BANGALORE: The heady and woody fragrance of crisp wrinkle-free pages some fresh some soiled, rows and rows of tall polished wooden shelves stacked with books old and new. A visual play of lettering on them that determines the time period they belong to, a stern-looking woman seated at the centre of a pile of books shushing people into silence. Chairs and tables arranged in a neat pattern with people buried behind books. All this in an elegant red building with a garden up front bang in the middle of Cubbon Park’s botanical Eden; welcome to Bangalore’s State Central Library.The Central Library is the perfect setting for some peaceful quiet reading, away from the mad loud crowd that is Bangalore. The huge book collection and comfortable reading area is a ‘full-meals’ for the hungry bookworm. Nestled in the lap of Cubbon Park, the walk up to the library is a soulful treat in itself. The panoramic view of a disarray of greenery camouflaged with neatly lined trees on the pavement leading up to the garden and the red building has made it to the pages of many a travel books.The library was previously a memorial hall built to commemorate Sir K Seshadri Iyer, who was the Diwan of Mysore state for 18 years from 1883 to 1901. The tribute is justified as he was responsible for the city’s development in more than one way. He is famous for his administrative and judicial reforms. In The City Beautiful, a book on buildings in Bangalore, author T P Issar says that it was during his time that the extensions of Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram were laid out in the City — initially to provide accommodation for some 50,000 persons evacuated from congested localities — on the outbreak of ‘the great plague’ of 1898-99.As a reminder of the great man, Seshadri Iyer’s bronze statue stands in an unfortunately dried up version of what used to be a rose garden in front of the Hall. The library in the building was set up in 1915. As evident in the red-green combination, the building is in the same style as that of the Government Museum and High Court. Though Victorian in architecture, it was built in the honour of an Indian. No one can describe the building better than T P Issar who says — ‘The gables are remarkable for their floral outline and pinnacles and there are some fascinating floral details. The symmetrically set porches are supported by buttressed columns with lonic capitals. The building is coloured red — which makes it stand out most picturesquely against the blossoms of the park. On the statue side, it forms a dramatic focal point of the long vista leading to it from the Hudson Circle.’The U-shaped building has a main hall that is the reading area where all the books are housed. There is a separate section for competitive exams which is a welcome relief for students. The first floor is the periodicals and newspapers section. The books are purely for reference and can’t be borrowed. There is no membership for the library; walk in, chose a book of your choice and dig in. With comfortable big chairs, huge wooden tables and neatly catalogued books, it is a hassle-free reading experience even for a non-bookworm.There is no better location to spend the day with a good book, than the Central library. The ambience and the building add to the experience in their own subtle way. Hope there are many more such great personalities serving the city, so that the people of Bangalore will be benefitted from the buildings named after them.
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