JOIN USIn the heart of the beholder
An impromptu photoshoot for new profile pictures, an early morning jogger speeding by at a worrying pace, a meticulously planned, nervously executed proposal, an intense game of lock-and-key, and a group of picnic-basket-carrying friends, distracted by friendly Labradors. On any given Sunday morning, there is one place, at the very heart of Bengaluru, where these occurrences all become reality at once.
Cubbon Park’s sprawling, thick canopies with its multiple gates, paths and corners hold the city’s histories, memories and secrets. The beloved space becomes nothing short of a protagonist in Roopa Pai’s latest book.
Pai’s Cubbon Park: The Green Heart of Bengaluru, talks readers through almost everything about Cubbon Park – from the idea behind its very inception to recent debates on its present and future purpose, and visitors’ freedoms.
Embellished every so often with anecdotes, quotes from household names and black-and-white pictures from a century ago, the book walks one through several lived experiences. Beginning with the ambitious British administrators and architects who laid the first bricks, the narrative also pays homage to the visionaries who ‘enriched’ it and the ‘warriors’ who fought to preserve it.
Variety of voices
As for diverse perspectives, Pai’s account features everything from the letters of a Wadiyar king, to an online review from an appreciative tourist.
First, through historical accounts and excerpts, readers are given a window into the context of each statue and building housed on the park’s premises. The Bal Bhavan owes its existence to the design of a Jewish architect who was fleeing Nazi persecution during the Second World War. And the fairy fountain not too far from it? Well, that only exists thanks to a royal parrot.
The author wonders whether the well-loved subjects of the park’s five sculptures labelled ‘the watchers’ — Mark Cubbon, King Edward VII, Queen Victoria, K Seshadri Iyer and the then-Maharaja, Chamarajendra Wadiyar X — could have contributed to the values that the space stands for, even today.
Transitioning from the historical to the whimsical, the author recalls the Cubbon Park Music Strip, the weekly jam session that brought the city’s live music scene to the lawns for three full years. A few years later, the major buzz in the park surrounded mapping out marathons and running routes.
Guided walks and tours were preferred by others, who wished to learn about the biodiversity of the space, which has been described as “the perfect staging area for migratory birds” and “swarms of butterflies.” In conversation with Pai, conservationists and academics alike deem Cubbon Park a safe space for the city’s urban wildlife.
Space for resistance
Pai also intentionally chronicles significant movements of resistance centred around the park. Over the years, she illustrates, Cubbon Park’s meaning has grown richer as it has been a sanctuary to many. It was here that some of the first support systems for the LGBTQIA+ community in the city were birthed.
The space also connected artists, musicians, athletes and activists, resulting in the creation of strong, proactive communities. Concurrently, it has also earned the distinction of being the site of several protests.
The book highlights the protests of 1998 when the city banded together to protect acres of the park’s land from being denotified by the government.
As the decades have passed, much has changed in the city, and within Cubbon Park itself. From time to time, traffic flow has been diverted, activities in the park, limited; the entry of pet dogs, debated; and vendors, banned.
Yet, Pai’s book emphasises, the bottom line is this: What Cubbon Park stands for, the meaning it holds, and the way it manages to bring people together has been and will remain unchanged. As it always seems to have been, Cubbon Park will endure at the heart of the city, in more ways than one.