My Grandfather Saved Lalbagh Gneiss Rock from Becoming Construction Material | Jimmy Jimmy the Show

What if one of Bengaluru’s most iconic landmarks almost disappeared forever? 👀
Long before Lalbagh Rock became a protected geological monument, there were plans to break it down and use it as construction material for government buildings like Vidhan Soudha. But one man stood in the way — a geologist whose research, influence, and determination helped preserve this ancient rock formation for future generations.
This is not just a story about a rock. It’s a story about Bengaluru’s forgotten history, scientific heritage, and the people who quietly shaped the city we know today.
From Central College to the Geological Survey of India, this incredible legacy deserves to be remembered. ❤️
Do you know any other hidden stories from old Bangalore?
This is an excerpt from Jimmy Jimmy the Show with History Hunter Sunil Pichamuthu, Founder of Ken Yore Community

What if your family didn't just live in Bangalore — but actually shaped it?
In this deeply compelling conversation, we sit down with Sunil Pichamuthu — a fourth-generation Bangalorean whose family tree reads like a living archive of the city itself. From a great-grandfather who taught Sir Mirza Ismail (the legendary Dewan of Mysore) to a grandfather who single-handedly saved the iconic Lalbagh Rock from being demolished, to a father whose aviation weather system became Drishti — now used across Indian airports — this is a story that Bengaluru has never heard told quite like this.

Whether you call it Bangalore or Bengaluru, this city has secrets buried under every street, stadium, and stone. And Sunil has spent a lifetime digging them up.

🏛️ A Family That Made History — Literally

Sunil's great-grandfather, Sri Pichamuthu, was the first Indian headmaster of the Wesleyan Mission School on Mission Road — the very institution where Sir Mirza Ismail was educated. In an era without elected councils, he was nominated as a councillor and counted among his visitors none other than the Dewan himself — who would ride on horseback to meet him in Chamrajpet even after his retirement. That's not history. That's Bengaluru royalty.

His grandfather went on to study at Central College, earned a geology PhD (his 1927 thesis on the Charnockite problem sits in the university library to this day), became the Principal of Government Arts College, helped establish the Mysore Cricket Association, and ultimately rose to head the Mysore Geological Department. And then — in perhaps the family's most consequential act — he fought to preserve the Lalbagh Rock, getting it certified as one of the most ancient geological formations in the world: 2,500 to 3,500 million years old. It was unveiled as a Geological Monument of India on March 8, 1995 — his 75th birthday.

✈️ From Aviation to Bengaluru's Infrastructure
Sunil's father, an IIT Kharagpur and US PhD alumnus, returned to India in 1970 with a mission. He invented the Automatic Visual Range Assessor (AVRA) — winning the Young Scientist Award in 1987 — and later the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS). These two systems were eventually merged and renamed Drishti by NAL/CSIR, and are today deployed across airports in India. A legacy that literally keeps planes landing safely.

🚶 The Walks: Ken Yore Community (KYC)

Sunil runs the Ken Yore Community — also known as KYC — a Bengaluru heritage walk initiative that takes residents and visitors through the living layers of the city's past. His favourite stretch? Residency Road, Richmond Town, and MJ Road — where every corner has a story.

🌟 Peak Bengaluru Moments
🏰 Why the Bangalore Cantonment was deliberately placed beyond Tipu Sultan's rocket range (1.5 to 2 miles)
⛪ How St. Joseph's College actually started inside what is today St. Germain's in 1857 — a full year before the British Crown took over from the East India Company
🚂 How Miller's Road near Cantonment Railway Station became Bangalore's plague quarantine camp, giving birth to Fraser Town as a planned, open-air extension with clay tile roofs and garden plots
🛫 The little-known story of Mysore Airways — Bengaluru's forgotten first airline, planned out of a plot near the Premier Bookshop on Residency Road / Richmond Town, with second-hand planes from England
💀 The 1827 uprising near what is now Chinnaswamy Stadium where a havildar named Saeed Tipu plotted to overthrow the British — and was executed by cannon
🏊 How Kanteerava Stadium and Bangalore Football Stadium were once ancient tanks — and how caste determined which side of the tank you could draw water from
🔧 A WWI battlefield invention — a self-sealing tire patch — invented right here in Bangalore by an officer of the Bangalore Brigade, at a house that now sits where Manikyavelu Mansion stands on Palace Road

📲 Follow Sunil Pichamuthu and the Ken Yore Community (KYC) on Instagram for upcoming heritage walks

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