Ferns Kannada Rajyotsava is celebrated by Ferns city, Ferns Paradise and Ferns Habitat Layouts together
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Our Kannada Rajyotsava colour Co ordinated kids!
It was a delight to dress up my children in the Kannada Rajyotsava flag colours! Here's a shot of them - Shridhar and Deeksha
From
Aparna
Ferns Habitat house number 119
Welcome to 2016 Ferns Rajyotsava
attachments:
Ferns Karnataka Rajyotsave 2016-Final_1
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Monday, November 7, 2016
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Intresting fact abt KOLAR GOLD FIELDS
Some facts of KGF, where we had Gold mines in Karnataka
✏An English mining firm, John Taylor & Sons in1880, started the systematic mining for gold.
✏The first hydroelectric project in South India
was built in 1902 to provide electricity for the
gold fields.
✏Indian Activist, Bezwada Wilson founder and
National Convenor of the Safai Karmachari
Andolan (SKA)is from Kolar Gold Fields
✏Kolar Gold Fields was the third city in India
to get electricity after Darjeeling (1897) and
Calcutta (1898), from Shivanasamudra Hydro
electric project in Mandya District, Karnataka,
India.
✏People from as far as Kolar could see the
lights of this once prosperous city
✏You can see large number of churches in kolar
gold field and CSI My Redeemer's Church in
Mission Hill Marikuppam being the oldest of
nearly 135 years old.
✏KGF was known as "Little England " by the
British, due to its more temperate weather and
a landscape more similar to Britain's. It also had
a sizable Anglo-Indian Population who worked in
the various mines in different capacities.
✏The city is on the Deccan Plateau of central
and south India, about 3000 feet above sea level
✏The Champion Reefs mine was the second
deepest underground mine in the world when it
was operational reached a depth of 3200mts.
✏National Institute of Miners Health had its
headquarters in KGF
✏One can see the old British bungalows and
buildings even today in good shape in KGF.
✏In the year 1902 the suburb of Robertson pet
was established.
✏The mines were taken over by the
Government of mysore in 1956.
✏The mines were taken over by the
Government of India in 1962.
✏S. Manjunath, the Indian Oil Corporation
(IOC) manager who was murdered for exposing
corruption hailed from KGF.
✏KGF played a major part in the prosperity of
the British Empire
'Vijay Shree' awardee K.M. Divakaran is from
KGF.
✏Shram Shri Award by Govt of India -
V.Natarajan of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd
✏The brilliant Indian artist John Wilkins was
born here.
✏The particle experiments at Kolar Gold Fields ,
performed by a collaboration of particle
physicists from Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research ( TIFR), Mumbai, Osaka City University ,
Japan and Durham University, UK recorded the
first cosmic ray neutrino interaction in an
underground laboratory in Gifford's Shaft of
Champion Reefs Mines in 1965.
✏KGF also has the distinction of having a golf
course started by the British dating back to
1885 and affiliated to Indian Golf Union
✏KGF is the birthplace of Magsaysay Awardee
Jockin Arputham , the founder and president of
the National Slum Dwellers Federation (India)
✏KGF club is the most sought after club
because of its affiliation with other national and
international clubs.
✏Xavier Vijay Kumar HAL Football captain,
Karnataka striker and India vice captain against
Japan in 2006 is from KGF.
✏Lavelle road in Bangalore is named after
Michael Lavelle, the Irish soldier who made his
money in the Kolar Gold Fields..
Journey Of Bangalore
Here is the story about our beautiful city, Bengaluru
Bangalore in the 1950s and ’60s was still a Pensioners’ Paradise and very much a sleepy town. It was mostly divided into “City” and “Cantonment” with Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram the best known among its residential areas. Jayanagar and its famous mosquitoes had not made their debut yet.
The City Market was really a conglomeration of various petes—Chikkapete, Balepete, Tharugupete, Akkipete, Cottonpete—holding the business community. Dandu, or Cantonment (‘Contrumentru’ as the villagers would call it) was still a very far off place for most Bangaloreans. Almost as far as London itself.
*
One got a fair idea of the City when one used BTS, or Bangalore Transport Service to give its full name (”Bittre Tiruga Sigodilla“, was the other full form).
50 years ago, the only other modes of transport for a common man were the Jataka Gaadi (horse driven covered cart) or nataraja service— local lingo for footing it out.
The word ‘autorickshaw’ had yet to enter the lexicon, the contraption was yet to invade our roads.
Those who worked in Atthara Katcheri (18 offices) before Vidhana Soudha was conceived, or those who worked in AG’s office walked to their offices. After an early meal around 9 am, chewing Mysore villedele with sughnadhi betel nuts, most of them changed in to their kuchche panche with their marriage coat, some wearing the Mysore peta as crown, they set off to their office holding a tiffin box which contained their afternoon snack: a couple of idlis, uppittu, etc.
The same tiffin bag was used to bring back Mysore mallige in the evening along with badami halwa for the waiting wife. The only addition to the office gear was a half-sleeve sweater during winter, and a full-length umbrella which sometimes doubled as a walking stick, during the monsoon.
Bangalore looked almost empty during the day as most of the eligible science and engineering graduates or diploma holders were herded
into buses at the unearthly hour of 6.30 in the morning and ferried to HAL, HMT, BEL, LRDE, ITI, NGEF, Kirloskar, BEML, etc.
The city suddenly perked up after the factory hands returned to their favorite haunts like Yagnappana Hotlu opposite National High School grounds or Bhattra Hotlu in Gandhi bazaar for the mandatory ‘Three-by-Four Masale’ or ‘Two-by-three coffee’ in the evenings.
*
The best way of seeing Bangalore and getting an idea of what was happening in the city in those days was to travel by BTS route no. 11.
Route no. 11 started its journey from Gandhi bazaar in Basavanagudi opposite Vidyarthi Bhavan and took you to Tata Institute (now Indian Institute of Science) on Malleshwaram 18th cross, after eons of time spent amidst chatter, sleep and fights over annas and paisas.
Morning visitors to Vidyarthi Bhavan would already be waiting for the delicious masale dose after eating rave vade when the conductor asked the last of the commuters to get in to the bus and shouted ‘Rrrrighhttttt!’
The bus, initially coughing and moving in fits and starts, would go past the only taxi stand in the City and take its first left turn at K.R. Road and pass through Basavanagudi post office and enter Dr. H.Narasimhaiah’s National College circle and stop at diagonal road opposite Dr. Narasimhachar’s dispensary.
Here in the evenings, Gokhale, a Maharashtrian, sold ‘Brain Tonic’—a tangy kadalekai (groundnut) concoction with the goods atop his bicycle carrier. The light from his dynamo illuminated the area for you to see what you were eating and for him to check whether he has not been palmed off with ‘sawakalu kasu‘ (disfigured coin).
Gokhale claimed that students of the National High School and National College figured in the state rank list (and hence dubbed ‘kudumis’) only because his brain tonic was their staple food!
Everything on route no. 11 had “laidback” stamped on it: the issuing of tickets, getting in and out of the bus, and the bus ride itself.
At the end of Diagonal Road you entered the sanctum sanctorum of Shettys or Komatis of Bangalore who sold anything and everything that could be sold from gold to pakampappu, gulpavatte and gunthaponganalu.
The Sajjan Rao temple and choultry by the same name was much sought after for society weddings. The Satyanarayana Temple came much later as politicians became more and more crooked.
Kota Kamakshayya choultry was opposite to the best bakery in Bangalore and may be the whole of south India, the V.B. Bakery.
Dressed in spotless white panche and banians with sleeves, the staff looked as if they were running on skates taking and fetching orders for chakkuli, kodu-bale, veg “pups”, om biscuit, kharada kadale kayi, ‘Congress’ kadale kayi and ‘Badam Haalu’. V.B. Bakery’s stuff was made for the gods who, I suspect, had descended on Bangalore not only for this but also for the weather, the doses, and mallige.
Next, after passing Modern Hotel and New Modern hotel where the whiff of SKC —sweetu, khara, coffee—hit your nostrils, was the stop opposite Minerva talkies, which in those days mostly showed Tamil pictures for three shows and wore a culturally superior hat with Bengali movies and that too only Satyajit Ray for the morning shows!
I suspect most Bangaloreans got introduced to Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar—and roso gulla—only through Minerva.
A 200 meters dash from Minerva took you to Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) in a dingy lane, which morphed into MTR as one of the best eateries in town.
After Minerva, the next stop was another theatre ‘Bharath’ which took you to the world of ‘Spartacus’ and ‘Robe’. Only Bharath and Vijalakshmi in Chikkapete showed English movies in the ‘City’ side of Banglore.
Next came ‘Shivaji’ theatre, the abode of Tamil films with a statue of Shivaji, the warrior, riding a horse on the top of the building. (MNS leader Raj Thackeray or for that matter the original tiger, Bal Thackeray, would have been pleased to see a Shivaji statue in Bangalore).
Kannada films were nonexistent or a rarity those days. Except for an occasional ‘Bedara Kannappa’, ‘Sadarame’, ‘Rathagiri Rahasya’ (the song ‘Amara Madhura Prema’ was a craze) or ‘School Master’, it was all Sivaji Ganesan and M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) who ruled the silver screen.
For a Sivaji film, taking two or three handkerchieves was mandatory because he made you cry in buckets after the interval, while an MGR film was all about romancing Saroja Devi on a full moon night or chasing villain Nambiar on a horseback in a dark black or deep scarlet outfit.
‘Gemini’ Ganesan arrived around the same time after quitting as a chemistry lecturer!
Then the bus entered Puttanna chetty Town Hall, a marvellous building where most major functions and felicitations took place.
Kengal Hanumanthaiah was seen often here before he started planning the construction of Vidhana Soudha. When Kengal used convicts from nearby Bangalore Jail to do the cumbersome job of breaking stones into jelli, the story goes, one of them slapped Kengal when he came for his daily rounds!
MS (M.S. Subbalakshmi) sang many of her kutchheris in Town Hall so did “Flute” Mali accompanied by Mysore T. Chowdiah on violin.
Buildings like Ravindra Kalakshetra had not come up yet, but there was United Mission high school with a very large playground. Even the nearby Canara Bank came much later.
After crossing Silver Jubilee Park Road and Narasimha Raja Road, route no. 11 would hem and haw climbing the slope towards George Oaks building opposite Bangalore Corporation office and enter Cenotaph Memorial which was pulled down when some local patriots thought it depicted the days of our slavery to British.
Then the bus would cross the police commissioner’s office.
The commissioner, lucky fellow, had his residence right opposite his office! Yet when he drove in his car to his office in style, the police constables gave a guard of honour for him standing on either side of the gangway. This happened every day and a sizeable crowd collected to watch the ceremony.
At the government engineering college (which became UCE and finally UVCE) bus stop, those who took the bus to Attara Kaccheri of the government would get down and loosen up their stiff limbs as also the students of Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute started by Sir M. Visvesvaraya from his lifetime earnings.
Those who wanted to stroll down to Cubbon Park would also get down there and if it was a Sunday they would go with their family to listen to the various orchestras which played old Hindi songs.
Much later, those who helped God to do his work went to Vidhana Soudha; they are still partners in His unfinished business.
At the next the bus stop at Maharani’s college, the young and old woke up and cranked their necks to have a look at the sari-clad demure beauties getting down.
Mount Carmel’s which was the hep, hip girls’ college of those days came much later. The hockey stars, the Britto sisters, most of Bangalore’s athletes came from there. Shantha Rangaswamy came from Maharani’s and captained India’s women’s cricket team.
*
In the excitement of the Maharani’s bus stop, I almost forgot I took the bus an hour back in Gandhi bazaar which now picked up some nerve and speed, drove past Central College to the Law College stop.
Behind Central College was the Central College cricket grounds which hosted all the international matches as well as the Ranji matches. It was here that a ball from the fearsome Roy Gilchrist hit A.S. Krishnaswamy on his chest and flew off to the boundary.
Col C.K. Nayudu played here when he was past 70 along with his brother C.S. Nayudu and so did Lala Amarnath.
Central Colleges grounds was the place all the Test cricketers from Mysore/ Karnataka cut their teeth playing State ‘B’ Ramachandra Rao shield, Rohington Baria Cup for Universities, and finally the Ranji Trophy.
In the history of Indian cricket, very rarely or it has never happened, one player refusing to play for India and accompany the team to West Indies because his much revered and admired colleague was not picked in the team. This is precisely what happened when speedster G. Kasturiranagan (presently a member of the KSCA governing body) refused to join the team as the L.T. Adishesh was not selected in the team).
Along with Varadaraj, L.T. Subbu, Balaji Srinivasan (who played in an ‘unofficial’ Test for India) and later with B.S. Chandrashekar, Erapalli Prasanna, Kunjumani V.Subramanyam, Karnataka was a formidable Ranji team.
*
When our bus took a left to enter Majestic area, you wished you had eyes, like your ears on both sides of your head.
The only place in India or any where for that matter where so many movie houses stood cheek by jowl.
Prabhat, Sagar, States, Kempe Gowda, Himalaya, Majestic, Geetha, Jai Hind, Alankar and Kalpana theatres starting from Mysore Bank dotted the Majestic area, where most Hindi movies would be screened, quite a few of them completing their silver jubilees.
The bus disgorged people going to the railway station—there was no bus station there! The empty space between Majestic Bus Stop and Railway Station was Subhash Nagar Grounds which was used mainly for political speeches by likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Ram Manohar Lohia.
It was in Subhash Nagar grounds that “Master” Hirannaiyya first staged his famous play ‘Lanchavathara’ lampooning corruption in politics.
During the inauguration of the play, Hirannaiyya told the audience that their livelihood depended on those who came in after buying tickets and not on the front row dignitaries who were invitees. J.B. Mallaradhya, who was the chief guest got up, walked to the counter and bought a ticket for himself and entered the theatre!
I have digressed here like my bus going all over Bangalore.
From here the bus developed wings as it were, and flew past, Ananda Rao circle, Sheshadripuram High School, Central Theatre, and entered the citadel of Malleshwaram.
At Malleshwaram circle, it took a left and after taking a right at Margosa road (on its return journey the bus took the parallel ‘Sampige’ Road) started its journey towards Tata Institute going past Malleshwaram Tiffin Rooms, where people waited for their Mysore masale, and the Ganapathy temple at 8th cross.
By the time the bus entered 16th cross most of the commuters had emptied the bus, and because of the steep gradient, the bus behaved as if it was going up Nandi hills with the conductor holding the bar with both hands with a prayer on his lips.
On the 17 cross Road, students of Malleshwaram School got down with a stoop looking couple of inches shorter since they boarded the bus. Then the bus went for its home stretch to the Tata Institute which came about because of the foresight and visionary of Jamshedjee Tata who thought India should produce its own great scientists and chose Bangalore instead of Bombay to set up the Institute.
Nobel Laureate Sir C.V. Raman started his own Institute, Raman Research Institute, after his differences with Tata Institute.
*
Bangalore of those days was a place filled with fewer people but one had a lot of choices to choose from for entertainment.
Like a Binny vs Blues football match; a Mirza Shield cricket match between Bangalore Cricketers and BUCC; an MEG vs HAL hockey fixture; MTR vs. Vidyarthi Bhavan dosa; City Institute Ramanavami Celebrations vs Seshadripuram Sangeetha Sabha….
Lalbagh vs Cubbon Park; Aa Naa Kru vs Tha Raa Su; G.P. Rajaratnam vs Beechi, but P. Kalinga Rao stood alone with his brand of ‘Yaaru hithavaru ninge ee moovarolage‘ and ‘Baaraiyya Belabingale’.
It is a pity BTS , now BMTC, has changed the numbers of various bus routes in Bangalore unlike in Bombay where bus routes have remained the same for over 50 years.
But route no. 11 is a different story.
Bangalore in the 1950s and ’60s was still a Pensioners’ Paradise and very much a sleepy town. It was mostly divided into “City” and “Cantonment” with Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram the best known among its residential areas. Jayanagar and its famous mosquitoes had not made their debut yet.
The City Market was really a conglomeration of various petes—Chikkapete, Balepete, Tharugupete, Akkipete, Cottonpete—holding the business community. Dandu, or Cantonment (‘Contrumentru’ as the villagers would call it) was still a very far off place for most Bangaloreans. Almost as far as London itself.
*
One got a fair idea of the City when one used BTS, or Bangalore Transport Service to give its full name (”Bittre Tiruga Sigodilla“, was the other full form).
50 years ago, the only other modes of transport for a common man were the Jataka Gaadi (horse driven covered cart) or nataraja service— local lingo for footing it out.
The word ‘autorickshaw’ had yet to enter the lexicon, the contraption was yet to invade our roads.
Those who worked in Atthara Katcheri (18 offices) before Vidhana Soudha was conceived, or those who worked in AG’s office walked to their offices. After an early meal around 9 am, chewing Mysore villedele with sughnadhi betel nuts, most of them changed in to their kuchche panche with their marriage coat, some wearing the Mysore peta as crown, they set off to their office holding a tiffin box which contained their afternoon snack: a couple of idlis, uppittu, etc.
The same tiffin bag was used to bring back Mysore mallige in the evening along with badami halwa for the waiting wife. The only addition to the office gear was a half-sleeve sweater during winter, and a full-length umbrella which sometimes doubled as a walking stick, during the monsoon.
Bangalore looked almost empty during the day as most of the eligible science and engineering graduates or diploma holders were herded
into buses at the unearthly hour of 6.30 in the morning and ferried to HAL, HMT, BEL, LRDE, ITI, NGEF, Kirloskar, BEML, etc.
The city suddenly perked up after the factory hands returned to their favorite haunts like Yagnappana Hotlu opposite National High School grounds or Bhattra Hotlu in Gandhi bazaar for the mandatory ‘Three-by-Four Masale’ or ‘Two-by-three coffee’ in the evenings.
*
The best way of seeing Bangalore and getting an idea of what was happening in the city in those days was to travel by BTS route no. 11.
Route no. 11 started its journey from Gandhi bazaar in Basavanagudi opposite Vidyarthi Bhavan and took you to Tata Institute (now Indian Institute of Science) on Malleshwaram 18th cross, after eons of time spent amidst chatter, sleep and fights over annas and paisas.
Morning visitors to Vidyarthi Bhavan would already be waiting for the delicious masale dose after eating rave vade when the conductor asked the last of the commuters to get in to the bus and shouted ‘Rrrrighhttttt!’
The bus, initially coughing and moving in fits and starts, would go past the only taxi stand in the City and take its first left turn at K.R. Road and pass through Basavanagudi post office and enter Dr. H.Narasimhaiah’s National College circle and stop at diagonal road opposite Dr. Narasimhachar’s dispensary.
Here in the evenings, Gokhale, a Maharashtrian, sold ‘Brain Tonic’—a tangy kadalekai (groundnut) concoction with the goods atop his bicycle carrier. The light from his dynamo illuminated the area for you to see what you were eating and for him to check whether he has not been palmed off with ‘sawakalu kasu‘ (disfigured coin).
Gokhale claimed that students of the National High School and National College figured in the state rank list (and hence dubbed ‘kudumis’) only because his brain tonic was their staple food!
Everything on route no. 11 had “laidback” stamped on it: the issuing of tickets, getting in and out of the bus, and the bus ride itself.
At the end of Diagonal Road you entered the sanctum sanctorum of Shettys or Komatis of Bangalore who sold anything and everything that could be sold from gold to pakampappu, gulpavatte and gunthaponganalu.
The Sajjan Rao temple and choultry by the same name was much sought after for society weddings. The Satyanarayana Temple came much later as politicians became more and more crooked.
Kota Kamakshayya choultry was opposite to the best bakery in Bangalore and may be the whole of south India, the V.B. Bakery.
Dressed in spotless white panche and banians with sleeves, the staff looked as if they were running on skates taking and fetching orders for chakkuli, kodu-bale, veg “pups”, om biscuit, kharada kadale kayi, ‘Congress’ kadale kayi and ‘Badam Haalu’. V.B. Bakery’s stuff was made for the gods who, I suspect, had descended on Bangalore not only for this but also for the weather, the doses, and mallige.
Next, after passing Modern Hotel and New Modern hotel where the whiff of SKC —sweetu, khara, coffee—hit your nostrils, was the stop opposite Minerva talkies, which in those days mostly showed Tamil pictures for three shows and wore a culturally superior hat with Bengali movies and that too only Satyajit Ray for the morning shows!
I suspect most Bangaloreans got introduced to Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar—and roso gulla—only through Minerva.
A 200 meters dash from Minerva took you to Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR) in a dingy lane, which morphed into MTR as one of the best eateries in town.
After Minerva, the next stop was another theatre ‘Bharath’ which took you to the world of ‘Spartacus’ and ‘Robe’. Only Bharath and Vijalakshmi in Chikkapete showed English movies in the ‘City’ side of Banglore.
Next came ‘Shivaji’ theatre, the abode of Tamil films with a statue of Shivaji, the warrior, riding a horse on the top of the building. (MNS leader Raj Thackeray or for that matter the original tiger, Bal Thackeray, would have been pleased to see a Shivaji statue in Bangalore).
Kannada films were nonexistent or a rarity those days. Except for an occasional ‘Bedara Kannappa’, ‘Sadarame’, ‘Rathagiri Rahasya’ (the song ‘Amara Madhura Prema’ was a craze) or ‘School Master’, it was all Sivaji Ganesan and M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) who ruled the silver screen.
For a Sivaji film, taking two or three handkerchieves was mandatory because he made you cry in buckets after the interval, while an MGR film was all about romancing Saroja Devi on a full moon night or chasing villain Nambiar on a horseback in a dark black or deep scarlet outfit.
‘Gemini’ Ganesan arrived around the same time after quitting as a chemistry lecturer!
Then the bus entered Puttanna chetty Town Hall, a marvellous building where most major functions and felicitations took place.
Kengal Hanumanthaiah was seen often here before he started planning the construction of Vidhana Soudha. When Kengal used convicts from nearby Bangalore Jail to do the cumbersome job of breaking stones into jelli, the story goes, one of them slapped Kengal when he came for his daily rounds!
MS (M.S. Subbalakshmi) sang many of her kutchheris in Town Hall so did “Flute” Mali accompanied by Mysore T. Chowdiah on violin.
Buildings like Ravindra Kalakshetra had not come up yet, but there was United Mission high school with a very large playground. Even the nearby Canara Bank came much later.
After crossing Silver Jubilee Park Road and Narasimha Raja Road, route no. 11 would hem and haw climbing the slope towards George Oaks building opposite Bangalore Corporation office and enter Cenotaph Memorial which was pulled down when some local patriots thought it depicted the days of our slavery to British.
Then the bus would cross the police commissioner’s office.
The commissioner, lucky fellow, had his residence right opposite his office! Yet when he drove in his car to his office in style, the police constables gave a guard of honour for him standing on either side of the gangway. This happened every day and a sizeable crowd collected to watch the ceremony.
At the government engineering college (which became UCE and finally UVCE) bus stop, those who took the bus to Attara Kaccheri of the government would get down and loosen up their stiff limbs as also the students of Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute started by Sir M. Visvesvaraya from his lifetime earnings.
Those who wanted to stroll down to Cubbon Park would also get down there and if it was a Sunday they would go with their family to listen to the various orchestras which played old Hindi songs.
Much later, those who helped God to do his work went to Vidhana Soudha; they are still partners in His unfinished business.
At the next the bus stop at Maharani’s college, the young and old woke up and cranked their necks to have a look at the sari-clad demure beauties getting down.
Mount Carmel’s which was the hep, hip girls’ college of those days came much later. The hockey stars, the Britto sisters, most of Bangalore’s athletes came from there. Shantha Rangaswamy came from Maharani’s and captained India’s women’s cricket team.
*
In the excitement of the Maharani’s bus stop, I almost forgot I took the bus an hour back in Gandhi bazaar which now picked up some nerve and speed, drove past Central College to the Law College stop.
Behind Central College was the Central College cricket grounds which hosted all the international matches as well as the Ranji matches. It was here that a ball from the fearsome Roy Gilchrist hit A.S. Krishnaswamy on his chest and flew off to the boundary.
Col C.K. Nayudu played here when he was past 70 along with his brother C.S. Nayudu and so did Lala Amarnath.
Central Colleges grounds was the place all the Test cricketers from Mysore/ Karnataka cut their teeth playing State ‘B’ Ramachandra Rao shield, Rohington Baria Cup for Universities, and finally the Ranji Trophy.
In the history of Indian cricket, very rarely or it has never happened, one player refusing to play for India and accompany the team to West Indies because his much revered and admired colleague was not picked in the team. This is precisely what happened when speedster G. Kasturiranagan (presently a member of the KSCA governing body) refused to join the team as the L.T. Adishesh was not selected in the team).
Along with Varadaraj, L.T. Subbu, Balaji Srinivasan (who played in an ‘unofficial’ Test for India) and later with B.S. Chandrashekar, Erapalli Prasanna, Kunjumani V.Subramanyam, Karnataka was a formidable Ranji team.
*
When our bus took a left to enter Majestic area, you wished you had eyes, like your ears on both sides of your head.
The only place in India or any where for that matter where so many movie houses stood cheek by jowl.
Prabhat, Sagar, States, Kempe Gowda, Himalaya, Majestic, Geetha, Jai Hind, Alankar and Kalpana theatres starting from Mysore Bank dotted the Majestic area, where most Hindi movies would be screened, quite a few of them completing their silver jubilees.
The bus disgorged people going to the railway station—there was no bus station there! The empty space between Majestic Bus Stop and Railway Station was Subhash Nagar Grounds which was used mainly for political speeches by likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Ram Manohar Lohia.
It was in Subhash Nagar grounds that “Master” Hirannaiyya first staged his famous play ‘Lanchavathara’ lampooning corruption in politics.
During the inauguration of the play, Hirannaiyya told the audience that their livelihood depended on those who came in after buying tickets and not on the front row dignitaries who were invitees. J.B. Mallaradhya, who was the chief guest got up, walked to the counter and bought a ticket for himself and entered the theatre!
I have digressed here like my bus going all over Bangalore.
From here the bus developed wings as it were, and flew past, Ananda Rao circle, Sheshadripuram High School, Central Theatre, and entered the citadel of Malleshwaram.
At Malleshwaram circle, it took a left and after taking a right at Margosa road (on its return journey the bus took the parallel ‘Sampige’ Road) started its journey towards Tata Institute going past Malleshwaram Tiffin Rooms, where people waited for their Mysore masale, and the Ganapathy temple at 8th cross.
By the time the bus entered 16th cross most of the commuters had emptied the bus, and because of the steep gradient, the bus behaved as if it was going up Nandi hills with the conductor holding the bar with both hands with a prayer on his lips.
On the 17 cross Road, students of Malleshwaram School got down with a stoop looking couple of inches shorter since they boarded the bus. Then the bus went for its home stretch to the Tata Institute which came about because of the foresight and visionary of Jamshedjee Tata who thought India should produce its own great scientists and chose Bangalore instead of Bombay to set up the Institute.
Nobel Laureate Sir C.V. Raman started his own Institute, Raman Research Institute, after his differences with Tata Institute.
*
Bangalore of those days was a place filled with fewer people but one had a lot of choices to choose from for entertainment.
Like a Binny vs Blues football match; a Mirza Shield cricket match between Bangalore Cricketers and BUCC; an MEG vs HAL hockey fixture; MTR vs. Vidyarthi Bhavan dosa; City Institute Ramanavami Celebrations vs Seshadripuram Sangeetha Sabha….
Lalbagh vs Cubbon Park; Aa Naa Kru vs Tha Raa Su; G.P. Rajaratnam vs Beechi, but P. Kalinga Rao stood alone with his brand of ‘Yaaru hithavaru ninge ee moovarolage‘ and ‘Baaraiyya Belabingale’.
It is a pity BTS , now BMTC, has changed the numbers of various bus routes in Bangalore unlike in Bombay where bus routes have remained the same for over 50 years.
But route no. 11 is a different story.
60 facts for 60th Karnataka Rajyotsava
1 First called Mysore, the state changed its name to Karnataka in 1973. Old scriptures suggest that this is derived from Karnata, which is what the area was originally referred to as. Other suggestions say it is derived from Karu-nadu, which translates to elevated land.
2 It is the only state that boasts a rich tradition of both Carnatic and Hindustani music. While the state was home to Purandaradasa, one of the main pillars of Carnatic classic music, Northern Karnataka has been home to Hindustani classical stalwarts such as Sawai Gandharva, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal and Mallikarjun Mansur.
3 Karnataka has the second highest number of Jnanapith Award winners for literature, tallying up to eight, second only to 10 for Hindi.
4 While everyone applauds Jhansi Laxmi Bai's rebellion against the British, the first ever chronicled rebellion against the British was by Kittur Rani Chennamma, which was decades before Laxmi Bai.
5 Karnataka's state tree is sandalwood, which is an endangered plant today, given it is precious for its aromatic properties. In fact, the state film industry is named after this precious tree.
6 Karnataka's state emblem is the Gandaberunda, which is a two-headed mythological bird with magical powers, immense strength and is capable of dealing with the ultimate forces of destruction.
7 Vijayanagara Empire was one of the most extravagant kingdoms in Indian history, where hawkers would trade gold and precious gems on the streets. Even today, the ruins of the kingdom in Hampi is famous across the world and is used as shooting locales for even Hollywood films.
8 Karnataka's state bird is the Indian Roller, a species of bird common to this area in Asia, which is colourful and non-migratory. In fact, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana too have chosen the bird as their state bird.
9 India's national flower, lotus, is the state flower as well.
10 The state animal is the Asian elephant and Karnataka boasts an elephant camp in the foothills of the Kodagu district in Dubare.
11 The colourful dramatic Yakshagana is the official state dance form.
12 Karnataka's official language is Kannada, but the state also has many other languages and dialects, including Tulu, Konkani, Havyaka, Kodava and Beary. There are separate Kannada-mixed Tamil and Telugu dialects as well.
13 Jog or Gerosoppa Falls is India's second largest plunge waterfalls.
14 The Gomateshwara statue at Shravanabelagola is the world's largest monolith statue.
15 Karnataka is home to India's largest production units of raw silk and is famous especially for the Mysore silk saris.
16 Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha in Hubballi is the only unit in India that has official permission to manufacture and supply Indian flags.
17 The Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited in Mysuru is the only place that is authorized to manufacture the indelible black ink used for all elections in India.
18 The Mysuru Palace, built by Krishnarajendra Wadiyar, is the second most popular tourist hotspot in India, second only to the Taj Mahal.
19 The tomb of Mohammed Adil Shah in Bijapur, Gol Gumbaz, is one of the largest pre-domes in the world and is a popular tourist destination.
20 The first-ever private radio station in India was set up in Karnataka in 1935 by professor MV Gopalaswamy.
21 Girish Kasaravalli, one of the pioneers of the parallel film movement in India, has a unique distinction at the National Awards. His films have collectively won 14 National Awards, including those for Best Feature Film.
22 The late thespian Dr Rajkumar is the only superstar to have won the National Award for Best Playback Singer — for Naadamaya Ee Lokavella from Just Akasmika. Coincidentally, he never won a National Award for acting, despite winning nine State Awards for the Best Actor.
23 Mani Ratnam's first ever feature film was in Kannada, titled Pallavi Anupallavi. Coincidentally, it was also one of the first films that Anil Kapoor acted in as a lead.
24 Musical maestro Ilaiyaraaja began his career in films as an assistant to noted music director GK Venkatesh.
25 Many national superstars, including Rajinikanth and Deepika Padukone, began their film journey with Kannada films.
26 Shankar Nag's Ondu Muttina Kathe holds the distinction of being the first-ever Indian film to have been majorly shot underwater.
27 Ramanagara, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, was made famous in India thanks to the matinee epic Sholay, in which it boasted of being villain Gabbar Singh's hideout.
28 SS Kishan had previously held the Guinness World Record for being the youngest filmmaker at the age of 11, which has now been broken. Kishan's C/O Footpath was a critical and commercial success.
29 Karnataka boasts of being one of the states with the highest number of of players who represented their country at the international level in cricket. Even currently, players like Stuart Binny, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Vinay Kumar and Robin Uthappa are part of the playing 11 in the various forms of international cricket.
30 Karnataka also has had a stronghold in hockey, with many players, especially from Kodagu, representing the country.
31 Bengalurean Prakash Padukone glamourized badminton as a sport in India and was the first poster-boy of the sport.
32 The Basavangudi Aquatic Centre in Bengaluru boasts of many Olympian swimmers from the state and is considered as one of the best training grounds.
33 One of the most popular breakfast items in India — idlis — are said to have originated in Karnataka, with scriptures dating the food item to as back as the 10th century.
34 The Rava Idli, a popular variant of the idli, was an invention during the World War II as a food item for the soldiers by a popular Bengaluru eatery.
35 The Masala Dosa, which has been proven to be a dish that is more synonymous with India than Chicken Tikka Masala or anything else, also originates in Karnataka. There are different variants of the way masala dosa is made in different districts of the state.
36 Karnataka cuisine is said to be one of the oldest ones in the country, given how the princely state of Mysore used to stretch much beyond its current borders. This has led to the food influencing cuisines of the surrounding states.
37 Ragi Mudde, a humble meal eaten in the homes of farmers in Karnataka, became famous across fine-dining restaurants when HD Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister of India.
38 Sir M Vishwesvaraya's birth anniversary is celebrated as Engineer's Day. He is the man behind the KRS Dam and many other marvels.
39 Apart from Hampi, Karnataka also boasts of tourist marvels like Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal; the latter is a UNESCO-inscribed world heritage site.
40 The walk-through aviary in Karanji Lake in Mysuru at the Butterfly Park is one of the biggest ones in India.
41 Given that Bengaluru became one of the biggest outsourcing hubs especially for the United States, firing someone in US was popularly referred as one's job getting 'Bangalored'. In fact, popular television series have also shown Bengaluru in different ways because of its IT connect.
42 RK Narayan has written probably India's best known children's literature. All his stories were set in the fictional town of Malgudi, the name of which is an amalgamation of the old Bengaluru areas of Malleswaram and Basavanagudi.
43 Bengaluru was one of the first cities in India to get electricity, thanks to the hydro-electric plant situated in Shivanasamudra.
44 Bengaluru's botanical garden, Lalbagh, has one of the oldest rock formations on earth, which dates back 3,000 million years. It also has many trees that are centuries old.
45 The Oriental Research Institute in Mysuru is one of the oldest libraries in India. It has the oldest surviving manuscript of Chanakya's Arthashastra.
46 The Mysuru Zoo is one of the oldest in India and boasts of being home to over 150 species of animals.
47 In the 1780s, it was in Mysuru that the first metal-cylinder and iron-cased rocket artillery were created. And it is developed by Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali.
48 Kannada is said to be one of the oldest languages in the world. Certain facts suggest that it dates back to as many as 2,000 years ago, at least.
49 The Bhoota Kola dance form, which is native to Mangaluru, is a dance form that has intrigued many culture vultures to trace it back to its roots.
50 Bengalurean Pankaj Advani is the most famous name in cue sports in recent times.
51 Karnataka has rich flora and fauna, given its elevated topography on all four sides. This makes it one of the few states in India with a large amont of flora and fauna. The state has the highest tiger population in the country.
52 Bababudan brought the first coffee beans to Karnataka, making the state one of the biggest coffee exporters from India.
53 While Punjab is the land of five rivers, Vijayapura in Karnataka is popularly referred to as the city of five rivers with many rivers and streams criss-crossing through it, including Krishna, Bhima and Doni rivers.
54 The Siddhis are an ethnic group that are predominantly found in Karnataka. They are of African origin and have facial features like them, but speak Indian languages impeccably. Prashanth Siddhi, a popular comic actor in Kannada films, hails from this community.
55 Karnataka, given its topography, is said to be be one of the states with the most number of waterfalls in India.
56 While Tirupathi, Ajmer and Amritsar rank as popular religious destinations, Kukke Subramanya in Karnataka has found a large fan following thanks to many celebrities who visit it to cure their sarpa dosha.
SOURCE : COURTESY : Times Of India, 1st Nov, 2016 edition.
(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/kannada/movies/news/60-facts-for-60th-Karnataka-Rajyotsava/articleshow/55152974.cms)
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