March of Mysuru

Mysuru’s residents learnt with surprise not too long ago that the city was bestowed the tag of India’s cleanest city. Earning the same rating second time in a row was no less surprising. The series of surprises yielded place to disappointment as the city slid to fifth rank on the count of cleanliness for the year 2017. The rating for the following year (2018) is awaited with great expectations of going on the victory stand once again. One must admit, however, the city’s nearly 130 sq. km space is beyond the resources of the civic body to keep the entire city spic and span, thanks to the difficult-to-give-up habit of littering public places with gay abandon on the part of a large section of the city’s population, in the august company of the floating population of the urban territory including those who come in as tourists and for trading activities, apart from kith and kin of local residents. The focus on cleanliness seems to have yielded place to heritage tag for the city just now.

The history of Mysuru spanning several centuries, as the kingdom of Wadiyar dynasty, believed to have been founded by Yaduraya in the year 1399 and its short history spanning the first half of the last century are as different as chalk and cheese. In the first part, the kingdom hosted mainly cultural prosperity while in the second part of the region’s history, as is known to all who are familiar with subject, the kingdom became home to mainly economic prosperity, thanks to the rule of the then King and his Chief Executives (Dewans).

The virtually invisible hands of the then ruler of the Mysuru kingdom as well as the handful of illustrious Dewans cannot be described adequately in words of any language, let alone English. Old timers of the erstwhile kingdom can easily recall the names of mentors whose lifestyle was itself the guiding principles for people to follow in their journey of life. Their writings and public speeches delivered on many occasions and from various public platforms before their attentive audiences of common people are truly classic in content and wisdom. In such an ambience of bygone days, public figures commanding undiluted respect from all sections of society, life of people seem to have been marked by a sense of wellness, barring some aberrations.

The tragedy is not that Mysuru wears an image nowadays that provides a contrast to its past record praised by chroniclers in glorious terms but the tragedy is that its leading lights can once again assume the role of mentors to exhort the city’s mix of ethnic profiles of residents to restore its past image. Where there is a will, there is a way !