The palatial bungalows so characteristic of old-world Basavanagudi may have given way to apartment blocks on BP Wadia Road, but thankfully, the remarkable institution founded by the person after whom the road is named is still standing strong.

Even as the Indian Institute of World Culture recently turned a year older, it continues to attract visitors and members, and legions of its fans around the world look back on it with nostalgia and gratitude.

Established in 1945, its founder, the theosophist B P Wadia, had envisioned it as a cultural centre for ordinary people, to make available "nuggets of knowledge which make a man more healthy in body, more wealthy in mind, more noble in heart, more self-sacrificing in spirit".

To promote intercultural exchange and the ideal of universal brotherhood, the Institute organises nearly 150 cultural programmes, lectures, seminars and exhibitions every year at its premises, all free and open to the public.

September's programmes, for instance, included talks in Kannada and English on diverse topics such as combating loneliness, science in India and aspects of the Ramayana, to name a few, in addition to cultural events such as dance and classical music. Luminaries who have given talks at the institute include DV Gundappa, VK Krishna Menon, JBS Haldane, Kengal Hanumanthaiah and many others.

The library

The crowning jewel of the institute is its library, which began in a humble way in 1947, with a few hundred books.
Today, it has about 45,000 books and a children's section with about 10,000 books.

There is also a reading room which has subscriptions to about 150 journals and magazines from all around the world. The library is a book lover's paradise, with the inviting aura of books lining the ceiling-to-floor shelves.

Most seem to have their own stories to tell.

It is not uncommon to find books from the late 1800s, often donated to the library and still carrying the previous owner's name written in fountain pen ink. Some also have inscriptions paying tribute to the institute, such as: "To the IIWC, which first opened the windows of my mind."

The general section has a wide assortment of books drawn from all around the world, including biographies, collections of letters, speeches and essays, travelogues, books on Indian and world history, classic literature, fiction spanning several all genres and ages, and of course books on world religions, cultures and philosophies.

And where once it was shunned, the general library today also carries bestsellers, "to cater to the changing requirements of members, whose numbers have grown from about 700 some years ago to about 3,300 now," says Y M Balakrishna, the honorary secretary.

Treasure trove

The Institute also has a veritable treasure trove in the Behanan Reference Library, formed when the late Dr KT Behanan donated his entire personal collection of books to the Institute. Browsing the eclectic collection, one can only marvel at the wide-ranging interests of the late Dr Behanan.

The complete works of Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe, for example, sit comfortably alongside works by Aurobindo and Shankaracharya among others. Works on the architecture of Indian temples rub shoulders with tomes such as the New York State Gazetteer of 1872.

The price for this slice of literary heaven? A sum of Rs 1,200 gives you a life membership to the institute, while an annual membership costs a mere Rs 120.

Loyal fans

The IIWC has some fiercely loyal fans scattered around the globe. Life member Raji Mohan, a network engineer now based in Washington DC, has wonderful memories of growing up in Bangalore, many of them centred around IIWC.

She is nostalgic about the many afternoons she spent as a child delving into the worlds of Enid Blyton, Richmal Crompton and others at the Institute library. "My childhood reading habits all come from books borrowed from those bookshelves," she says, "and once I graduated to the adult library, the sky was the limit." Her father still attends the cultural programmes here.

Another fan of the institute's calendar of events is G S Satya, a computer professional who now lives in San Jose, California, who vividly remembers Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to IIWC, accompanied by Kengal Hanumanthaiah. On that occasion, King had played the piano and, with Coretta, had sung "We shall overcome" on the stage at the IIWC auditorium.

"That has been a precious moment to cherish in my life," says Satya, who, after the event, also had the honour of directing the Kings and Kengal Hanumanthaiah to DV Gundappa's house on DVG Road, then called Nagasandra Road.

Satya credits these cultural and literary events at IIWC with helping him "live a life that matters" as an active member in the Indian American community in the Bay Area who has helped found several organisations including Kannada Koota of Northern California (www.KKNC.org).

"The exposure to eminent people from around the world at IIWC and the intellectual stimulation from the lectures there has helped me live as a citizen of the world," he says.