BENGALURU: Eminent personalities from across the city, including renowned artist S.G. Vasudev, filmmaker B. Suresh, architect Naresh Narasimhan and cinematographer Navroze Contractor have joined hands to save the historic Balabrooie Guest House.
With only eight days to go before the slated demolition, a brainstorming session was held at Ravindra Kalakshetra, spearheaded by Mr Vasudev and a team of members from Bangalore Political Action Committee. They have decided to organize a peaceful demonstration outside the guest house on Sunday morning at 11.
"Bringing down a building like this is destroying the city's heritage," said Mr Vasudev, who had called the meeting at Ravindra Kalakshetra on Thursday evening. “We have very little heritage left with us, why destroy it? Balabrooie Guest House must be preserved and celebrated.”
The guesthouse was originally the residence of Sir Mark Cubbon, who named his home after 'Ballabrooie Way in the British Isle of Man. Legends like Rabindranath Tagore, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and engineer M Visvesvaraya have stayed at the guesthouse during their visits to the city.
“The guest house, which has tremendous historical significance, is an important part of the city’s heritage. The citizens simply must not tolerate the utter disrespect displayed by the government’s decision to bulldoze the guest house, which was built in 1850.
We are posting proof of Ravindranath Tagore and other important dignitaries during their stays at Balabrooie to garner public support,” said BPAC CEO Revathy Ashok. “The matter has reached a head now, but the idea to demolish it was born about two years ago,” she added.
Meanwhile, campaigns have commenced in full swing on Facebook and Twitter. Two strongly-worded online petitions have been started side by side on change.org <http://change.org/> and have gathered well over 500 signatures in all.
Theatre personality Stanley Pinto, who sent out a chain of emails asking people to come together for this cause, summed up the matter with an angry comment on his Facebook page, which reads: "This rampant ravaging of our beautiful city by'leaders' who are supposed to protect it is a disgrace. It, and they, must be stopped."
