Mysuru has long been renowned worldwide for its vibrant Dasara celebrations. However, now, for sometime to come, Mysuru will also be known as the birthplace of acclaimed sculptor who carved ‘Balak Ram,’ all thanks to the talented artist Arun Yogiraj, a third-generation sculptor from Mysuru.

Arun’s remarkable achievements have made Mysureans proud and has also solidified our city’s reputation as an abode of art and culture.

Arun’s three notable sculptures — the statues of Adi Shankaracharya in Kedarnath, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate in New Delhi, and now, Balak Ram in Ayodhya — stand as a testament to his exceptional skill and dedication.

Star of Mysore Managing Editor Vikram Muthanna spoke to Arun Yogiraj about his sculpting journey. Excerpts…

Star of Mysore (SOM): You have three prestigious sculptures in India. How did you get a breakthrough into North India as not many decision-makers there would know about artisans from the South?

Arun Yogiraj: Our biggest drawback is that we are far away from Delhi and getting access to decision-makers is not easy. I was able to get access to Delhi through the statue of Adi Shankaracharya, commissioned by Jindal Steel Works (JSW) through a CSR fund.

The company had taken up the restoration works of Adi Shankaracharya’s Samadhi, which was damaged in floods. JSW contacted various States asking for names of stone artists.

In Karnataka, they approached Dr. Mohanrao B. Panchal, Head, Department of Visual Arts, Kannada University, Hampi, who referred the names of five artists and I was one among them.

The company asked the artists to submit a 2-foot tall model of Shankaracharya. The models were presented to Prime Minister Modi and he liked my model. Later, I received a call informing me that my model was selected and was asked to sculpt the bigger statue.

SOM: It is said, you almost didn’t get to sculpt Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue. What happened?

Arun Yogiraj: I was in discussion to sculpt Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue. In the meantime, a meeting with the Prime Minister was pending as the PM wanted to meet me personally after the installation of Adi Shankaracharya’s statue in Kedarnath.

The meeting kept getting postponed. So I requested our Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha to help me.

Since I had agreed to sculpt the statue of Subhas Chandra Bose, I had sculpted a miniature stone idol of Netaji. By this time, Pratap Simha got an appointment with the PM. He then not only helped me carry the small statue of Netaji in the plane despite weight restrictions but also made me stay at his MP residence in Delhi.

During our meeting, PM Modi enquired about the progress of Netaji’s statue. I informed him that I had not received any work order and that some people were approaching me for subcontract work for Netaji’s statue! 

The PM was surprised and immediately instructed Union Minister Pralhad V. Joshi to set the matter right.

After this, Union Minister for Culture G. Kishan Reddy was summoned. Even he was shocked to learn that I had not received any work order. Both Pralhad Joshi and Pratap Simha followed up and finally, I received the work order on June 13, 2022.

If I had not spoken to our MP and had he not got the Prime Minister’s appointment immediately, I would have missed my chance to sculpt Netaji’s statue. It would have probably been sculpted by someone else and credit would have gone to some other person who didn’t even sculpt it as it would have been subcontracted.

How Arun Yogiraj got selected to sculpt Balak Ram

SOM: How did you get selected to sculpt Balak Ram’s idol?

Arun Yogiraj: It all started with the search for the artist in January 2023. Three sculptors from Karnataka and another from Rajasthan, who are known to me, were informed about the work. But I was not informed.

I was disappointed that even though I had completed two national projects (Netaji and Adi Shankaracharya), I was not informed. But I consoled myself saying that I had already completed two major national projects, so it’s okay.

But then in April 2023, a meeting was held at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) to finalise the artists who will sculpt Balak Ram. In that meeting, IGNCA Member-Secretary Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi, who had personally seen my work in Delhi, was surprised not to see my name in the list of artists shortlisted to sculpt Balak Ram. Dr. Joshi then asked the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to invite me to immediately present my work.

I was called overnight to Delhi. A few weeks later, 11 artists were shortlisted and three of them were finalised, I was one among them.

SOM: What style of sculpting did you decide on? 

Arun Yogiraj: I had to connect both North and South India and the black stone idol connects well with the Southern part. While sculpting the idol, I ensured that the jewellery was carved in Hoysala style. The attire was sculpted in  North Indian style and again the ‘kankana’ was sculpted in South style.

Lord Hanuman and Garuda have been sculpted in Tamil Nadu style. The Dashavathara has been sculpted with reference to North Indian temples. The Balak Ram idol is an amalgamation of the best Indian styles since the idol belongs to the entire nation.

SOM: What was your routine in Ayodhya when you were sculpting? 

Arun Yogiraj: The first day of work began by offering ‘puja’ to the stone as per rituals. The sculpting works began with offering ‘shila puja’ and tying ‘kankana’ to our hand which restricts us from taking up other works until the completion of work in progress. I made sure the ‘kankana’ was also tied to the hammer that I used for sculpting the idol.

For us, it was only ‘Satwik’ food that was allowed to be consumed. We were provided with sprouts every day, as we needed a lot of protein to go with our physical work. We were also taught yoga but when my first idol of Balak Ram was rejected, I stopped yoga as I was working in double shifts to carve another one.

SOM: You said that your first idol was rejected. Can you explain?

Arun Yogiraj: The first sculpture was 70 percent complete when a certain test conducted turned negative. Periodic tests are conducted to see the integrity of the rock. Owing to the rejection of the first idol, I lost three months.

Later, I started to sculpt another idol in September with another stone, also brought from Mysuru. Initially, I felt a bit nervous as I had lost time but on the other hand, I got clarity of what I needed to create.

Sculptor’s Studio in Mysuru

SOM: Tell us about your team which worked with you in Ayodhya.

Arun Yogiraj: I had my team members Nagaraju, Cheluvaraju, Siddaraju, Kumaresh and Jagadish, some of whom have worked with us for almost 30 years.

My team worked in batches, when one batch left after working on the pedestal, a new team would arrive to assist me in the design works.

SOM: The eyes of Balak Ram in some photos seemed to glow, is there some effect that you have given them?

Arun Yogiraj: There is no special effect given to the eyes. We apply ghee, honey and sugar to the eyes and cover them as part of the rituals. Some ghee and honey might have remained on the eyes on the day of consecration so maybe when they photographed it, light refraction may have given it a glow (laughs). On a serious note, we do not apply any chemicals, glass etc. It’s just an etched-stone effect.

SOM: Why did you use silver hammer & gold chisel to sculpt the eyes?

Arun Yogiraj: It is mentioned in Shilpashastra to use a silver hammer and golden chisel and a particular time (muhurta) is fixed for ‘Nethramilana’ (carving of eyes). In the case of Balak Ram, the muhurta was fixed by the head priest Ganesha Acharya.

Before sculpting the eyes, I took a dip in the Sarayu River, which was about 4-5 degrees Celsius, and visited the Hanuman Garhi (Hanuman Temple) before sculpting the eyes. We first inscribe the ‘beejakshara mantra’ on the uncarved blank eyes before we begin sculpting the eyes.

SOM: What is the actual height of the Balak Ram idol and what was the height and weight of the stone?

Arun Yogiraj: The height of the idol is 77 inches, 42 inches in width and it is 2-ft in thickness. The rock that was used was about 9½ ft in height and weighed 13,000 kgs. Now the idol weighs about 2,000 kgs.

SOM: Was there a regular inspection while you were working on the idol?

Arun Yogiraj: There were regular inspections being done for all three idols sculpted by different artists. The Committee Members were sensible as they used to visit all three sculptors without giving room for any suspicion of favouritism.

SOM: Apart from inspection by the Committee, we heard there was regular inspection by a monkey.

Arun Yogiraj: There were a lot of monkeys in Ayodhya near the studio where we were sculpting. But every day, a monkey would visit the studio between 5 pm and 6 pm and bang the door. I am not sure whether it was the same monkey though. I even have the video of the monkey roaming around in the studio. I don’t want to give it a connotation that it was a ‘divine visit.’ But all the same, it was an interesting coincidence.

SOM: Is there a copyright on Balak Ram? Can you produce miniatures to sell?

Arun Yogiraj: Actually, I told the Trust Members to copyright Balak Ram. Then MP Pratap Simha had the idea that if Ayodhya Trust can have the copyright and make miniatures of Balak Ram, it should tie up with the Karnataka Government to send black stone from Mysuru from which it can make these miniatures rendering them more authentic and worthy of the copyright.

Pratap Simha felt if this is done, then the Ayodhya Trust will get funds, sculptors will get continuous work, Karnataka will have a new revenue stream and Mysuru will also become famous as the Balak Ram miniature models made using the stone from Mysuru will be in millions of households across the nation and world.

Bringing Stones to Life

SOM: Now that you have achieved a great feat, there must be a lot of demand for your work. How are you managing it?

Arun Yogiraj: I have indeed been getting a lot of orders from across the world, especially from the USA and South Africa, both for idols and other works.

But I know my capacity and I cannot fulfil so many orders. So, I tell customers that it takes quite some time for me to complete a statue. If they are comfortable with that, then I take up the work else I provide them the contact of other artists. Also, it is good to have the work of different artists.

SOM: Are you running an institution to guide budding sculptors?

Arun Yogiraj: Yes, I am running a school called Bramharshi Kashyapa Shilpakala Shala, which now has 7 full-time students and during summer camps, children join us to learn line drawing, pottery and other arts.

I am planning to construct two additional rooms in my studio for the benefit of the students. Currently, I am not charging any fees because I want to give back to the profession which has given me so much.

SOM: Who should our readers contact if they are interested in learning sculpting?

Arun Yogiraj: Interested can contact my brother Yeshwanth on Mob: 99451-51505.

Making Mysuru proud…

For the foreseeable future, Arun Yogiraj will continue to enjoy widespread popularity as the man who sculpted the idol of Balak Ram. Despite his acclaim, Arun Yogiraj remains remarkably humble and transparent in his artistic approach, the qualities that undoubtedly contribute to his mastery.

Michelangelo, the great Italian sculptor, once said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” Arun Yogiraj not only discovers it, he seems to almost bring it to life. He certainly brought a sense of divinity to the Balak Ram statue and in doing so, brought a lot of attention to Mysuru, reminding the world that our city still has it — artists and culture.

[Pic. by M.N. Lakshminarayana Yadav]

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Two days ago, on Valentine’s Day, I visited a cousin’s house. There, I met my niece who was visiting home. She’s typically effervescent and exuberant but on that day, she was veiled in an aura of melancholy. The cause? She had just broken up with her boyfriend of over a year.

She said they had met on a dating app and it all looked promising until it didn’t. That’s life. But what struck me was her poignant admission. My niece, typically possessed of steely resolve, confessed that the process of disentanglement had become an arduous task, despite the passage of several months.

After talking for a while, I found the reason why it was so hard for her to move on  — because she was ‘creeping.’

‘Creeping’ is basically stalking someone on social media such as following someone’s Facebook, Instagram and ‘X’ pages. It was called ‘stalking’ in the early days, now it is called ‘creeping’ to give it a gentler connotation so as to disassociate it with criminal activity.

As I spoke to her, it got me thinking — finding love, keeping it, and getting over it has gotten harder in today’s digital age because the internet never forgets, and social media doesn’t allow you to forget.

Love often begins online these days and even after it’s dead, it lingers on in cyberspace like a digital ghost in the form of an ex’s ‘Facebook story’ that pops up unannounced to traumatise you.  

Dating apps have changed the love and lust game. As I speak to users of dating apps, both young and old, both men and women, their approach to finding a partner has changed.

One doesn’t need the once much-needed courage to break the ice — to walk up to someone you’re attracted to and strike up a conversation.

Butterflies in the stomach have all but become extinct as you don’t have to worry about charm, humour, or the ability to keep a conversation going. Now you just need a smartphone and a finger to break the ice.   

Today’s social media world has also sucked away the joy of discovery. The essence of serendipitous discovery has been eclipsed by social media.

It is so easy to digitally stalk a person that even before you meet them, you know what they do, where they live, what they like, where they have been and who their friends are. If they are an ‘over-sharer’ you will also know what they ate and if they had a good poop earlier in the day.

Maybe, that’s why physical intimacy happens so much sooner than before. After all, you already know so much about each other, what else is left there to discover but the touch?

That’s okay, but conversational discovery assists in ‘quality check’ and helps avoid that sense of ‘regret’ one sometimes experiences post-hasty coitus.

This ease and speed of interaction between sexes assumes a reckless tenor, fraught with perilous ramifications. The effect social media has on the healing process post a break-up is something that must be addressed. Especially among young people.

Before social media, if you broke up with someone, you never saw them again or heard from them. Some would hold on to love letters and maybe a few photos.

If it was a bad breakup, you would just burn them all, talk to your friends, spend time outdoors and eventually in a few months, you forget that person, heal quickly and properly. There was a sense of finality or closure to it all.

Now the ubiquity of social media platforms preserves a lifeline to an ex, perpetuating a cycle of longing and desolation.

If you are in a serious relationship, social media has almost made it impossible to achieve a level of indifference so as to heal fast enough and move forward.

Today, your ex is always somewhere in your mind-space because ever so often they are in your face as Facebook will tell you what’s happening in their life. Though Facebook has a ‘take a break feature’ it’s not very effective if your common friend posts updates.

The other issue is storage. Today with phone cameras and cheap memory space, we save every moment, every experience and every chat, no matter how banal.

It starts with WhatsApp, but it doesn’t end there. Even after the relationship has ended, the shared pics, conversations and cute exchange of kissy emojis on WhatsApp will continue to lure you back, hindering your healing process.

One of the hardest parts of a break-up is accepting that it’s over, but social media keeps us from this part of the process. Algorithms see black and white. But it doesn’t see the grey where human emotions linger.

So, even if you have blocked an ex’s news feeds, they will suddenly pop up to remind you of the happy times. Worse, a mutual friend’s picture pops up showing them at your ex’s wedding!

A broken heart is a wound, and as long as you keep sliding into a former lover’s social media that wound will never heal.

As per a study conducted by Pew Research, a staggering 53 percent of social media users acknowledge resorting to these platforms to surveil their former flames. But the danger is, what may commence as a mere curiosity or a yearning of a broken heart for closure, soon metamorphoses into a maelstrom of emotional turmoil, precipitating feelings of solitude, ire, and betrayal.

In this new world of digital courtship, we all have to re-learn the way we love, the way we hurt and more importantly the way we heal. Youngsters need to know that this too shall pass… But if you don’t digitally cleanse yourself for a while, it shall never come to pass. 

The panacea for afflictions of the heart and mind often lies in communion with the natural world. For me, it has been the walk up Chamundi Hill, amidst the mellifluous melodies of Mynas and Seven Sisters. I hope my niece will join me so the therapeutic cadences of nature can assuage the afflictions of her young and tender heart.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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On Tuesday, a man died when a tree branch fell on his head. Even his helmet couldn’t save him. But what could have saved him was probably the timely pruning of the tree. 

Every year, people die in our city as tree branches fall due to lack of timely pruning.  Yet citizens are confused about who should prune trees. 

This reminds us of the 2013 monsoon when rains wreaked havoc in the city, with several trees falling. A survey was conducted and it concluded that scientific and timely tree pruning was necessary to stop death and service disruption. Ten years later, we still have the same problem! 

In 2013, M. Mahadev, the then Managing Director of Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC), said that non-pruning had cost CESC heavily as it had brought down around 200 electric poles. Mahadev said the onus of surveying and pruning trees falls on the Forest Department.

Strangely, the then Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF), Mysore, P. Durgegowda, responded by saying that the Forest Department prunes trees only when citizens call and there is no need for any survey or scientific pruning! 

Shockingly, the ACF expects citizens to know which tree is deep-rooted enough to withstand heavy rains.

Also, who’s standing around looking up at trees, wondering which branch will fall and kill us? And what’s the number to call to report if we find such ‘criminal trees’ and their sidekicks the ‘killer branches’?  

The question is, should the CESC prune trees to protect their electric lines, should the Forest Department do it as the trees come under their preview, or should the MCC do it as they are the caretakers of the city? Who is to prune our trees and save lives? 

According to a Forest official, MCC has to cut and prune dangerous trees and branches in its jurisdiction, and the Forest Department maintains trees only inside parks. 

This could be true considering that the MCC paid compensation of Rs. 10,000 to a rider in 2014 whose two-wheeler was damaged in a tree fall at Metagalli. 

So will MCC pay compensation to the family of Reginald Platel, who died on Tuesday, Feb. 6? 

Meanwhile, where is Shaktiman?

 It was also reported day before that the Horticulture Department of the MCC, responsible for pruning old and dangerous branches, is not equipped to prune trees at the moment.

The MCC Assistant Executive Engineer confessed that they didn’t have a vehicle equipped with a ladder to prune trees as the RTO had seized them because they were more than 35 years old and unfit for operations! But why not use Shaktiman?

In 2019, the then MCC Commissioner K.H. Jagadeesha introduced Shaktiman to Mysureans with great fanfare. He had said that Shaktiman is the first such machine procured by any City Corporation in Karnataka, and this will be useful in pruning trees, branches, dry twigs and even leaves.

The MCC Commissioner then went on to say that Shaktiman is so tall that it can even prune the tallest trees over 30 feet easily. 

The MCC also released a press statement extolling  Shaktiman’s traits. It said Shaktiman can swivel 360 degrees and has a smooth operating procedure. It has a long-reach chainsaw cutter. It is a rugged machine and is low maintenance as it does not have clutch, gearbox, etc. 

The way MCC promoted Shaktiman, some wondered if MCC was looking to get Shaktiman married. Was MCC looking for a bride, a ‘Shakti-woman’? Some Mysureans, who are fans of science fiction movies, thought that Shaktiman was a Transformer – a machine that comes alive. They, for a moment, thought we had finally found our ‘Optimus Prime’ of tree pruning and that he would save our heads from murderous branches.  But where is Shaktiman now?

It seems Shaktiman has not disappeared, he is quietly being deployed in certain areas because he is the only one MCC has.

Interestingly, in 2021, it was lying idle and was gathering dust in MCC due to non-maintenance. However, after the public outcry, it was put to use.

May be the MCC must procure more Shaktimans considering the old ladder-laden vehicles have been deemed unfit.

While we wait for trees to be pruned, let’s hope the administration ensures it’s done safely without causing too much inconvenience to the public. 

I say this because unprofessional tree-cutting led to the death of a young woman. In 2011, Prarthana and her family were on their way to Ooty for a holiday. They were stopped near Gundlupet and asked to wait as a huge banyan tree was being cut for road widening.

The unscientific tree-cutting method resulted in the massive tree crashing on Prarthana’s car. She lost her life. She was just 33, and two children were left without a mother.

Maybe MCC should call for tenders with the condition that tree cutting or road works were  open only to contractors who can do work at night or during the wee hours when the public will not be inconvenienced and exposed to possible danger.

People have to wake up and realise that most officials don’t care about public safety unless there are VIPs involved.

When Barack Obama came to India, officials in Delhi made sure all the trees around Gandhi Museum were trimmed and the coconut trees were rid of all their coconuts. 

When the officer in-charge was asked why the coconuts were being plucked en masse, he said, “Why take a chance?” I guess he was worried if a coconut broke off and fell on Obama or even around him, the officer’s coconut would have been broken.  

Why don’t the officials and administration apply the same safety standards to the commoner? Because we citizens don’t demand it.

Most of us don’t take the trouble to call our local Corporator or MCC to fix things. Instead, we wait for some NGO to do that for us. 

If we keep waiting, branches will keep snapping and our heads will keep breaking.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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Six days ago, within 12 hours, between 9 pm and 9 am, 20 people met with accidents. Three young men lost their lives. Two young women become widows. Three children became fatherless. Three families lost their primary breadwinner and three families were destroyed…all because of two unscientific road humps.

Shockingly, not a single MLA has been outraged enough to speak up. No contractor has been punished. No official has been suspended. No one has been held accountable! 

Road humps and barricades have become a menace on our city roads. Humps are laid unscientifically and barricades are placed erratically. While one is a death trap, the other causes traffic jams.

Do we need them? Yes, we need speed-breakers to force people to slow down at certain intersections, but speed-breakers should not turn into skull-crackers and bone-breakers. Unscientific road humps, like on Bogadi Road, are self-defeating — what was meant to save lives took lives.

Why can’t the MCC insist on putting rumblers — a series of small road humps that force one to slow down their vehicle rather than one huge hump that could send a motorist flying to his death or a barricade that holds up traffic on one side?

Road hump in our city is like a mirage; you think it’s there, but when you get closer, it’s not there; it’s just a faded zebra crossing. Then as you keep driving, thinking it’s a smooth black road, the hump suddenly appears, like the Grim Reaper in the dark; by then, it’s too late.

Contractors in Karnataka don’t know how to build humps, it seems. In 2019, the then Karnataka Public Works Minister C.C. Patil admitted that 99 percent of speed-breakers on the State’s highways and roads are ‘unscientific’.

According to Indian Roads Congress (IRC) guidelines, a hump should have a central height: 10-12 cm; Shape: Parabola; Width: 3.5 metres; Length: Same as road width. That is only the structural design part.

The other important part is to make the road- user aware of its presence. For this, the IRC states that the road humps should be painted with a ‘V’ shape and illuminated with a cat’s eye along the ‘V’ lines.

 Our officials paint it like a zebra crossing! What are they thinking? Build one unscientific hump with confusing marking and get two victims free? A pedestrian and a motorist?

IRC also says that the humps should not be more than five metres (16 feet) away from an intersection. It then adds, stating that two reflective sign boards — one at 20 to 30 metres and another 10 metres before the hump should be placed to warn the drivers — ‘hump ahead’.

Has our administration followed these dictates? No. Sadly even Praveen Sood, the former Police Commissioner of Mysuru, who was praised for instilling fantastic traffic rules and facilities in another country — Mauritius, could not solve the road hump problem in Mysuru.

Praveen Sood too made a mistake. He ordered scientifically approved road humps to be placed at strategic places in the city. What was the problem then?

The road humps he ordered were scientifically designed for concrete and asphalt roads but our roads are not concrete and the asphalted roads are not thick enough because some of the thickness had gone into the lining of political pockets.

So in just three months, the rubber road humps came apart, and soon, long metal screws that held the humps became exposed, posing a major traffic hazard. Mercifully, Praveen Sood introduced these road humps only as an experiment and did not take this project any further.

The Supreme Court, while calling road accident deaths in India “a tragedy that arises only due to lack of concern by authorities,” also rued, saying, “Unfortunately, no criminal action is taken against authorities for their negligence.” It then sought a response from the Government on how to address this problem.

This is like asking the fox to decide how to protect the chicken coop? After all, in most cases, the lawmaker forces the bureaucrats to give public works contracts to their ‘party’- approved contractors. Then why will they prosecute their own?

According to the Motor Vehicle Act 2019, contractors, consultants and concessionaires will be held accountable for faulty road design and safety standards. It says they will also be legally punishable with a fine of up to Rs. 1 lakh in case of a road accident that results in death or disability. Will the MCC implement this? Nah! 

Student Unions, NGOs and activists make some noise

There is a saying — “Find out just what people will quietly submit to, and you have the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.”

What this means is silence is golden in personal matters. When it comes to the issues of the city where you live, you’ll be doomed if you are silent.

In recent years, as a city that was once very protective of its lakes, air, water, and public facilities, we have now become silent as our city is systematically being destroyed. What is surprising is the silence of civil activists and student unions who protest at the drop of a hat for politically motivated causes.

Why the silence on issues that matter — local issues — such as saving Chamundi Hill or road humps that kill youngsters, parents and fellow citizens?

Interestingly, yesterday, Anveshana Seva Trust, an NGO, requested permission to protest about the killer road humps, but permission was denied! It’s time NGOs, student unions and civil activists fought for a safer Mysuru.

Officers and politicians come and go, but we Mysureans have to live here. We cannot let them ruin this city and move on to the next posting. We have to hold them accountable. It will keep the next officer in check. 

If we are silent, it means we are OK with official apathy and incompetence. If that’s our attitude, then there will be more unscientific humps in our city, and Mysuru, now known as the Royal City, will become the ‘Royally Humped City’.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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Mysuru has been called a Royal Heritage City, but it feels like we’re living in ‘Flex City.’ Our city is plagued by the menace of flex hoardings and banners everywhere — at Circles, on buildings, on footpaths, on trees and even on Expressway. Last year, this plague had even reached all the way to the top of Chamundi Hill!

In March last year, the ‘muhurat’ of a Kannada movie was held atop Chamundi Hill. To mark the occasion, the movie’s flex posters were stuck all along the road, all the way to the top of the Hill. An ugly sight indeed. No action was taken against the producers by the MCC.

Flex menace in Karnataka is so pervasive that in 2019, an artist named Ravikumar Kashi wrote a book titled ‘Flexing Muscles’ about the flex culture, especially in Bengaluru. We have the same in Mysuru too.

Every year, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) tells us that they will rescue our city from the menace of flex banners and posters. The MCC once  even had the audacity to declare Mysuru as being ‘flex-free’ !

They then declared that they would ‘fine’ flex ban violators. But then the MCC and District Administration doesn’t have enough muscle to flex against flex banners. Why so cynical, one may ask. How can one not be? Considering that this farce of making the city flex-free is played out every year?

In August 2014, the Urban Development Ministry announced that it will fine ‘heavily’ those who erect unauthorised cut-outs, banners or hoardings! What happened? Nothing.

In 2006, the MCC proposed to declare K.R. Circle, Gandhi Square to Chamaraja Circle, Five-Lights Circle, Ramaswamy Circle, Ashoka Road, Irwin Road and Sayyaji Rao Road as ‘hoarding-free’ zones and ban commercial hoardings within 100 metres of heritage sites. What happened? Hoardings and banners are still around.

In 2009, MCC started an ‘illegal hoarding drive’ to which some people protested and the drive                    was stopped.

In 2011, MCC Council passed a resolution banning hoardings in the core heritage areas with the then MCC Commissioner K.S. Raikar saying, “We held discussions with the City Police Commissioner, who has agreed to file cases against those violating the MCC directive on advertising hoardings and flex boards.” What happened? Nothing.

Just the day before yesterday, the MCC Commissioner said that they have issued notices and asked the Zonal Commissioners to clear out the flex… but flex remains!

The penalty for unauthorised disfigurement by advertisement as per The Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1981 makes unauthorised advertisement in public space punishable with imprisonment and fine. Has the MCC booked anyone of significance till date? No. That is why it has not stopped.

This ineffective drive by authorities has emboldened many and now our Circles and trees are not safe.

Circles in Mysuru have been turned into mediaeval town centres; where all announcements, be it death, election or festivals are announced with huge flex posters.

Most flex banners are also visual pollution, especially political hoardings. They are huge, with the ‘senior’ politician at the centre of the poster and his chamchas grinning from his stomach, chest and forehead. 

Our leaders can stop this but they don’t, they love it. Even the most educated politicians don’t stop this.

A few years ago, Prof. Rajeev Gowda, the Congress MP, who graduated from the prestigious IIM (Indian Institute of Management) and who was working with a initiative to keep Bengaluru clean, called ‘Swalpa Clean-up Maadi,’ was caught off-guard when his own photo turned up on the city walls wishing him on his 50th birthday.

When he was asked about it, he nonchalantly said, “There are people who want to wish me on my birthday. But they cannot pay Rs. 1 lakh for a billboard. We need to have a facility that will help people advertise without affecting the aesthetics of the city.” Did he create such a facility? NO. We wonder why he couldn’t tell his followers to spend that money on a social cause instead of wasting it on posters wishing him.

Politicians cannot stop this menace because they love it. Politicians thrive and survive on public perception of them being powerful and these posters and defiance of the law is part of creating that perception.

Finally, the Government itself becomes a violator of laws. They not only put up poorly designed and flimsy awareness flex posters but also stick their flex advertisements on hoardings that belong to private individuals!

This menace of illegal hoardings cannot be stopped with fines; it can be prevented only by a ‘tearing down drive’ – just tear the illegal flex posters down.

Like the Police have ‘Garuda’ cars and ‘Cheetah’ bikes for patrolling, MCC also can have a ‘Giraffe’ — a jeep with a long ladder, that patrols the city and tear down illegal banners.

Meanwhile, the Mysuru-Bengaluru Expressway also needs some rescuing from hoardings. There are just too many sprouting up. They have not only become quite a distraction but they also mar the beauty of the drive.

May be the Government can ban putting up tall and huge hoardings in the scenic parts of the Expressway so the tourists as they drive to Mysuru, can at least get to see the beauty of Ramanagar’s monoliths, after all they are Asia’s largest and the sight of green paddy fields is awe-inspiring. 

Right now, the Expressway is almost reflective of what to expect at the end of their journey ­— Mysuru the ‘Flex City’.

While our administration constantly talks about the beautification of our city, they encourage its ‘uglification’ by not implementing the law. Unless the MCC really flexes its muscles against flex, our city will become ‘Flex City.’  We also will never again become the Cleanest City in India.

Mysore will become an Eyesore.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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Today at 2.45 am, I was woken up by a loud sound that shook me to my core. It was the apartment’s fire alarm!

The word ‘alarm’ is too mellow a word to describe the decibel level a fire ‘siren’ makes. It has a quality that triggers a sense of ‘urgency and panic.’ It is so loud and ‘panic-inducing’ that it pushes you to get out of the building. So, I did. But no one else did.

As I started going downstairs, I wondered if I was dreaming. Why? Because no one else in the building had stepped out of their apartment.

As I went down, there was another family there. We wondered if everyone else had evacuated so fast that we were the last. But it was not. No one else cared for the alarm, it seems.

We looked around, sniffed around, and figured there was no fire anywhere. We pressed the silence button and went back to sleep.

I was shocked that none of my fellow residents responded to the fire alarm like I did. I thought they assumed that safety systems in India are just for show, meant to get clearance certificates? Or, I figured maybe they trust their ‘nostril alarm’ more than the ‘fire alarm’ — if they sniff smoke, they’ll get out.

We have developed a culture that completely disregards our safety and others, too — from driving up a one-way street to riding a bullock cart down the wrong side of a highway, from disregarding building fire safety norms to not checking the safety ratings of cars. The fact that the Government has to penalise us to wear a helmet to protect our own heads is a testament to that casualness towards safety.

Then again, the Government itself puts its citizens in harm’s way by building flyovers that collapse and open manholes that devour pedestrians.

As the fire alarm went off in my apartment, and it was screaming for a while, I realised that the fire trucks had not come. Unlike the West, the fire alert system is not connected to a fire station in India.

In the West, when smoke sets off a fire alarm or if someone pulls the fire alarm lever, a message is sent to a central monitoring station where an operator immediately notifies the appropriate local fire department.

In Mysuru, we have to call the emergency number # 101 (now integrated to 112, India’s all-in-one emergency helpline number). An operator will take your location and then call the closest fire brigade to attend to your emergency. But the problem is, Mysuru doesn’t have enough fire stations.

India has a serious shortage of fire stations. In 2017, it was reported that India needed over 9,000 fire stations. Even today, we have just over 2,500! Karnataka needs 377 stations; we have 182.

Our city has four fire stations: Saraswathipuram, Bannimantap, Hebbal and at Reserve Bank of India (RBI) campus.

Out of these, part of Saraswathipuram Fire Station has collapsed due to rains and still has not been rebuilt, and the RBI Fire Station will be lent for usage only  if other fire stations are unable to handle the fire.

As Infosys donated Hebbal Fire Station and RBI belongs to the Central Government to be used exclusively for RBI, our State Government has given Mysuru just two fire stations in all the decades of our city’s existence and growth!

Worse of the two that the State gave us, one has collapsed.

Mysuru is growing rapidly as industries and residential layouts mushroom throughout the city. It is the responsibility of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to plan our city. But is it doing it? NO. MUDA is not learning anything from what has happened in Bengaluru.

MUDA should immediately allocate a certain dimension of land for fire stations for a cluster of 10 residential layouts, or it will end up like Bengaluru.

The urban planners of Bengaluru didn’t realise that as Bengaluru grew, they needed to acquire land to put up fire stations, but they did not. And today, Bengaluru has no place to put up fire stations in new areas!

Though Bengaluru has approval for eight new fire stations, only three are expected to be ready by the end of 2024 — Yelahanka, Sarjapur and Hulimavu. The other five? There is no guarantee as the process of land acquisition is yet to take place.

Here is another shocker. Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) today has its sophisticated fire-fighting system, but initially, when the airport was being built, there was no fire station. Fire engines had to rush from the Chikkaballapur or Hebbal Fire Stations to the KIA in case of a major fire… and these stations were situated more than 20 kms away from the airport.

While the KIA has taken care of its firefighting needs, Devanahalli, which now houses a Special Economic Zone and IT parks, still does not have a fire station. The helpless Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services Department has now requested the KIA to give them some space.

Mysore Airport, too, has its own fire service with two trucks and firemen present at all times. But the area around it will have to wait for a while before a fire brigade arrives all the way from Bannimantap if the one in APMC Yard refuses to oblige.

Fire hazards will increase as our cities get populated, and buildings get closer and taller. While we demand public buildings and apartments have sprinklers, fire hydrants and extinguishers, it is time for even independent houses to take fire safety measures.

Maybe it is time to keep a small canister of fire extinguisher handy, and if you are living in an apartment, have fire drills once a year.

PS: Following are the contact numbers of Fire Brigade Stations in Mysuru —  Saraswathipuram Fire Station (Ph: 0821-2540970); Bannimantap Fire Station (Ph: 0821-2495101) and Hebbal Fire Station (Ph: 0821-2512101).

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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Shops in Bengaluru were vandalised over displaying non-Kannada boards on Wednesday by activists of a pro-Kannada outfit.

The protesters were demanding the immediate implementation of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) order requiring businesses to feature 60 percent sign-boards in Kannada.

The deadline to adhere to the new rule was set for Feb. 28, 2024. So, why didn’t the pro-Kannada activists wait till Feb. 28 for the shops to comply before vandalising the shops?

Kannada can’t be promoted by vandalising shops and threatening shop owners. Kannada can be promoted only if we Kannadigas first speak it ourselves.

While indeed Kannada should be on the boards, what about spoken Kannada? In October this year, CM Siddaramaiah rightly said at an event, “Everyone living in this State should learn to speak Kannada. We are all Kannadigas.”

This begs the question: Who is a Kannadiga?

According to the Sarojini Mahishi Committee constituted  in 1983, which was asked to give recommendations to help Kannadigas, defined a Kannadiga as not merely someone who has lived in the State for more than 15 years, but who can also speak, read and write Kannada ‘reasonably well.’

The truth is most of us Kannadigas can speak Kannada far better than we can read or write it. So, the definition needs tweaking — if we can speak Kannada well and have lived here for a long time, you are a Kannadiga.

That said, there is an urgent need to promote spoken Kannada and here’s why.

Karnataka is already one of the most diverse States of India with many diverse Kannadigas in terms of food, dialects, culture and traditions. What held these diverse groups of people together? Spoken Kannada.

The Bunt community from Mangaluru speak ‘Tulu’ dialect but they also speak Kannada. Kodavas from Kodagu speak ‘Kodava Thakk’ but they also speak Kannada. Muslims speak ‘Dakhani’ but they also speak Kannada. Even people from other Southern States who have lived in Karnataka for decades can converse in Kannada. Most of them may not be able to write or even comfortably read Kannada albeit with an accent but they can speak it fluently and so it is spoken Kannada that has been the glue to keep us together.

Now with massive migration from Northern States into Karnataka and proliferation of Hindi we doubt if spoken Kannada will be spoken much in cities like Bengaluru which means the glue is coming off and disharmony may set in.

That is why the Karnataka Government must promote spoken Kannada with a sense of urgency. The Government must tie up with construction companies, IT companies, services industries to conduct short spoken Kannada sessions. Give such companies incentives. The Government has to do this if it plans to maintain peace in our State, especially Bengaluru and other urban centres, in the long run.  Else we are looking at possible ‘linguistic violence.’

We know what happened in Maharashtra in 1966 with anti-migrant sentiments which gave birth to Shiv Sena. The anti-Hindi agitations in 1965 in Tamil Nadu that gave birth to the DMK. Who knows if Congress, JD(S) and BJP don’t promote Kannada in Karnataka, then one day Karnataka Rakshana Vedike too will become a political force to reckon with.

Every year on Rajyotsava day, our leaders, after hoisting the yellow-red Karnataka flag, speak of promoting Kannada but the same leaders abandon Kannada and break into broken ‘butler English’ the moment a national TV channel thrusts a microphone before them. Why can’t they reply in Kannada, like politicians from other States?

May be pro-Kannada organisations, instead of simply ordering that “outsiders must learn Kannada” should ask the Government to set up inexpensive spoken Kannada classes in all Universities. After all, spoken Kannada is more useful than written Kannada.

Here, young IT entrepreneurs have done more for Kannada than by various Kannada organisations and the Government. These entrepreneurs have launched Kannada learning apps and websites like ‘Kannada Baruthe’, ‘Learn Kannada Quickly’, ‘Day2Day Kannada’ and ‘KannadaGottilla.com.’

Even the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), based in Mysuru, offers an online Kannada course for Rs. 500. Unfortunately one has to go through ‘script lessons’ before getting spoken Kannada lessons.

The University of Mysore has short-term Kannada courses, but they are not helpful because the focus is more on written rather than spoken Kannada. It would be more helpful if the University offered purely spoken Kannada courses.

That said, non-Kannada speakers, looking to settle down in Karnataka, will make life easy for themselves if they learn Kannada as they can effectively communicate with the Police, local Government or even in shops. 

While it is a great asset to know English and Hindi, it is important to know your regional language too, from a sociological point of view. It helps create new bonds and a sense of belonging. Else you will always be outsiders and your refusal to learn or speak the local language after decades of living here may very well be misconstrued as an insult or worse a sign of ungratefulness.

More importantly, local language has an unmatched emotional and communicative value. That is why Nelson Mandela said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, it goes to his head. But if you talk to him in his language, it goes to his heart.”

Dear Readers, I wish you all a healthy and joyous year ahead. I also thank you all for reading what I write and hopefully I have done my job of entertaining, informing and evoking a moment of introspection or a smile in you. Once again, wish you all a very Happy New Year.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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What a month it has been so far — smoke canisters, suspended MPs, mimicry of the Vice-President and amendments to 150-yeKalyan Banerjeear-old laws. But the most disappointing outcome was the failure of the Opposition parties, yet again. 

The Opposition parties in India do not do their job. Period. From the Jan Sangh to the BJP and now the Congress.

An Opposition party is supposed to be the ‘voice of the people’ against the Government of the day. Instead, our Opposition parties raise their voice, which becomes self-serving noise.

We remember the meek Opposition that led to the Emergency and how the Opposition squandered the opportunity to give a stable government. Even the BJP did nothing while blindly opposing everything when they were in the Opposition for ten long UPA years.

Every big scandal during the UPA Government was exposed by the media or by RTI activists; the BJP simply hijacked or piggy-backed on it to the finish line. Be it the Jan Lokpal movement, the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games scam, or the Vadra scandal, they were all exposed by the media, not the BJP. 

Now, while there was a security failure in Parliament, one should also consider that the attack was the outcome of the Opposition’s failure. Why? Because…

The two boys entered the Parliament to draw the Government’s attention to the issues of unemployment, price rise, violence in Manipur, and agrarian distress. Isn’t it the Opposition’s job to do just that in the Parliament?

When a prominent Opposition MP could handover her username and password to an industrialist sitting in Dubai to frame questions to embarrass the PM repeatedly, was there no MP in the Opposition who could take a few questions from disenchanted youths and voice them effectively in the Parliament?

It makes us wonder: While Rahul Gandhi calls BJP the “Suit Boot Ke Sarkar,” the Opposition is also a “Suit Boot Ke Opposition” because while an industrialist could get his questions asked in Parliament, ordinary citizens couldn’t. 

The most shocking failure of the Opposition this time was that they were more interested in discussing the security breach, which didn’t cause any significant harm, rather than debating the criminal justice laws which were to be passed and would affect every citizen of this country?

Are the Opposition MPs more worried about their own security than the laws that will affect the security of Indian citizens for years to come? How selfish. What a misguided sense of purpose and priority our Opposition members have!

The criminal justice laws passed a few days ago were tabled in the Parliament in August this year. Back then, Opposition parties had some concerns about a few sections. These concerns were to be discussed and debated in this winter session. 

But our Opposition parties felt a discussion on security breach was more important than debating the changes in criminal justice laws and so they screamed, shouted, rushed to the Well of the House, got themselves kicked out and are now crying foul! 

The Opposition’s behaviour was akin to a football match where most players purposely misbehaved, got themselves a red card, got kicked out of the game and, after the other team got a walkover, cried foul, leaving the supporters and spectators dumbfounded. 

The Opposition has been highly irresponsible and has done a disservice to the people of this nation by behaving in a manner that got them suspended when three historic bills had to be discussed before being passed.  

Did the Opposition self-sabotage as they wanted to save their face because this Government was changing 150-year-old British laws that these Opposition parties could not change for the 60 years when they ruled? 

In our State Assembly, too, CM Siddaramaiah put the onus of answering questions related to the Parliament security breach on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But he forgot that earlier this year, a man breached security and sat in the Vidhana Soudha when he (Siddaramaiah) was the CM. Just two days later, a knife was found on a person in the Assembly. Back then, why didn’t this security breach seem so pressing to the Congress party? 

Thankfully, our Speaker, U.T. Khader, reminded the MLAs what should be the priority when he said, “Why are you wasting time instead of passing the Bills? We give passes liberally. However, be strict in issuing passes in future.” We wish the Lok Sabha Speaker gave a similar reminder to our MPs. 

The biggest tragedy of Indian Democracy is the repeated failure of the Opposition, both in the Parliament and in the State Assemblies.

The Opposition parties do not effectively debate issues with fact, wit and humour. They are unable to enlighten the people of what the ruling Government is doing wrong and creating a groundswell. They have been unsuccessful in exposing any major corruption. 

Instead, they scream, disrupt and, like recently, make a mockery of the issue with a mimicry show outside the Parliament. This behaviour has shown that they cannot be taken seriously because they lack the sense to know what issues should be given priority. 

This behaviour of the Opposition MPs has made Modi come across as being more stoic, serious and a leader with gravitas. A leader who understands the burden of responsibility to govern a nation as large and complex as ours and is ready to bear that burden. 

Meanwhile, the Opposition leaders exude the level of competence and maturity of a University Student Union. And no citizen wants amateurs to govern a nation.

 The Opposition has failed us again, and so in Opposition, they shall sit again, as Modi may win again.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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Recently, a youth assaulted the MCC Revenue Inspector in his office because the Inspector had told him not to smoke on the office premises. A few weeks earlier, there was a report that three youths assaulted a middle-aged man for honking at them as they entered a one-way street.

A few weeks ago, I witnessed an accident near Crawford Hall where two youngsters came out of nowhere and rammed into a car that was slowly being driven around the circle by an elderly man.

After the accident, the boys limped up to the old man and screamed, “You blind old fellow, didn’t you see I was coming at high speed? Don’t you know you have to brake?” The youngster was so entitled that he felt all traffic should brake when he was riding fast. What audacity!

A fellow commuter told the boys it was their mistake to speed like that. The boys threatened him and gave him a dirty lashing in Kannada, saying, “Shut your ass and get out.” Most of us left because the boys looked too menacing.

Such incidents of young thugs abrasively threatening and beating up people have been happening more often these days and will increase as the city grows.

Mysuru Police have done a splendid job investigating serious crimes, but they have failed to tackle ‘minor assault’ cases. It is getting hard to tackle such cases because the Police treat them as a ‘skirmish’ or just an ‘outburst,’ so don’t file a complaint; just let the thugs go with a warning.

The other reason is that victims don’t file complaints as they will be stuck in the Police Station for a whole day and maybe even for a few days.

There are another two factors which have contributed to the increase in the brutish attitude of youngsters. First, the political patronage given to ‘Vedikes’ (platforms)  and ‘Abhimanigala Sanghas’ means there is political pressure on the Police not to take action against youths who are members of such associations.

The second issue is — law-keepers felicitated by law-breakers. Every time a new Police Officer comes to the city and takes charge, the first people to welcome him with a bouquet of flowers are the guys most likely to break the law.

Worse, these days, one sees Police Officers in bars and restaurants sitting and dining with people of questionable repute. This does not bode well for the Police force. How can the public get confidence in the Police when they are sitting and enjoying liquor and laughter with the very people the ordinary citizen wants to file a complaint against?

As cases of minor assault increase, what are we citizens to do? Is it time we, too, like the cops, start wearing body cams? That way, even if we can’t get justice, we can at least put up the video on social media and warn people of the self-styled rowdies.

 Should we common citizens carry pepper spray or chilli powder so we can defend ourselves when assaulted by some young thug who is high on booze and ego?

It may be time to bring back the Anti-Rowdy Squad, but a lite-version that patrols heavily in the city limits.

In the early 1990s, rowdies became a menace as the Police turned a blind eye. Then, in 1993, two on-duty Constables were attacked near Gayathri Talkies on Chamaraja Double Road.

Immediately, the then City Police Commissioner H.R. Kasturirangan set up an ‘Anti-Rowdy Squad’ headed by Inspector K.S. Thammaiah. Soon, the cleansing began with rowdy-sheeter Lakshman, aka ‘Chimpanzee’, being killed in an encounter when he tried to ‘escape’ from Police custody in the old Santhepet area.

ARS, as we journalists called the Squad, had struck fear in the hearts of rowdies and, more importantly, aspiring rowdies. In a few years, rowdies completely mellowed down, and the Anti-Rowdy Squad was moved into the City Crime Branch, where it remains dormant. Can City Police Commissioner Ramesh Banoth revive it?

After all, it was Commissioner Banoth, who dragged a few powerful politicians who were rowdy-sheeters to the Police Station for a roll call last year. They had earlier refused.

Such acts by the Police give the public confidence. Mysuru citizens would appreciate it if the Commissioner could create an ‘Ultra-Lite – Anti-Rowdy Squad’ with a hotline number so senior citizens and ordinary citizens don’t fear this new wave of self-styled young dons.

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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As I read the paper on Thursday, I was upset with a particular news. The headline read “Forest personnel raid Snake Shyam’s house”! 

Why did they have to raid his home? What did he do that was so wrong?

Shyam was nursing two Bonnet monkeys and three Indian black turtles back to health at home. He had forgotten to inform the Forest Department that he had rescued them and was nursing them back to health in his house. That was his mistake.

Snake Shyam may not be a trained herpetologist but he has been rescuing, rehabilitating and educating the public about snakes for 41 years! And he has been doing it for FREE!

Shyam’s work with animals and his service to the city has culminated in our city naming a street after him. The city has even named the first ‘urban forest’ after him.

Why, then, did the Forest Department have to embarrass this man? Why couldn’t they call him or drop into his place and do him the courtesy of asking him what was going on?

The cynical me assumed that the snake catchers’ lobby was targeting Shyam. Snake catchers charge Rs. 250 – Rs.500 to catch a snake in a house, but Shyam does it for free, so my suspicion was legit.

When I enquired, it turned out the issue was with his name!

The Forest Department officials, like most Mysureans, know Snake Shyam, but they do not know Mirle Subbarao Balasubramaniam, which is Snake Shyam’s official name.

Someone reportedly informed the Forest Department that one Balasubramaniam had turtles and monkeys at home. The Department raided the place only to realise it was Snake Shyam’s house.

Life can be confusing and problematic when nicknames become more popular than real names. Sometimes, they are misleading, too. I had written about this a decade ago. Here is an excerpt.

There was a infamous young man named ‘Choori Loki’ (dagger Lokesh) in Mysuru in the mid-1990s. How he got this fierce and fear-inducing name is an interesting story.

When in college, all of us had heard of this supposedly rowdy named ‘Choori Loki’. He had a Marvel comics villain vibe to him. After all, he had ‘Choori’ (dagger) as his first name. Years later, we heard of his ‘origin story’.

Lokesh used to hang around with rowdy-type characters but was never one himself. One evening, a fight broke out between two groups, and Lokesh was caught in the crossfire. In the melee, by mistake, his rowdy friend knifed Lokesh’s buttocks.

Lokesh was rushed to the hospital with a bleeding bum. As he walked out of the hospital with bandages on his buttocks, he became the ‘butt’ of ‘buttock jokes’. Because he was stabbed with a dagger (choori), his friends named him ‘Choori Loki.’

So, ‘Choori Loki’ wasn’t the perpetrator of pain like his name suggested but, the victim! ‘Choori Loki’ also noticed the new-found respect the nickname had bestowed upon him and moved around like a cool, quiet assassin who could pull out his Choori and reign pain upon thee. He basked in that glory for a long time until the real story came out. By that time, he had left Mysuru.

There are numerous such names, from ‘Chirathe’ (leopard) Manju to ‘Kardi’ (bear) Balu from ‘Tiger’ Ramesh to ‘Cat’ Babu. All nicknames created in their younger days have now become their unofficially-official names.

They believe their name helps increase their recall value. Some of them are in politics and when their real names are published, they call our paper office the next day and request that their ‘business’ name be used.

Even our Kannada film stars have interesting prefixes to their names. There is the ‘Rebel Star’ Ambarish, his son Abhishek is now called the ‘Junior Rebel Star’. Then we have ‘Golden Star’ Ganesh, ‘Challenging Star’ Darshan and ‘Power Star’ Puneeth Rajkumar.

Additionally, some people are given their physical attributes as prefixes before their name, such as ‘Dhadiya’ Lokesh (giant Lokesh) or ‘Kari’ Naga (dark Nagesh). It may sound derogatory, but it’s just a name created for “recognisability.”

Once they are recognised, they want luck to be an add-on. So, many politicians have begun changing the spelling of their names to change their luck.

In Mysuru, the first popular name change story was that of the Chamaraja Constituency MLA, the late Harsha Kumar Gowda. It is said that when he was initially just Harsha Kumar, he contested the MLA election twice and lost. Then, he was advised to add ‘Gowda’ for luck. It worked and he                     won the third time.

More than numerology, maybe the ‘Gowda’ add-on helped affirm his allegiance to a community and get him the votes because, after the first term, this name-change strategy never worked because another man with the ‘Gowda’ suffix came into the fray — Shankaralingegowda.

Recently, one of the Congress aspirants for the Mysuru-Kodagu Lok Sabha Constituency, Dr. H.V. Shushrutha Hedna, changed his name to Dr. H.V. Shushrutha Gowda.

 The other famous name change in the past was that of former MLA S.A. Ramdas; he found it unlucky being just an A. Ramdas.

Then, our former Chief Minister became B.S. Yeddyurappa from B.S. Yediyurappa (he changed back again to Yediyurappa before the oath taking ceremony in 2019) and our former MP Vishwanath became Adagur H. Vishwanath from being  just  H. Vishwanath.

More recently, our MP Prathap Simha became Pratap Simmha. Well, how much does this work? Ramdas became an MLA, Vishwanath became a Minister and Yediyurappa came out of jail. Pratap Simmha has done a lot of work, but there is no harm in getting a little push from lady luck.

The same trend exists among ordinary citizens of India. Numerology is a science. Maybe it is not. But while everyone is changing their names to get ahead in life, has anyone thought of our country?

Ever since independence, we have been ‘forever a developing’ nation but never getting to be a ‘developed’ one. Could this streak of ‘dosha’ (bad luck) be ended with a name change? How about India to Bharat? Could this change our nation’s fortunes?

e-mail: vikram@starofmysore.com

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