JOIN USBook on Cubbon Park set for Sunday launch
A new book on Cubbon Park will be launched in the city on Sunday. It is written by old-time Bengalurean, columnist and author Roopa Pai.
The book is called ‘Cubbon Park: The Green Heart of Bengaluru’.
It is an ode to people who’ve made the Park “the beating heart of Bengaluru” — ‘birthers’ (such as British engineer Richard Sankey who designed it), ‘watchers’ (personalities whose statues stand there), ‘enrichers’ (like Otto Koenigsberger, the architect behind Bal Bhavan), and commoners who love it and fight to keep it lush, sprawling and friendly.
Cubbon Park finds a mention in perhaps every book there is on Bengaluru but there was little that consolidated its social and cultural history from 1870 till date, realised Roopa during her research. However, this wasn’t why Roopa started writing the 175-pager, in the middle of the pandemic.
The publisher Speaking Tiger Books is running a series of books on neighbourhoods, like Connaught Place and Chandni Chowk in Delhi. When a chance to pick a neighbourhood from Bengaluru came Roopa’s way, she was stumped. Roopa grew up in Seshadripuram and studied in Malleshwaram. She lived off Old Airport Road for 10 years. All these associations, she realised, were temporary but Cubbon Park “was a constant in her life”.
She describes, “As a child, I would go to the Park to enjoy a ride in the Putani Express (toy train) or popcorn. My father was a member of the Century Club inside. UVCE, the college both my father and I went to, is next to it. Later, I would take my children to Cubbon Park. Now, I take my dog for a walk there.”
Cubbon Park’s appeal, she says, lies in that it is a people’s park, open and free to all. Also, because it is centrally located.
“Historically, Maharaja’s Bangalore and the British Cantonment were on either sides of Cubbon Park. After the Independence, it became the common point where people from both sides flocked. Our legislative, executive and judiciary bodies and the Press Club — the four estates of democracy — are located here,” she shares.
Her interviews with old Bengalureans threw up many insights, like the one about the fountain in the Park.
“A Nepalese queen, who was living in Bangalore, met Mirza Ismail, the Dewan of Mysore, at a party and pressed Rs 5,000 in his hands to take care of her pet parrot in case she isn’t around. Mirza said he would take care of the parrot but asked the queen if he could use the money for a public project instead. She agreed. Later, he asked Rs 3,000 extra to complete the fountain. The funny bit is the queen never saw the fountain because she had moved to Bombay by then.”
But Cubbon Park is not what it used to be — we can’t host picnics, perform music, play games, Metrolife pointed out. Roopa acknowledges the concerns but says that people of Bengaluru, their loyalty and activism, will save Cubbon Park every time it faces a threat.
Book launch is on October 2, 6 pm, Blossom Book House, above Matteo Coffea, Church Street.