The old Plaza hotel is now a hole in the wall, while Bangalore Central occupies the space where Victoria Hotel once stood and Dewar’s bar now stands forlorn and derelict.
South Parade is unrecognizable, with its photo booths, optics and assorted shops now replaced by the towering Joyalukkas building. The boulevard has undergone a revolution with the horse carts replaced by the metro line and the Rangoli Metro Art Centre.
The change is evident in “The Curious Transformation”, an exhibition where Paul’s illustrations of Bangalore as it was nearly 40 years ago are juxtaposed against Garima Jain’s photographs of the same spots today.
“The exhibition is an exploration, it’s just a process of enquiry for us to see how the city has changed,” says Garima. “The idea was born when I was having a conversation with Paul as he was taking me through his sketches one day, talking about how some buildings which were a part of the city are no longer there. He sounded nostalgic and I thought it was a good idea to go back to those places to document the changes that have taken place over 40 years.”
Some of the changes, she observed, were physical with new buildings and new aesthetics of architecture. And some changes were cultural; some spots, especially pubs were earlier only frequented by men and now it is common to see both men and women in those places.
“Some changes are good and some are bad, but they are inevitable in a city. And these are curious changes because they cannot be looked at objectively and one cannot really say what’s behind these changes. Even if there is an answer, there is no one answer.”
Garima has tried to retain the same angles of the Bangalore landmarks that Paul captures and at times, she says, she has tried to go beyond to get other angles.
“I cannot photograph the Vidhana Soudha from the same vantage points as Paul did because they are inaccessible to me. I cannot also capture the building to its original scale and grandeur into my frame. So I have captured the sights around the edifice, the new building that mirrors the Vidhana Soudha or the metro site that is just across.”
Garima observes how Paul in his sketches has captured humorous little details in his illustrations as a reflection of life in those times.
“In his depiction of the Plaza Hotel, he shows a dozing guard in front of whom a man is trying to steal the tyres of a parked car. This was apparently a common phenomenon in those days and one just had to walk down to a resale market down the road, buy new tyres, fit them in and drive back home.”
Many old Bangaloreans, she found, also related to his sketch showing boys smoking aboard a boat on the Ulsoor lake. “Some even remembered doing it. Cubbon Park and the Ulsoor Lake were famous for such things and it is interesting to see such finer details.”
She did not have much trouble recapturing Paul’s angles of old Bangalore, as she found the imagery to be stark and highly visual. “I did not have trouble remembering the images when I went to shoot, many times I did not even have to refer to the images after I saw them in Paul’s gallery. But I did have trouble with logistics because I did not have the permission to access places like the Vidhana Soudha or the Mount Carmel College.”
Garima now plans to revisit these places in five years. “And hopefully these photographs will serve as archives on how the city is changing, so that those who have memories of the city as it was can hold onto them.”
“A Curious Transformation” will be on view until January 15 at Indian Institute of Human Settlement, 2 Main Road, Sadashiva Nagar, opposite Shell Petrol Pump. For details, contact 67606666.
