Mysore

Fond Memories of India

Author: 
Rodney Hall

Category:

 

Rodney trained for a nautical career at HMS Conway in Anglesey and joined the Cunard Line in 1958. He went on to command various vessels around the world until his retirement in 1993. He lives in the UK.

Editor's note: This article is an expanded version of My First School Days, which is available at http://rmhh.co.uk/ooty.html.

 

I was born in 1940 in Vizagapatam (shortened to Vizag, now called Vishakapatnam), on the Bay of Bengal.

Rodney Hall, held by his Telugu-speaking Ayah, 1940, Vizag.

My father was then the chief pilot in that port, and he went on to become Harbourmaster. However, my story in India really goes back to 1906, when my paternal grandfather, Harry Hall, came to Calcutta to bring Pathé News ( Ed: Pathé News produced newsreels, which were shown in cinema halls.) to India for the Pathé Frères, whom he knew from his days in Paris. With him, he brought his wife, Suzanne and his 5 year old son, Herbert, my father. This was Herbert's introduction to India.

Harry Hall

The bullock cart salesman in Mysore

Author: 
M P V Shenoi

Shenoi, a civil engineer and MBA, rose to the rank of Deputy Director-General of Works in the Indian Defence Service of Engineers. He has also been a member of HUDCO’s advisory board and of the planning team for Navi Mumbai. After retirement he has been helping NGOs in employment-oriented training, writing articles related to all aspects of housing, urban settlements, infrastructure, project and facility management and advising several companies on these issues. His email id is mpvshanoi@gmail.com.

 

Venkataramana Shetty ­- I have changed his first name - was perhaps middle aged when I was born. In those days, in Mysore, in our community - and probably elsewhere in India, too - there was no way a child like me could talk to an outsider like Venkataramana.

But he was so active in our mohalla, and the older members of the family and community would talk about him, and I would hear their discussions. My father did not like him, but my maternal grandfather liked him. Sometimes they talked about Venkataramana.

Shettys are from a community whose Dharma is to take to business as their profession. This is as per the tenets of the Hindu caste system (Varnashrama Dharma). Following this, in those days, most Shettys were engaged in business, big or small as per their ability from a young age.

Growing up in Princely Mysore

Author: 
Bapu Satyanarayana

Category:

Bapu Satyanarayana, born 1932 in Bangalore, retired as Chief Engineer, Ministry of Surface Transport. At present, he is the presiding arbitrator of the Dispute Adjudication Board appointed by the National Highway Authority of India. He lives in Mysore, and enjoys writing for various newspapers and magazines on a variety of subjects, including political and civic issues.

T. Narasipur

In 1939, when I was around seven years old, my father was the manager of Mysore Silk Filatures, and posted at T. Narasipur, a small town in what was then the Princely State of Mysore. I was studying in a primary school.

T. Narasipur was a place where the rivers Cauvery and Kapila joined. It was considered as the Sangam (confluence) of three rivers including the legendary invisible Spatica Sarovara, just like the Triveni Sangam of three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and underground stream Saraswathi at Allahabad. At Allahabad, the Kumbh mela festival is observed once in 12 years, with lakhs of people taking a ceremonial bath on the auspicious day. No such ritual was observed at Sangam in T. Narasipur till recently. What I remember about two rivers is that while the Cauvery was sparkling, at the place where Kapila joined we could see a clear line of demarcation and, in comparison, the Kapila's waters were darkish.

Growing up in Princely Mysore -2

Author: 
Bapu Satyanarayana

Category:

Tags:

Bapu Satyanarayana, born 1932 in Bangalore, retired as Chief Engineer, Ministry of Surface Transport. At present, he is the presiding arbitrator of the Dispute Adjudication Board appointed by the National Highway Authority of India. He lives in Mysore, and enjoys writing for various newspapers and magazines on a variety of subjects, including political and civic issues.

 

Editor's note: This is the second story about the author's life. The first story is available here.

Forbidden drink

Coffee was a taboo in our house for youngsters. I do not know what exactly the reason was for it.

Probably it was considered as a bad habit. When something is prohibited, it often raises curiosity. It was no different in this case. Therefore, we wanted to taste it. But father was dead against this, and instructed ladies of the house not to indulge us in this.

When an instruction came from my father, it was considered as an order that had to be obeyed. But we would plead with our mother and aunt, and I remember one incident in our house in Mysore. (This house was located on Weavers lane in Krishnamurthy Puram. The house, which our family sold later, still exists adjacent to the house of D V Krishna Murthy, a famous publisher.)

Rami and the immersion of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes

Author: 
M P V Shenoi

Shenoi, a civil engineer and MBA, rose to the rank of Deputy Director-General of Works in the Indian Defence Service of Engineers. He has also been a member of HUDCO’s advisory board and of the planning team for Navi Mumbai. After retirement he has been helping NGOs in employment-oriented training, writing articles related to all aspects of housing, urban settlements, infrastructure, project and facility management and advising several companies on these issues. His email id is mpvshanoi@gmail.com.

 

Assassination

30 Jan 1948. The news stunned the world. Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead while he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting. The assassin was Shri Nathuram Godse. Like Gandhi, Godse was a Hindu.

Godse was a well-educated man. Godse felt that Gandhi's policy of nonviolence and appeasement was harming Hindu interests. He had seen for himself in refugee camps, and elsewhere, the victims of atrocities meted out to Hindus on the Pakistan side of the border: hands cut off, noses chopped off, little girls raped. Hindu families had lost properties, savings, and relatives.

Much has been written since then in support and against him and his beliefs.

Youthful days in Mysore city 1940s-1950s

Author: 
Bapu Satyanarayana

Category:

Tags:

Bapu Satyanarayana, born 1932 in Bangalore, retired as Chief Engineer, Ministry of Surface Transport. At present, he is the presiding arbitrator of the Dispute Adjudication Board appointed by the National Highway Authority of India. He lives in Mysore, and enjoys writing for various newspapers and magazines on a variety of subjects, including political and civic issues.

 

Grandstand view

It seems so long ago, nearly 70 years ago (in the 1940s and the 1950s) when life in Mysore city was so simple and uncomplicated.

It was the time when children like me spent more time playing various games in the field, and were not burdened, like children now, with homework and tuition classes. We had a healthy respect for our teachers, mixed with fear, that shaped our values to succeed in life.

I was living in house No. 1498/2 on the road called Weavers Lane, presently known as Ram Iyer's street, running behind Sharada Vilas High School in Krishna Murthy Puram. On the eastern side, there was a wide expanse of open field in front of our row of houses, which, during the evenings, it was teeming with children playing cricket, football, basketball, Kho-Kho and Chinni Dandu.

There was a road going round it, where one could see long distance runners practicing.

How I Found Out About the Impact of Partition

Author: 
M P V Shenoi

Shenoi, a civil engineer and MBA, rose to the rank of Deputy Director-General of Works in the Indian Defence Service of Engineers. He has also been a member of HUDCO’s advisory board and of the planning team for Navi Mumbai. After retirement he has been helping NGOs in employment-oriented training, writing articles related to all aspects of housing, urban settlements, infrastructure, project and facility management and advising several companies on these issues. His email id is mpvshanoi@gmail.com.

 

I was born in Mysore, where I lived till I left the place after graduation in 1956, in search of a job. In 1947, the impact of the Partition of India was negligible in Mysore.

There people were more concerned about the fate of the State, their Maharajah in the new political set up.

The first exposure I had to the Partition that was accompanied by mass displacement of Hindus and Muslims, in which more than one million people were killed, was a small incident that happened in my uncle's residence. I was thirteen years old then. A refugee Hindu family had arrived in sleepy Mysore. They had made their way into the drawing room of my uncle's house, who was fairly affluent. He was also an inactive member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Growing up in Mysore State

Author: 
Bindu Madhava

Category:

Bindu was born, grew up, and educated in Bangalore. Resident of

Nagasandra Road
(now DVG). Attended Thippagondahalli schools, BasavanagudiBoysMiddle School, BangaloreHigh school, NationalCollege and the UniversityEngineeringCollege (now UVCE) and graduated with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering. Having worked in India and USA for over 50 years, he is retired and resides in Houston, Texas, USA.

Once upon a time: Train journey from Bangalore to Mysore

Author: 
E R Ramachandraan

Category:

E.R. Ramachandran was born in 1942 in Belgaum. He has settled in Mysore after working in Government and Philips Organizations. He has contributed to the Hindustan Times, Cricketnext.com, and is a regular contributor to Churumuri and humour magazine Aparanji in Kannada.

 

Many years ago - in the 1950s - travel between Bangalore and Mysore used to be almost like travel to the Moon and back. The distance had no comparison but the efforts, the travel time, and the journey itself had the same excitement and anticipation.

When you decided to go to Mysore, the news itself would create a sensation around, becoming a sort of talk of the town. All sorts of people met you and enquire: "Is everything all right?" Most enquired whether your uncle's cow is likely to give birth to a calf or something - otherwise why this decision to go to Mysore, all of a sudden.

You had to tell the Jataka-horse driver Syed or Raju previous evening itself so that he feeds enough grass and water early in the morning for the horse to withstand the run up to railway station and back. The horse's face would be completely covered with a cloth so that no one could see what the horse is eating.

Late night, you packed your hold-all. First came a layer with rice of Coimbatore Sanna or Rathna chudi for your relatives where you have planned to stay. Of course you have posted a card saying you will be coming to Mysore for a couple of days and staying with him. Most letters reached after you were with them. Only telegrams reached just when you had reached your destination.

Dasara in Mysuru: Then and Now

Author: 
Bapu Satyanarayana

Category:

Tags:

Bapu Satyanarayana, born 1932 in Bangalore, retired as Chief Engineer, Ministry of Surface Transport. At present, he is the presiding arbitrator of the Dispute Adjudication Board appointed by the National Highway Authority of India. He lives in Mysore, and enjoys writing for various newspapers and magazines on a variety of subjects, including political and civic issues.

My recollection goes back to the time when I was young, during the late 1930s and 1940s, covering the end of the reign of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, who was succeeded by Maharaja Jaya Chamarajendra Wodeyar. Mysore was the capital of the Wodeyar dynasty.

In those days Mysore was not as crowded as now. The whole city had beautiful boulevards, tree lined wide roads and sparkling water bodies. The Kukkarahalli tank was the star attraction. Here, during mornings, youngsters would crowd to learn swimming under guidance from the experts. Read an account of the life around the tank here. http://www.indiaofthepast.org/contribute-memories/read-contributions/life-back-then/53-life-around-kukkarhalli-tank-mysore-in-the-1940s-by-m-p-v-shenoi

Since the majority of the people belonged to the lower income middle class and middle income groups with limited financial resources, everybody walked. Anyhow, most of the places were nearby including the main Devaraja Market for purchase of flowers, fruits and vegetables and other home requirement.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Mysore