Gayatri Chandrashekar

Gayatri Chandrashekar is a multi-faceted person with accomplishments in Carnatic classical music and journalism. She has been a senior news correspondent for Doordarshan, and is a published author of a book on the industrial and social history of Kolar Gold Fields. Gayatri has been a resident of Jayanagar Third Block for many years. She is familiar with the history of the neighbourhood from its beginnings as one of the first planned layouts in Bangalore, to the present times.  

Jayanagar is known for its avenue trees, wide main roads and cross roads, people of many linguistic groups and professions, and shopping areas. In her proposal to IFA, Gayatri outlines her interest in exploring the antecedents of ‘The Mohammedan Block’ also called the ‘Egyptian Block’, an area occupying the space near 17th Cross Road of Jayanagar Third Block. She had originally thought that the area received its name from Egyptian families who settled there, leaving their motherland when the forces of the Axis Powers occupied Egypt during World War II. Upon conducting some preliminary research she found that, contrary to her belief that there was an Egyptian connection to Jayanagar Third Block, it is actually connected with Baluchistan, now in South West Pakistan, neighbouring Afghanistan. 

Gayatri has been able to trace the history of one family back to 1918. A certain Mr Tareen - belonging to the tribe known as Tareen - and his family including a young son came away to the old Mysore State where Mr Tareen joined the Imperial Police services. Tareen’s son had a very successful optometrist business and he bought agricultural land in the south of Bangalore, Hosakote and Srirangapatna. He owned land in what is present-day area from Patalamma temple to Madhavan Park, with 350 guava trees and chilli fields. He gave away seven pieces of his land to his six daughters and one son. He also built a mosque which still stands at the end of 17th Cross Road. The row of houses that came up when he sold more plots came to be called Tareena Block. 

Gayatri wishes to explore this and other stories of the little-known history of Jayanagar Third Block. She will conduct detailed interviews with residents. The outcome of the research will be a public event with a theatre and music performance, and storytelling that will unravel this history. The residents of the neighbourhood will be invited to engage with the stories that emerge from her research. The deliverables from this project will be photo documentation of the performance and audio recordings of the interviews.

This project is made possible with support from India Foundation for the Arts, under the Project 560 programme and partnered by Citi India.