By K.B. Ganapathy, Editor-in-Chief

Reading the news item “SWR GM joins volunteers in painting City Railway Station pillars,” published in yesterday’s Star of Mysore, I was reminded of an article I read recently “10 ways to ruin an old building” by Jonathan Taylor where he says one of the ways to destroy a heritage building is to employ consultants and contractors who do not specialise in historic work and paint surfaces which were originally left natural.

It is sad that the Railways have disfigured the heritage building that was opened in 1840 — 147 years ago. With one ‘masterstroke’. The white cylindrical pillars have now become ugly with senseless graffiti all over, marring the beauty and majesty of the historic structure. The building, which was constructed during the British era has been vandalised, sadly by the same people who are supposed to preserve its heritage value and maintain it.

While the Railways have to be complimented for its Swachh Bharat initiative and for keeping the City Railway Station clean, it does not deserve any compliments for virtually vandalising the heritage pillars by painting them with jarring colours.

There is a particular reason why these pillars were not painted by the people who constructed it. If the pillars looked good with paintings, they would have themselves definitely done that. Instead of leaving the pillars as they are, some overenthusiastic Railway officers, who have absolutely no sense of aesthetics, have gone ahead with the  disfigurement.

It is not like painting the flyover pillars as seen in China and where there is an underpass for the purpose that the motorists could easily identify the presence of the pillars.

If at all the Railway officers had knowledge about heritage structures and the need to preserve their originality, they would not have resorted to paint these pillars. And if they wanted to help the artist or the painter, they could have painted murals on the walls of the Railway Station to make them more beautiful like they have done on the walls of the subway inside the Station.

I would request the Railway authorities to erase the paintings on the pillars and restore the originality of the heritage structure of Mysore’s  landmark, iconic Railway Station.

It may be mentioned that this newspaper had already drawn the attention to another disfigurement of these pillars by putting up small hoardings of VIVO advertisement abutting each pillar as seen in the picture above.

As if this assault on these heritage pillars is not enough, the Railways have now inflicted further damage to the heritage value by painting the pillars upto a height, looking like the pillar is wearing shorts — to cover its shame ! Did you get me Steve?