The SECA Kids

A colleague and I led an interesting heritage walk yesterday. We took 35 children from an economically disadvantaged background to Bangalore Fort and Tipu's Palace. The children, aged 6-16, are all part of an English class run by Swagath Education and Community Action, who, of course, do a whole lot more than just teach the children English.

We had taken the same children to Devanahalli last year - 48 of them last time! This time round, the numbers had reduced but their enthusiasm certainly hadn't! At Devanahalli, I had had a constant stream of questions - on guns, cannons, moats, the fort, Tipu, his sons....I was thrilled to see that they remembered so much of all that this time. They drew comparisons between the two forts, they had more questions, and they were bursting with answers and comments too!

At the end of the day, they gave us a card that they had made. The drawing shows Devanahalli Fort. Check out the three cannons on the fort walls, the two guards at the arched gateway, the little lines of soldiers in the foreground....I love it!

The Bangalore Inscription

Today's Deccan Herald carries my article on Begur and the 9th century inscription that mentions Bengaluru. I like their title for the article: Here lies the Bengaluru inscription.

Incidentally, INTACH had a Parichay to Begur last Sunday. We had a very enthusiastic of people, with a good sprinkling of architects this time, for some reason. Dr Jegannathan gave an interesting and intriguing talk on energy zones and everyone was most interested in the Lecher antenna and how he uses it. Dr SK Aruni of the Indian Council of Historical Research was there as a participant, but was quite happy to speak to the group about Begur. As always, he impressed everyone with his phenomenal knowledge - on the temple, hero-stones, Bangalore...The most exciting part of his talk for me was when he pronounced the potsherds that I had collected on a previous trip as being quite old - 2000 years old or thereabouts!

The good news is that the temple trustees, who also came to listen to the talks, were quite keen on preserving the inscriptions, especially the one that talks about Bengaluru now that they know what it means and what it stands for.

Heritage walk

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,

The chorus of Rudyard Kipling’s famous The Ballad of East and West can aptly be applied to Bangalore – a city of layers – a twin city with the European Cantonment to the East and the Indian Pettah to the West and Cubbon Park in between, serving as a barrier between the two!

Join us to find out if the two ever met and, along the way, experience a bit of Cantonment life along with some surprises thrown in.

Date: 31^st October 2009

Venue: St Mark’s Cathedral (entrance near Koshy’s)

Time: 8:00 am

We will wrap up in about 3 hours. As always, we will provide a light snack. Please carry some water with you. Parking is available along the road in front of St Mark’s, in Cubbon Park near Victoria Statue, or behind the Government Museum half a kilometre away.

Seats are limited for this event. Please register in advance by calling 99860 23014.

This walk is organised by INTACH Bangalore, Bangalore City Project (BCP), Max Mueller Bhavan, UDHBAVA Forum and MPSR Foundation.

More than just an airport

Today's Deccan Herald carries a piece I wrote on Devanahalli fort, one of my favourite places in Bangalore.


"Mention Devanahalli and everyone thinks ‘International Airport’. But Devanahalli is also where one of Indian history’s most colourful personalities, Tipu Sultan, was born. Indeed, the town is quite a heritage hotspot, with a history stretching back several hundred years even before Tipu.

A fine fort famous for its association with Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali lies just off the national highway, about 10 km beyond the airport exit."


You can read the rest of the article here.


Incidentally, we (by which I mean Intach, not the royal we!) conducted a heritage walk at Devanahalli just two days before this article appeared. Sunday saw me and two colleagues from Intach talk to 48 (yes, 48!) children about Devanahalli. Of course, it wasn't just us; volunteers from SECA were there, too, to keep an eye on their flock and make sure all 48 came back!

We had a blast and I'd like to think at least some of the kids did too. A few of them came up to me at the end of the walk to tell me this wasn't like any history lesson they had ever attended. I'm certainly glad they thought so.