Cubbon Park

 

Cubbon Park is still untarnished by Bangalore's extreme urbanisation and excessive development pace. A park that gives you a touch of cool breeze, the sound of trees swaying, and birds chirping. It's so rightly stated in the book: The eight gates of Cubbon Park: "Every gate is a window into the city."

I got to know so many anecdotes and facts about Cubbon that I didn't know about it so far. It has given me a different perspective on the park, which has so much history attached to it and is one of the two lungs of Bangalore City (the other being Lalbagh). It is not an ordinary park. This historic landmark, 152 years old, resides in every Bangalorean's heart, a welcome buffer zone under an open sky. As the author mentioned, the park has always been a space that carries within itself the very DNA of the city that Kempegowda built. This book is as much about its people as it is about the park.

Originally created in 1870 under Major General Richard Sankey, then British Chief Engineer of Mysore State, it was Sankey who designed the swathe of land that rose behind it, towards Cubbon's house, and the extensive 100-acre park that would go on to become one of the city's most beloved green spaces.

It was first named Meade’s Park after Sir John Meade, the acting Commissioner of Mysuru, in 1870, and subsequently renamed Cubbon Park. The park was again renamed Sri. Chamarajendra Park; different people along the way would try to give it different names, but one and only one would stick: Cubbon Park.

The book has touched upon the history of a variety of statutes and buildings, including those depicting King Edward, Queen Victoria, Sri. Chamarajendra Wodeyar, Major General Sir Mark Cubbon, and the Statue of Sir K. Sheshadri Iyer that one comes across amidst the confines of the park.