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Slow and steady
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It was a happy nostalgia trip at the launch of the memoirs of illustrious bureaucrat, the late M.A. Sreenivasan
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NO RUSH HOUR Once upon a time, this was K.R. Market
"Technology moves relentlessly and very fast... But time is a different proposition..." said former IAS officer M.A.S. Rajan, as he talked of the "deliciously leisurely era" of the early 20th Century. The occasion was the launch of the memoirs of his late father, M.A. Sreenivasan. An illustrious civil servant who was in the service of the Maharajas of Mysore and Gwalior, the British Raj and independent India, Sreenivasan recalls his experiences in a historic era in his book, The Last Mysore Pradhan (Dronequill, Rs. 395).
Today, well over half a century past the epoch Sreenivasan talks about, what's the vantage point from which we view the events gone by? As publisher Jamuna Rao said, there are two options: indulge in gentle nostalgia or engage in heated debate. Having chosen the former, the book launch at The Grand Ashok was one to sit cosy and sigh "Oh, those days..."?
As it rained relentlessly outside, it was a perfect evening to talk of an era when time moved "slowly and, sometimes, simply stood still". A time when even an ever-on-his-toes bureaucrat like Sreenivasan could occasionally practise tight-rope-walking (literally!) or sit in a dark room on a rainy day and discover "35 possible meanings" of the expression "umm"!
Getting nostalgic
Time even went in reverse gear at the launch when theatre persons Jagadish Raja and Arundhati Raja read out excerpts of writings from pre-independence era. They started with Thomas Munro's account of the charming sartorial habits of Indians and the fall of Tipu Sultan. Christian priest William Arthur's account of Cantonment and Pettah areas of Bangalore talked of a period when one part "pretended the other did not exist". While Sir Mirza Ismail's speech as he inaugurated the power connection to Anekal and Krishnaraja Wadiyar's address at the launch of the Indian Institute of Science point to the technological advances made in Mysore State, Gandhi's words about the people of the region "unaffected by the misdoings of the north" speaks of the amity that reigned here.
Then it was the turn of well-known ornithologist Zafar Fatehally to speak of an era when time trotted at an even pace. Speaking of the Old Mysoreans' love for horses (Srinivasan being the most passionate among them), Zafar drew the attention of the gathering to the significance of the book's cover page, which has Sreenivasan and Sir Mirza Ismail on horseback. "Administrators on horses surely had a greater understanding of reality than those who jeep through countryside or survey drought and flood situations from air," he said. "There was recently news about a piece of wetland being discovered behind Koramangala through satellite!"
The Last Mysore Pradhan is indeed the account of a forthright bureaucrat who went about whatever was assigned to him with a single-minded devotion, without feeling the compulsion to scream from his office walls: "Government's Work is God's Work." This was possible, as the book illustrates, because he was a man who never lost touch with the grassroots even as he interacted closely with those at the pinnacle of the power pyramid. He visited every corner of the regions he administrated, interacted with people and took decisions based on what he personally saw. The best instance of this, perhaps, is the chapter that describes the manner in which he went about compiling a report on the labour conditions in Kolar Gold Fields.
Equally fascinating is the chapter on his work in the municipal administration of Mysore city. It reconstructs the making of modern Mysore with great attention to detail, making the reader look at every part of the city with new eyes. This chapter (as much of the book itself) could be read as an account of what happens when modernity edges its way into a traditional stronghold. An encounter symbolised, perhaps, in the typical Mysorean gear — dhoti, coat and the signature Mysore peta with the tuft tucked inside. Sreenivasan himself was a man who could quote from the Bhagavad Gita to an Englishman on a golf course to describe the nuances of the game!
As Arundhati and Jagadish Raja pointed out at the beginning, there is much to be said about "what we choose to remember". What you make of history depends on who is talking about it, how and when. You could, for instance, have your share of differences with Sreenivasan's views of Justice Party, abolition of the Privy Purse or nationalisation of mines. You might, occasionally, stop to wonder how the era would have looked from other perspectives, for instance of a person from a lower caste or a nationalist leader.
The narrative of The Last Mysore Pradhan is more or less untouched by the heat of the Freedom Movement. Even within the framework of the book, there are enough references to palace intrigues and scandals to mar any perfect picture of a "golden" era.
But on the pleasant evening of the book launch, one felt more inclined to close one's eyes and imagine a traffic-free Hudson Circle area described in Arthur's account rather than pick arguments. When "global working hours are 24 hours a day" (to use Rajan's phrase), it is a rare treat to be carried away gently on the wings of nostalgia; a rare occasion when you can actually say "hmm" in absolute contentment. Good enough to tempt our lifestyle gurus to appropriate the idea and patent it as a therapeutic unwinding technique!
BAGESHREE S.
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