Flux of Time

From Glasgow to Pattikonda: The journey of Sir Thomas Munro Sir Thomas Munro, a Glasgow-born Scotsman, who became the Governor of Madras Presidency in the early part of the 19 th century, made a deep impact on the people of the Rayalaseema region. I was reading up on the palegar (local chieftains) strife in Rayalaseema region, and read this interesting snippet: In many parts of Ananthapur and Ballari regions, Munro was so respected that the locals named their first-born son after their favourite administrator – Munrolappa (Kannada and Telugu are the local languages). I haven’t seen it, but there’s a famous statue of Sir Thomas Munro in Madras, near the Gymkhana, according to a piece in The Hindu . ( Sriram’s piece in The Hindu .) What triggered my interest in Sir Thomas Munro was that he was the Collector of Anantapur district. My ancestral village is in the same district, and many of my family members continue to live in the district. I came across a letter Sir Thoma...

What Plagued India and Bangalore in the late 1890s August 12, 1898, Bangalore: A servant of the railway superintendent arrives in Bangalore from Hubli. He is inspected and tests confirm that he has the plague. That becomes the first reported case of plague in Bangalore*.  Later, the disease gains epic proportions, taking lives of thousands of Bangaloreans. Reports suggest that there were over 10,000 deaths between September 1898 and March 1899*. Gippsland Times (Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Thursday 1 December 1898, page 3 National Library of Australia Where it came from It was in China that the third big plague outbreak in recorded history occurred in the 1890s. This plague devastated many parts of India. A WHO report puts that figure at over six million between 1898 and 1908.  In the Bombay Presidency It is now believed that the first cases of plague occurred in Bombay as early as March, 1896. However, the first cases were reported near the docks ...

From Italy to Kengeri: The Thread That Binds So, I was randomly surfing the internet last night, and one thing led to another, and I found out that a certain Italian gentleman called Signor De Vecchi is linked to Kengeri. What? An Italian and a suburb of Kengeri in Bengalooru – what’s the connection, you might wonder. It was Signor De Vecchi who tried to revive the silk industry, and got the sericulture community together in 1866. He started a filature unit back then, in a bid to add sheen to the silk industry. Kengeri, a hobli (cluster of hamlets), was a well-known centre for sericulture during the time of Tippu Sultan. Tippu is credited with bringing sericulture to Mysore state. Kengeri’s silk industry flourished as well. By 1866, over a good half a century after the death of the Sultan, several experiments in sericulture were in progress in and around the country. According to the book/report, ‘On the Silk Culture in Southern India’ by M M MacKenzie, published 1870, (the...

#SundayStories If you have lived in Bangalore or visited the city, am sure that at some point, you have made a trip to Lalbagh. I have many childhood memories of the beautiful gardens, the floral clock and the flower shows. The history of this beautifully laid out gardens has always fascinated me, and I have always looked around for interesting stories around this lung space of Bangalore. In fact, there are hundreds of stories revolving around the green legacy of the city. The nurseries of Siddapura still thrive, actually, a reminder of the city's green legacy. Anyway, one interesting reference to Lalbagh comes from The Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, Country Gentleman, Bee-Keeper and Poultry Chronicle . (Volume XIV., New Series), published in London, 1868. Under the sub-heading, ‘Bangalore Horticultural Fete’, the journal describes the Fete held in Bangalore on December 31 st , 1867. “Inside the show of Flowers, Vegetables, and Fruit, and especially th...

Re-plug of an article I wrote five years back ahead of Independence Day. On Vidurashwatha , which is known as the Jallianwalah Bagh of Karnataka. Vidurashwatha is actually very close to my hometown and the temple there is a much-visited one by my family. Of lives lost under the peepal  FREEDOM STRUGGLE Vidurashwatha is known as the Jallianwala Bagh of the south. At least nine people died in the summer of 1938, when British authorities fired indiscriminately at a fair held there, writes Savitha Karthik If the giant peepal trees here were to tell a story, what would that be? That of the Mahabharata character Vidura coming here to plant a sapling of ashwatha, or the ficus religiosa, in botanical terminology? That of the holy peepal being worshipped by generations here, along with hundreds of idols of the snake god installed by believers? Or would the peepal trees choose to tell another tale? Of nine brave souls who fell victim to an oppressor’s guns, right unde...