Monday, October 6, 2014

CHOWDIAH MEMORIAL HALL

Basically the city of Bangalore has many halls many of them built post independence. In Bangalore prior to Independence there was possibly only the "Puttanna Chetty Town Hall" built in 1935 and close to the city market. Note that there are two formidable halls near the town hall namely the Ravindra Kalakshetra where Kannada plays are very often staged - a large and well ordained hall, and opposite to the Ravindra Kalakshetra is another municipality hall which can also house some one thousand odd people at a time.  This means on J-C road to my knowledge there are three halls.

If I were to list few other halls there is the Good Shepherd hall on Residency road and also a Guru Nanak hall.

The most striking and impressive and often talked about hall is the Chowdiah Memorial Hall near Sankey tank close to Malleswaram. Incidentally Sankey was an English civil engineer and the architect of the High Court building opposite to the Vidhana Soudha. It is built in memoriam of a renowned violonist of this part of the World by name Chowdiah who possibly gave many concerts and the entire hall is designed in the shape of a violin. This is the unique proposition of this hall and I have visited this hall many times and always enjoyed doing so.
Richard Hieram Sankey 

The interiors of the hall is striking with a seating capacity of more than one thousand...please check the exact count.....it has a small balcony seating facility too, with gardens around  and dining areas.The sound system and facilities inside are world-class.

Mekhri circle and Malleswaram 18th cross would be the vantage points around this edifice and anyone must visit this hall atleast once. This hall and its  existence is credited to Gundu Rao the then Chief Minister and deserves praise for having sanctioned such an outfit which would be defanitely termed as a Jewel in tne Crown of Bangalore.


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