Exhibition aims to recall history of Bengaluru's colonial towns

Bengalureans are gearing up to take a trip back in time to understand the towns of their beloved city.

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), an organisation that aims to protect and conserve the city’s heritage, is organising an exhibition to celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Fraser Town,  Cooke Town and Richards Town.

The exhibition will showcase photographs of the erstwhile era, films, cuisines and architecture that define the towns. The various events organised as part of the exhibition include mapping the neighbourhood, mapping the park, heritage walks and storytelling.

The two-day exhibition will be held at Richards Park in Richards Town and Milton Park, Cooke Town, respectively.  “As part of mapping the park activity on April 19, participants will recognise and appreciate trees in these parks while the storytelling session will have the local residents share their stories of growing up in these areas,” said Meera Iyer, co-convener of the exhibition.

“We had done a study about these towns covering the architectural background, history and their culture. We talk about history of countries and cities but the evolution of small towns and areas within the cities have a history and culture of their own. This curiosity gave us the inspiration to conduct an exhibition based on our study,” added Meera.

“The exhibition will help create awareness on the history and evolution of these towns thereby inspiring residents to conserve their rich cultural heritage,” she said.

The findings from our study reveal that these towns have a very rich cultural history and have been cosmopolitan in nature since their evolution, she said. Most of the participants are residents of these towns who will share their stories.

The exhibition will also include an architecture walk on April  22 led by architect Vijay Narnapatti, wherein participants will get to know about the architectural history of these towns and a tree walk headed by naturalist Ganeshram where participants will know about the various kinds of trees that form an identity of these towns.

The exhibition will end with heritage walks and screening of short films based on the evolution of these towns on April 22 and 23. The films will be screened by INTACH and historian Krupa Rajangam.