Birth Anniversary Of Bharat Ratna Visvesvaraya: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF BHARAT...

He lived till 100 - and you cannot dispute that God wanted him to.

The Annamayya Kala Peetham is celebrating the 146th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, on 15th September at Sri Thyagaraya Gana Sabha. Sir Visvesvaraya was an eminent engineer and statesman, and played a key role in the building of modern India. He was born on September 15, 1860, in Muddenahalli village in the Kolar district of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore. After completion of his engineering, the Government of Bombay offered him a job and appointed him as an Assistant Engineer at Nashik.

As an engineer, he achieved some marvelous feats. He planned a way of supplying water from the river Sindhu to a town called Sukkur. He devised a new irrigation system called the Block System. He devised steel doors to stop the wasteful flow of water in dams. He was the architect of the Krishnaraja Sagara dam in Mysore. The list is endless.

In 1912, the Maharaja of Mysore appointed Visvesvaraya as his Dewan. As Dewan of Mysore, he worked tirelessly for the educational and industrial development of the state, including setting up of many new industries like the Sandal Oil Factory, the Soap Factory, the Metals Factory and the Chrome Tanning Factory. Of the many factories he started, the most important is the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works.

Sir Visvesvaraya voluntarily retired as Dewan in 1918, but he worked actively even after his retirement. He received innumerable awards, with the Bharat Ratna in 1955 being the topmost of them all. When he reached 100, the Government of India brought out a stamp in his honor. Sir Visvesvaraya passed away on April 14, 1962 at the age of 102.

On this occasion, a Telugu play Chintamani, written by Narayana Rao, will be staged. The play is the story of a girl called Chintamani, who, along with her sister Chitra, enticed men with her beauty and then stripped them of their wealth. Subbisetty is a rich trader who fell for Chintamani and lost everything he had toiled for. The play ends with Chintamani realizing her fault and choosing the way of bhakti.

Please contact Kutumba Rao of Annamayya Kala Peetham at 98488-23597 for further details.