Mathikere: Know the Area series

                                   We all have super busy lives. Weekdays in office & weekends at shopping malls or temples or pubs or friends place leaving less time to explore what is around our house. I can bet you can’t call out what is the best place to eat in your area, or what the area name means or something unique in your area or hangout places for that matter. You need not drive out to the malls, MG Road, Cubbon Park etc all the time, there might just be awesome places right next door. I am starting a new series in an attempt to bring some insight about each area. I want to keep it short & so will have one/few liners on a few categories that I think will interest most of us. You will know about the categories as you read thru. For the first I am starting with MY area : Mathikere J

What’s in the name:

        From what my Great Grandmother had told me long ago. Mathi stands for trees and Kere means lake. Apparently the name had been given after a lake was drained & trees were cut to make way for the residential area. Atleast one lake existed until very recent & even now borewells find water pretty quickly, owing to the lakes that existed here.

One super Highlight of the area:

The Jogging track inside J.P.Park

        J.P.Park or JayaPrakash Narayana Park. The 85-acre multi feature park is the biggest built by BBMP & the third largest park in Bengaluru (after Cubbon Park & lal Bagh). It has a 2KM Jogging track, a nursery, amphitheater, swimming pool among many other things.

A little on government relation:

        One of the high profile former MLAs M.R.Seetharam lives in the area, in the super large bungalow of M.S.Ramaiah. Located on the MSR Main road near the railway fly over. The BBMP office is located next to the Chowdeshwari Bus Stop where Voter IDs can be applied and taxes be paid, it also houses the office of the BBMP corporator.

For Entertainment:

        There aren’t significantly large movie halls in the area. The small movie ‘Tents’ – Krishna tent & Murali tent caters to a niche audience. JP Park, however, has a large amphitheater as well as Musical Fountain show. The Musical fountain show is open only on weekends & public holidays & runs mostly houseful.

For eating:

        There are plenty of quick bite places for chat & snacks, however not very known fine-dine places. ‘Guru Darshan’ in the yeshwanthpura-mathikere main road is a great place for chats & hot Jilebis. The 108 types of Dosa at P.V.Palace, opp to Mathikere Bus Stop, is another crown puller.

For Worshipping/Temples:

        Like most places in the city, Mathikere too isn’t any short of temples. Chowdeshwari Temple near Chowdeshwari bus stop, Shiva Temple near the market and Venkateshwara temple at Gokul are the most populous.

For Education:

        The area has no shortage of educational institutions, owing to the Ramaiah empire, which spreads from school to Medical, Engineering to Dental to MBA to Nursing & a whole lot more. Apart from these, the oldest & moderately large schools in the area are St.Lourdes and Gnana Teja.

For Hobbies:

        There are quite many options for hobby pursuits. A few know ones are : Guitar, drums & Musical instrument classes at ‘Rhythm’s’  right near the Mathikere Bus Stop, a dance & art school near SBM – about 100 Mts from Guru Darshan.  A small circulating library near Ganesha temple/post office, A Govt. mobile library in Double Road near the Bus Stop & for need of a larger book collection, there is a Just Books branch in RMV opposite to Ramaiah hospital.

Real estate price level:

        Rs.4500 – Rs.8000 Per Sqft.

PS : All data above is from my own memory & research from undisclosed, unconfirmed sources. These are just a top few & I could have missed many places/info J