CITY SIGHTS

SIGHTS, HIGHLIGHTS, LANDMARKS

Parks, landmarks, places of religious interest...

With Bengaluru, the sobriquets keep getting added up. From Air Conditioned City to Aviation Capital to Garden City, this small town turned technopolis has added a new word to the American lexicon: ‘Bangalored’. It means ‘to lose one’s job’ as a result of off shoring work to India. That’s not all. The city is emerging as a medical tourism hub in India by offering ‘First World Service at Third World Cost’. What’s more, the best and the brightest multinationals are spicing up the retail scene by test-marketing large format stores like Reebok,

Levi’s, Adidas, Esprit and Nautica. It’s become a ‘yuppie heaven’. Now that’s yet another sobriquet for the city. With the Metro Rail opening in phases, things are getting better by the day. Visit the city and be bowled over.

VIDHAN SOUDHA

Dr Ambedkar Veddi Road, North of Cubbon Park Built of granite and porphyry, this is the seat of the Secretariat and the State Legislature. Built in 1956, it has a dome, Rajasthani Jharokhas and Indo- Saracenic pillars. Things to watch out for: the sandalwood door to the Cabinet Room, and the Speaker’s Chair which is made of Mysore rosewood.

BANGALORE PALACE

Sankey Road

Built in 1880 at a cost of Rs 10 lakh, the Bangalore Palace was modeled on Windsor Castle, complete with fortified towers and turreted parapets. It stands amid undulating lawns, partly converted into a formal garden with axial paths.

ATTARA KACHERI

Ambedkar Veedhi, Opp Vidhan Soudha.

Formerly offices of the secretariat, the two-storey structure of stone and brick structure is now home to the Karnataka High Court Built in Greco-Roman style, this bright-red building is spread over 1.95 lakh sq ft of space.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU PLANETARIUM

High Grounds, T Chowdiah Road

Founded in 1989, the sky theatre inside comprises a dome that is fifteen metres in diameter and has a seating capacity of 225. There are two shows held every day.

GOVERNMENT MUSEUM

Kasturba Road, Bangalore GPO Established in 1866 and located on Kasturba Road, this is one of the oldest museums in India. Housed in a red stucco Neo-Classical building with Corinthian columns, it has 18 sections with a fine collection of jewellery, miniature paintings, sculpture, artifacts from Mohenjo-Daro and much more.

SHIVA STATUE

Kemp Fort, Old Airport Road

Located behind on Old Airport Road, this statue is 65 feet tall, depicting Lord Shiva in lotus position. It has the backdrop of Mount Kailash, Shiva’s heavenly abode and the river Ganga flowing from his matted locks.

WORLD TRADE CENTER

Rajajinagar Also known as North Star is a 32-floor building. It was constructed by Brigade Enterprises which also consists of the Sheraton hotel, Colombia Asia hospital, the Orion Mall, and so on. WTC Bangalore is recognised for international trade and opportunities.

LALBAGH

Laid out by Mysuru ruler Haider Ali in 1740 spread over 240 acres. Its tropical plants were imported by Haider and his son Tipu Sultan from countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Persia, Mauritius, Turkey and Africa. Ogle at the Glass House modeled on London’s Crystal Palace. There is an annual flower show as well. Climb the rock mountain and take a look at Bangalore from the top.

JP PARK

Junction of Jalahalli and Mathikere The Jayaprakash Narayan Park boasts of 20,000 varieties of plant species, 60,000 flowering plants and shrubs and 5,000 medicinal herbs. It also include a 4.5-km jogging track, bamboo garden, women’s playground with dedicated shuttle and tennikoit court, football court, 1,000-seater amphitheatre and so on. The big lake there attracts migratory birds. Timings: 5am-8.30am & 5pm-8.30pm.

BANNERGHATTA NATIONAL PARK

Located 22 km from Bangalore, it is a sanctuary for wildlife, bears, reptiles, elephants and deer. Chief attractions include the lion and tiger safari, herbivore safari and the butterfly park. The Bannerghatta Nature Camp offers a package and a guided nature walk. It is closed on Tuesdays.

ISKCON TEMPLE

Hare Krishna Hills, West of Chord Road, Rajajinagar The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is one of the most sought after destinations in India. The white temple building has gorgeous deities of Lord Radha Krishna.

BAHAI BHAVAN

82, Coles Road The centre hosts regular ‘firesides’ or discussions among small groups on the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith along with prayer meetings and study groups.

BULL TEMPLE

Bull Temple Road, Basavanagudi This is a typical Dravidian-style temple built by Kempe Gowda I. It is has a monolith bull that is 4.5m tall and 6.5m long. It was apparently built to appease a vagrant bull which persisted in devouring all the groundnuts in the surrounding fields. Once this temple was built, the bull stayed away from the groundnuts. A Groundnut Fair (Kadalekayi Parishe) near the temple premises is held every year.

TAWAKKAL MASTAN DARGAH

Cottonpet, Near Majestic

Dedicated to the Sufi Saint Hazrat Tawakkal Mastan Shah, it is characterised by coloured floor tiles, tinted glass lamps, a green-and-white façade and ornate minarets.

ST ANDREW’S CHURCH

Cubbon Road. This red-and-white Scottish-styled Gothic church was built in 1867. High windows, tall doors and circular ventilators are the highlights of this pretty edifice.

ST MARY’S BASILICA

Shivajinagar

Best known for the eight-day St Mary’s Feast every September, this church started in as a small chapel 1818. Rev LF Kleiner transformed the small chapel into a church in 1874. Boasts of stately arches vaulting towards the ceiling, rich Corinthian capitals of moulded bunches of grapes and artistic stained-glass windows from Paris.

JAMIA MASJID

NR Road

One of the biggest mosques in town, it can accommodate over 10,000 people at a time. Made of pure white marble from Rajasthan, it was built in 1940 and is in the middle of City Market.

BIG BANYAN TREE

Village of Ramohalli, near Kengeri, 60Km west of Bangalore

The Doda Alada Mara literally translated to Big Banyan Tree, is a giant tree covering 3 acres (12,000sqm) and is one of the largest of its kind. It is said to be at least 400 years old. Buses can be taken from Majestic Bangalore to Kengeri, and Kengeri to Doda Alada Mara.

BRINDAVAN

Whitefield, Kadugodi This is the Bangalore home of spiritual master Sathya Sai Baba. Spread over 50 acres, it is surrounded by Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning and the Sri Sathya Sai Hospital.

BANGALORE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTRE (BIEC)

Tumkur Road

A multi-purpose facility spread over 34 acres, is a common ground for industry exhibitions, conferences, product demonstrations and training programme.

MATA AMRITHANANDAMAYI MATH

136, Ullal Cross Road, 2nd Stage Jnana Bharathi Like her ashrams across the world, this one is run by Amma’s disciples and regularly holds spiritual discourses and classes. It manages the Bramasthanam Temple, an engineering college, Amrita Vidyalayam, Amrita Krupa, a charitable clinic that offers free medical check-ups.

CUBBON PARK

Near the Vidhan Soudha is this 334-acre park laid out in 1864 by Richard Sankey, the Chief Engineer of Mysore, and named in honour of the then Chief Commissioner of Mysore, Sir Mark Cubbon. It is dotted with statues, giant bamboos, flowerbeds, natural rock formations.

Neena Kishore is not just the Group General Manager of Gokulam Group of Hotels, one of South India’s leading names in the hospitality field, she is an industry in her own right! The dynamic lady has been changing the face and factors of hospitality since the last 20-odd years, in multiple ways with her passion, zeal and vision to make a difference every day. Starting out as a young trainee as a mere teenager, Neena Kishore slowly grew into her role, learning the ropes step by step, working her way up to managerial levels by sheer dint of her hard work and unwavering dedication to learn, work, understand ,improve, internalise, and then slowly bring her own dynamism into play by infusing everyday activities and requirements with something extra. This “extra” was always her own understanding of the power of being human, and how and we can do just about anything as long as we use common sense and stay positive. As she says,”We humans are the most powerful creatures in the world. People say don’t expect anything, and accept everything. I say just live and explore your one time life. We have only 36,500 days on this planet, which is 8 lakh hours only! So what are we doing with our lives in this limited time? This is the power of humans – we can do anything, whether positive, negative or neutral.” Neena expounds on the concept of common sense, which is all about what is today, and what is next. What you see is the only thing that matters, some people are born blessed, with privileges. But even if you‘re not born privileged, you can come up with common sense, hard work and dedication. She tells people to not lose hope ever, that they can do anything they like. “Common sense is all we need no

Our Chairman Gokulam Gopalan... who trusted me and gave group general manager posting.. he encourages all talents to come forward... he will give free hand to prove ourselves... He is always proud to see his employees growth in career... My hearty thanks to our sir.

matter where we come from. Just like when a child is born, he knows what to do, how to come out of his mother’s womb. It’s all natural. We should not lose with natural sense as we grow older, rather we should build upon it and use it in our daily lives as well,” she says. Giving her own example of how she has come up the hard way with dedication and eagerness to learn, she says she has come up in life not by reading books, but by observing and through positive reactivity to the observations. As Group GM of Gokulam Group of Hotels, as in-charge across India - Neena has proved her mettle as a leader and guide to her juniors.

She believes in problem solving leadership, and guiding those who look up to her to find solutions. In the hotels and hospitality industry, as a new employee or junior, one’s job is to learn by doing. As a senior her role is to take on responsibility so she tells senior staff to respect the post and positon they hold, and guide the juniors positively to create a good future wherein some good things can be left in the world for others to follow. Says Neena, “God created more gods as humans, and as leaders, we are all gods with the responsibility to guide, lead, mentor positively and leave a positive footprint in the world. It’s not about a managing job, but a job about managing people.” she says, “I don’t manage hotels, I manage people. Manage people properly and everything else will fall in place.”

In 2018, Neena Kishore joined Gokulam Park, after previous stints in The Residency, Le Meridien, Aloft, Park Plaza, Radisson and others. Since then she has displayed strong leadership in her role. During Covid in the last couple of years, the hospitality industry was hit hard, with no travel, no guests, and no business. At Gokulam group too, this was a period where there weren’t any travellers traffic and the revenue stream dried up. The hospitality industry was like a patient

after accident. Now after Covid, recovery of this sector has restarted but different levels of employees have to be handled differently. Top and middle management were able to hold on in this difficult period but the junior levels of employees had to get a lot of hand-holding, counselling and training to tide through. Further after the long gap, they had to reattune themselves to understand their roles and responsibilities. Neena made it her mission to encourage and empower the juniors to bring them up to speed once again, her focus was to teach them the importance of grooming, punctuality and discipline as these are key factors in the hospitality field. In fact, she exhorts hotel management courses to include these topics in their curriculum, so it becomes part of their personality and the must-have qualities to discharge their function properly. Hotel management colleges must also provide basic body language and communication skills training for their students to make them ready for the demands of the hospitality industry. All levels of employees like kitchen, stewarding, housekeeping, engineering, security need proper training. Neena emphasizes the importance of hotel management students to be taught hospitality behaviour like smiling, wishing, grooming and communication skills before they are taught the subject matter, as these soft skills are what will really help them to perform better in hotels. Taking the lower levels of staff and juniors along and empowering them to function to optimum levels, is very high on Neena’s agenda as she feels that only an empowered employee can work best for any organisation, especially in a customer-facing environment where spot decisions need to be made often on the ground. Not just in the workplace but even in life in general, Neena’s philosophy centres around creating a perfect present today, in the moment, every minute of the day, in order to create a healthy future

with the right environment, where people can perform at optimum levels all the time. In her larger quest and mission, she has been amply supported by Gokulam Group Chairman Gokulam Gopalan. She credits him with trusting her on her journey at Gokulam and giving her group General Manager posting, as well as giving her a free hand to come forward with ideas and prove herself, as he has done with other employees as well – the mark of a true visionary leader. On a personal note, she also credits her husband Kishore for giving her confidence and motivating her to face all levels of challenges, as well as her daughter Livana who has always been cooperative in her endeavours to extend her support to the lesser privileged in society. The larger vision that Neena embodies is an amalgamate of far-reaching philosophy and a compassionate heart. She wants to use her knowledge and experience and her privileged position which she enjoys today after much hard work to help people around her.

Starting with her own teams and juniors to instill them with confidence to achieve, she wants to extend her support to underprivileged children in sports, which can become a springboard for them to get free education and good job opportunities, to provide their families with basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare. She feels that even tribals should be encouraged and supported to come out and compete in mainstream sports – where they may naturally be better than city trained athletes. Even the differently abled need to be provided with all opportunities keeping in mind their special needs, for instance, basic accessibility in public areas through wide spread usage

of ramps everywhere. Her heart beats also for old and marginalised people who are relegated to old age homes by their own children. Even transgenders should be provided with equal opportunities to participate in sports and society meaningfully. Men, women, children, underprivileged, old people, transgenders, the differently - abled in an ideal world, all these sections should be given opportunities to realise their own potential and contribute to society. Humanity in all its variety and colours should be celebrated as

the most powerful force in the universe. With such lofty ideals and visionary ideas, Neena Kishore has been growing, learning, teaching and influencing every day in every way, and trying to leave her mark on those whose life she touches. Her juniors look up to her as the Iron Lady, the tigress who embraces and educates them in equal measure. Neena Kishore has spread her wings and is soaring high to improve not just her work space but the world at large. More power to her, may her tribe increase!