Reflections
Royal city in transition
JUNE GAUR
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Mysore today is not the place which inspired Malgudi. Change has arrived, and with a bang. Will its historical and urbane legacy survive?
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In these times of transition, Mysore looks forward to a future where openness to change is matched by a rooted continuity
PHOTOS: ZEESHAN NOFIL
LIFE AT A RELAXED PACE: How long before the rush-to-nowhere descends?
FOR decades Mysore remained insulated from the greater forces of the world, a quiet town that sprang to life once a year to welcome its visitors for Dussehra. Over a period of time, and most dramatically in recent months, the texture of the city has changed visibly. The calm that Mysore once boasted of — critics called it the silence of the grave — is no longer so apparent. Now evolving unmistakably into a modern city, Mysore seems in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the world.
This small town, with a rich heritage it is justifiably proud of, has begun to grow, change and adapt to the 21st century. The city is being seen as a hot new destination for tourism and the IT sector and this has brought building-behemoths, entrepreneurs and investors — big and small — to the city in droves.
Glory days
The pace at which gracious old buildings are being pulled down to make way for high-rise apartments, the mushrooming of private layouts and the conversion of agricultural land, has led to a perceptible increase in numbers. It is feared that this clamour for land for speculation will lead to the destruction of all that makes Mysore, Mysore. These fears have given rise to more frequent bouts of nostalgia among long-time residents, who enjoy nothing better than a little trip back to the glory days of this erstwhile Maharaja's capital — a period that spanned the two World Wars and began to fade away in the 1950s.
It was during this time that an immensely gifted group of young men from Maharaja's College went forth to conquer the world. They remained steadfast in their devotion to the city even in exile, homegrown heroes with the unmistakable stamp of the city that nurtured them. Writer R.K. Narayan, photojournalist T.S. Satyan, social anthropologist M.N. Srinivas, cartoonist R.K. Laxman, economist P.R. Brahmananda, columnist H.Y. Sharada Prasad, veena maestro Doreswamy Iyengar, poet A.K. Ramanujam and Prof. C. D. Narasimhaiah (CDN), the quintessential teacher, are some of the names that come to mind.
While most of these illustrious souls left to follow their dreams, CDN refused to be lured away from Mysore, his metaphor for excellence. The respect CDN enjoyed worldwide brought renowned personalities, especially writers, to Mysore and Dhvanyaloka, the centre for learning founded by him. The atmosphere at Dhvanyaloka was such that these great figures forgot the trappings of fame while they were there. Sharada Prasad credits CDN with having kept alive Mysore's tradition of being a city of the mind, a home of Sanskrit, music, poetry and philosophy. When CDN passed away last year, it was as though an era had ended.
Literary connections
Now Mysore is gearing up to observe the 100th anniversary of R.K. Narayan's birth on October 10 with an international seminar sponsored by the Central Sahitya Akademi. The timing couldn't have been better.
"On Vijayadasami I sat down and wrote the first sentence about my town: The train had just arrived in Malgudi Station," Narayan wrote, describing how his imaginary homeland took shape. This might have been around 1930 and, while the jury is still out on whether Mysore is Malgudi, friends of the writer see evidence of Mysore in the Malgudi locale.
The city had a timeless quality then, epitomised by the many palaces and gracious public buildings and as many as seven clock towers, all in good working condition, in the heart of the city. The enlightened rulers of this former princely State had set these up so that simple village folk, who did not possess wristwatches, could tell the time. Three of these public clocks, symbols of stability, continue to lend a quiet distinction to the city's skyline.
But the whirligig of Time is known to bring in strange revenges and the town, which languished for decades while neighbouring Bangalore boomed and thrived is coming into its own once again — in a new avatar. For, the Mysore that inspired Malgudi is no longer a place where time seems to stand still. The question now is what will happen when rush becomes the key word here in this restful city. Will Mysore go the way of Bangalore where the IT and BT boom has made the city quite unliveable for pensioners and people who work in other sectors?
The new money power of IT professionals in Silicon Valley has benefited landlords who charge astronomical rents for cramped premises in sought-after localities. It has also impacted lifestyles, pushing the demand for luxury goods and services to unprecedented heights. The effect on the cultural and social values of this one-time pensioners' paradise has been devastating. Now it is IT that is driving the real estate boom in Mysore.
We have only to observe how traffic has increased in a matter of months to realise what a growing a hub of economic activity Mysore has become. Rush-hour congestion hasn't become a problem yet but this does seem to be the shape of things to come.
This is not to suggest that, after all these years of complaining about how laid-back Mysore is, change isn't welcome here. It is. But Mysoreans would want this change to be sane. They wouldn't want the kind of change that sees the city's heritage shot to pieces or its infrastructure strained to breaking point or everyday life come to a grinding halt without power or water. They would want to see all that makes Mysore a constant source of wonder and vitality for them, valued and preserved.
The city's administrators have time to take stock of the situation and get ready to meet the growing demands on infrastructure. Fortunately, with the Heritage tag, help has been forthcoming from the Centre. Mysore is one of the nine cities awaiting the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Also a cause for cheer is the Urban Development Ministry's proposal to build a 2,000-acre IT township in Mysore.
Better connectivity with the rest of the world promises to end the city's long spell of isolation. The prospect of an airport, which eluded Mysore for close to 50 years, seems a certainty with the Airports Authority of India having taken possession of the land identified for the project in September. The city is easily accessible from Bangalore and the four-lane expressway has drastically reduced travel time between the two cities. If the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor materialises, travel time will be reduced still further.
Another project in the pipeline is a biotechnology university that U.S.-based Kannadigas have committed to setting up outside Mysore. IT, BT and other knowledge-based industries will provide employment for many young professionals who would otherwise have had to migrate.
On the tourism front, much remains to be done to revamp attractions in Mysore. Prime spots on the tourists' itinerary, such as Chamundi Hill, should be free of beggars and touts who importune the visitors. There should be sensitisation programmes for tour guides; to pick at the scabs of history and embarrass visitors will not do Mysore credit.
Untapped potential
Two centuries after the fall of Srirangapatna, the story of Tipu Sultan and his obsession with tigers, continues to boggle the Western mind. In tapping Srirangapatna's huge, unexplored potential, live-in historians would be delighted to be of service. That's how people in Mysore are — notions like intellectual property rights, for instance, don't seem to have arrived here yet.
In terms of architecture, still predominantly what history made it — a Maharaja's capital; in terms of social and cultural values, a traditional town where everyone walks tall. But the question now being asked here is will development and a higher rate of growth mean a better quality of life for all or will it result in bizarre income disparities and a deteriorating quality of life? In these times of transition, Mysore looks forward to a future where openness to change is matched by a rooted continuity.
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