so and, if I remember correctly, one gentleman by name Murthy was in charge of the arrangements for the festival which included very good music programmes in the evenings by well-known musicians of the day who were specially called from Madras, Andhra and, of course, a few local luminaries. Orchestral music was not much in vogue those days and it was perhaps due to the patrons who lent their ears to classical variety and encouraged it.

The Brahmin houses were mostly occupied by Palace Priests who were held in high esteem by the community. Along the road was living one family which was related to our family by four generations backwards. I remember visiting this family for taking part in some ceremonies in those houses. I also remember one old lady by name Kuppa Chikkamma living there and who happens to be the grandmother of the famous Kannada poet K.S. Narasimhaswamy of Mysore Mallige-fame.

The above are only memorabilia now:

The old Halladakeri is now renamed Mahaveernagar and all the broken tiled roof houses have been demolished and in their place, modern constructions of two or more storeys have come up. The whole area — or practically the whole — is inhabited by Rajasthani and Sindhi Merchants and gives an entirely new look. A Jain temple has also come up and early mornings, one can see worshippers — both men and women in their traditional religious dresses — making a beeline to the temple. The road, small in width — hardly 20 to 25 feet or so — reminds me of the Girgaum Road or Kalbadevi Road, both very busy commercial centres of Bombay, with the only difference, this is more a residential area, with only a few business outlets here and there. Strangely and to my utter surprise, in the midst of all the above developments on either side of the road, I saw the old business establishment of Someshwara Steel Traders run jointly by M/s Somanna and Brother. This is like an oasis in a vast desert. May I say, ‘Hold on, Mr. Somanna’ who is a good friend of mine?

On another day, I took a stroll in a locality enclosed in a quadrilateral shape made up of Hundred Feet Road in the North, Thyagaraja Road on the East, Vanivilasa Road in the South and lastly D. Subbaiah Road on the West. This area is intersected into two parts as Chamundeshwari Road and Narayana Shastri Road. Incidentally, Narayana Shastri Road is named after the grandfather of the famous T.P. Kailasam and a fairly big building belonging to the above Narayana Shastri has since been demolished and a multistorey structure is in place now.

The area between Thyagaraja Road and Soppinakolada Beedhi (the road that runs North at right angles to the K.R. Police Station on V.V. Road) is dotted in the north by two or three Agrahara’s which are endless housing schemes built and gifted by the late Maharaja to needy citizens and these are intact even now with more or less the successors of the original owners in occupation.

Beyond this is the Sunnadakeri which has also maintained its original shape with small houses and shops with independent water and electricity connections. Only Soppinakolada Beedhi (now called Renuka Temple Street) is slowly undergoing change with neat housing complexes coming up in place of old houses.

The stretches between N.S.Road as above and Diwan’s Road from double tank side to Chamaraja Double Road has a cluster of housing appendages, very small in size and with poor ventilation and with a majority of housing units depending on street water taps for their water needs. Just behind the now closed (perhaps) Kiran’s Nursing Home, I saw a group of houses where the womenfolk have to make do with street water taps for washing utensils and clothing, as also bathing their small kids in the open. This is really a miserable sight and reflects poorly on our civic responsibilities. The population in this section is composed of backward class Hindus and Muslims living side by side since generations. The situation above needs redressal urgently.

Muharram is a great festival of the Muslims and a number of pendals used to come up in the area where the deities were kept and worshipped. Even Hindus would participate in this festival and the last day function saw the bon-homie of the two major communities in a large measure.

In the above quadrilateral area the redeeming feature is that Hindus and Muslims are living together for generations and I know this as I was a resident of V.V. Road for a long time. It is heartening to know that there is a small unit manufacturing sandal sticks or agarbathies in this locality and founded by the late M.R. Jattappa, a pioneer in this line and his brand name was ‘Premaleela Agarbatti’, emanating a romantic fragrance to the passers-by all around. This is like a rose flower in the midst of a thorn.

There was also a hair-cutting saloon jointly owned by two brothers by name Shivaram and Govindaraju and this used to be visited by the big-wigs of those days like Professors, Doctors, Lawyers, etc. The major attraction was Shivaram who happened to be the hair dresser of the Palace and who used to talk about his experiences there. This saloon is still there and must have passed on to the third generation now. Half a rupee was the charges for a hair cut and affluent people could shell out a rupee for the same.

Note: My humble suggestion in this connection is that educated and enlightened citizens should abandon the use of their vehicles once in a while and take a walk in the lanes and bylanes of the city, to get a real feel of the development that has taken place over a period of time. This will certainly go a long way in improving the lot of the poor and underprivileged citizens by addressing their problems before the powers that be.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / June 17th, 2014

The vintage cinema haunt of Bangalore’s movie buffs, B.R.V. Theatre nurtures memories of a bygone era

You may have passed by this building almost every day if you have to go through Shivajinagar and yet, the quaint B.R.V. Theatre may have easily slipped your attention. Located at the entrance of Central Street, the present Golden Palm Army Canteen has a legacy that goes back to over a century. While many may know it now as a canteen and Bangalore’s older residents remember it fondly as a theatre, B.R.V. was initially started as canteen/store and armoury of the Bangalore Rifle Volunteers denoting the abbreviation.

The B.R.V was part of the Madras Army and formed on November 21, 1884 and stationed in KGF, Mysore and Whitefield. The unit was later merged Coorg and Mysore Rifles on April 1, 1917 to become the sixth Bangalore, Coorg and Mysore Batallion.

The original building demolished in 1905 and rebuilt to the present tiled-roof stone-covered structure in 1912. Housing a billiards room, reading room, ladies room and a bar on the ground floor and the regimental offices, stores and other rooms on the first floor, the B.R.V. was famous for its main gallery which is 120 feet long and 60 feet wide and easily accommodates 1,000 people.

The place has donned many roles from armoury to theatre to defence services canteen. But one of the fondest memories people had of the building before its theatre avatar was the grand balls organised by the YWCA in its initial days on its grooved teakwood floored gallery.

Later, B.R.V. was the place Bangaloreans hung out if they wanted to see the latest English movies in town. A. Premchand, whose father V. Anand was the manager of the theatre from 1960, says the silver screen came to B.R.V. as part of the defence services cinema. “B.R.V. was one of 22 such entertainment hotspots open across India at that time. The first film to be screened here was Ujala in 1959 starring Shammi Kapoor. Opened for public viewing, the city theatre was soon converted into an English movie joint and in 1960, The Captain’s Table, a British comedy film, was the first English movie to be screened here. This was followed up by a David Niven starrer Happy Anniversary, Marilyn Monroe’sThe Apartment and Some Like It Hot. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, the Beatles movies A Hard Day’s Night and Help, the Pink Panther series and The Great Escape were some of the most memorable movies that ran for many months here.”

Prem adds that B.R.V. was the only theatre in those days that was strict about not letting anyone below 18 for adult films. “After dad’s transfer to Madras, the management started to struggle with the film joint and movies were doing well in other theatres like Lido. The theatre eventually shut down and the last movie to be screened was Sean Connery’s James Bond thriller You Only Live Twice.”

Built in the Tudor style of architecture, the building’s gabled entrance-porch and conspicuous battlements is also synonymous with the designs of the Bible Society group of buildings (at the junction of St. Mark’s and Kasturba Roads) and gives Bangalore a very medieval look even today. While the building may have lost their prime status and importance, the legacy and fond memories attached to it will endure in the hearts of the city’s residents.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Melange – Hidden Stories / by Allan Moses Rodricks / Bangalore – June 06th, 2014