Unexpected Wonder

By HR Suhas Srivathsa

Introduction 

Government Museum, Bangalore, established in 1865 by the Mysore State with the guidance of Surgeon Edward Balfour who founded the... blah blah blah  I’m not going to bore you with the boring stuff what I’ll do is tell you MY story of this excursion to Bangalore Museum and Venkatappa art gallery and how we ended up having a picnic in Cubbon park.

The day started out with me being very excited like a school kid going on a trip. After everyone were successful in being late we were run down with the day’s itinerary and our student code of conduct. After our briefing we headed to Mahakavi Kuvempu metro station where I was caught by the guards for having a knife in my bag. It was a silly mistake so i was let go off. After the awkward encounter with the guard we went to Nadaprabhu Kempegowda station( Majestic) where we changed train to reach Cubbon park station.

 It was a kilometer walk to the museum. The first thing you notice about any museum is how beautiful and magnificent the buildings look, after admiring the building we were allowed to explore the museum. 

 

Bangalore museum

If you are anything like me you’ll probably get bored as soon as you enter the museum.

But need not worry, as I was exploring the museum I noticed how interesting the antiques were. Looking at these broken clay vessels, stone tools, and even decorative items sparked my imagination of how these ancient people lived. The museum was set in a way where the artifacts showed human developments. From using mud and stones to make weponaries and utensils to using iron. There are clay spoons and clay bangles from Mohenjo daro civilizations one of the worlds first civilizations, multistory houses and developed sanitary plannings can also be seen in Mohenjo daro this alone shows how developed their time was. When you are walking through a museum you tend to find stories in each and every artifacts that is exactly what I did when I saw cannons, rifles, and swords used by the kings. You will be shocked to know how many types of knives and swords there were. 

After seeing some of the most interesting artifacts like the three legged pot, black and red pot made by heating the clay pot, iron arrow heads and iron knives and also clay lids to cover utensils,  I went to the next section of the museum.

On the first floor we can see various musicians and their instruments including one of the oldest flutes. You can also see wonderful paintings and art work made by gold from the Mysore Wodeyars period.  After this bewildering experience our next stop was Venkatappa art gallery.

Venkatappa art gallery

Situated right next to the Bangalore museum Venkatappa art gallery is a building filled with medieval to modern wonders. If you don’t know much about art and paintings don’t worry this place just amuses you. It was mainly built to hold the paintings and POP(plaster of Paris) art of K.Venkatappa one of the most famous and creative artist of the 20th century. As soon as I entered the building first thing that I noticed was the smell of paint and POP. Though I don’t know much about art ,the paintings just had my attention. Beautiful strokes of nature and pretty people looked like a picture. 

The tools used to make this impressive art are also been showcased. What caught my eyes was the tools looked like the present day tools except they were made by wood. Even pictures of old Bengaluru were presented which was so nostalgic as I remembered a few of them. After this artistic walk we assembled in a park behind the museum.

In the park we were given a small seminar about blogging and after this we were asked to come up with our hook and perspective. Before that we had our lunch in Cubbon park, during the lunch we chatted and spent a wonderful time making it a picnic to remember for a long time.

This is a one of those excursions that I would recommend everyone to have atleast once. If anyone wants to go here remember Bengaluru’s weather is as pleasant as ever so you can visit it anytime and talking financially the excursion was very budget friendly. The Total cost was not more than Rs 100 per person. 

Conclusion 

I never thought going to a museum and an art gallery would be this fun. To be honest I was completely clueless as to what to do, but in the end everything turned out to be fun. it was an experiential learning that I will cherish. Thanks to our wonderful teachers who were not only insightful but also very caring, they probably had an anxiety attack while taking care of us.

Overall this is an excursion everyone should try atleast once.