Now that I have passed on the baton of management of Academy Newspapers Pvt. Ltd., Publishers of Star of Mysore and Mysooru Mithra, to honour the immortal words of Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The old order changeth yielding place to new, And God fulfills himself in many ways…”, besides the fact that I have to kill a lot of time being unemployed, I decided to walk down the memory lane from 1977 when I came to this wonderful city. — KBG
I begin this series with Dr. K.B. Subbaiah not because he is my elder brother but because of the fact that he was the only reason why I am here. After about 10 years in England, he came to Mysore and joined the Holdsworth Memorial Hospital (Mission Hospital). I would not have moved to Mysore from Pune where I was a small entrepreneur but for him being in Mysore and his support.
He was working in the Mission Hospital, Mandi Mohalla, Mysore, living in the Hospital bungalow nearby. For those days, he was one of three or four city residents (apart from the Maharaja, of course, who had a fleet of imported cars including Rolls Royce), to own an imported car — Red two-door Ford Escort which he brought along with him when he left England.
He was also constructing a residential house near Kamakshi Hospital. It was then a friend of mine asked if I could find a place for him to start a Printing Press in Mysore. Naturally, Dr. Subbaiah was my only contact and when I asked if he could help, he said, ‘take my house if suitable.’ Loyola! Academy Press was born, with me also as a sleeping partner. It was 1975. But in 1977, I shifted to this city for two more reasons. The working partner urged me to join him to manage the Printing Press and my wife was selected as a Government College lecturer posted in Kodagu. We were thinking of bolstering our job-printing business which was just picking up rather slowly and so decided to use the Printing Press for publishing a newspaper. So it was. On February 16, 1978 Star of Mysore was born on the strength of my experience as a journalist in Mumbai.
He was a Godfather to me and a patron of Star of Mysore, supporting it in raising loans, getting official contacts and in many other ways. He was a Rotarian and a leading doctor of those days with many celebrities of the city holding him in high esteem. A very soft-spoken person, gentle in his manners and when he got angry, which was very rare, he would express it more by gritting his teeth than by words.
A great newspaper-savvy, he would want his newspaper Indian Express to be first picked up by him alone, not wanting other persons in the house to read it first or pass pages of the paper to him. It was he who telephoned me at around 10 am to inform the death of Sanjay Gandhi in a plane accident in 1980 at Delhi.
Later, he quit Mission Hospital, after serving there for 10 years, in 1980 to set up private practice and also built his huge house in Yadavagiri where he was living with his wife Swajie and son Gautham. Through Rotary, of which he was its President for a term, he rendered yeomen service to the poor and the physically challenged. He would let go consultation fee to the poor and never charged to the religious persons and priests.
While in Mission Hospital, I had seen him obliging the people pleading helplessness, requesting him to visit the patient at home and even at night.
However, when all seemed well for him, tragedy struck on Oct.4, 1988. I was informed on telephone by his good neighbour in Yadavagiri of his passing away just a few minutes ago early morning — of mio-cardiac arrest. Those years, he was a leading cardiologist also. That was the irony of fate. He was just 51 years old. It was the only time I felt orphaned.
[To be continued]
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Enjoyed reading about the history of our favoulriate paper SOM today. It was indeed nostalgic and look forward to read the next series of articles.
Mr Ganapathy has really walkdown the memory lane, and has paid tribute to his talented brother, who was the only MRCP ( London)at that time in Karnataka, and one of the very few in India. It is a qualification which is much harder to achieve than MRCP (Edinburgh), which the physicians in KR Hospital and other hospitals in Bengaluru had then. Which suggested that he was really smart. I did know him as a very nice doctor, in the best traditions and the mould of the other famous doctor of the Mission Hospital: Frank Ivor Tovey, the surgeon.
His brother was the epitome of a very fine human being, about which Mr Ganapathy should be really proud, and cherish his memory.
The quote above, from the excellent poem by Tennyson, on the passing away of king Arthur has one further important line: “Lest one good custom should corrupt the world”. Tennyson wanted to emphasise that nothing is constant in the world, but as things change over the time, it is necessary to preserve the good, meaning do not throw away the good that has been achieved! That should be Mr Ganapa7thy’s message to his son, the successor!
Mr Ganapathy, you have paid a very good homage to your elder brother. The best homage is not always words, but to follow his ideals as a continuum.
Tennyson’s most quoted quote is from his poem Ulysses: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” . That should be the guide for every journalist. It was also the headline for the London 2012 Olympics.
As a journalist, you are not unemployed, as you are gainfully employed in writing your articles. We look forward to your next stop in your memory lane. You have visited a number of countries. Why don’t you write a book, not as a travelogue , but as your experiential vistas focusing on the people and places?
Thank you Mr Ganapathy. Through this article, a homage to your dear departed brother, you have taken some of us , who remember the mid-1960s Mysuru. The city was in the throe of changes, not for good, I should add.
The iconic Lansdown building shops were closing one by one,as shoppers wanting to expand their business and finding the shops space restrictive. H H J C Wadiyar was thinking of a last Durbar , as his health was deteriorating. Pedestrians and cyclists paradise Mysore was yielding to the massive numbers of annoying noisy 3 wheelers called Autos. Even the good Murthy of Murthy second hand bookshop at the Lansdown building premises, was wondering how long should he continue with his business. His business benefited many Mysuru medical, engineering and science students, as he took back their new but now, which he originally gave them as loan, charging only a few Rupees for their use. He would then loan them again to the next batch of students . He thus helped very many poor students. Local vegetable and fruit markets and street markets where the sellers from the villages arrived for the day bringing them fresh fruits and vegetables, at very competitive prices,were starting to flourish, thus diminishing the importance of the Devaraja Market. The pansare Shetty shops were banished from the vicinity of the Dufferin Clock Tower
Then only 2 major hospitals-the KR and Cheluvamba Hospitals, and the mission Hospital. The latter had had its first wave excellent surgeons and physicians from England, who established the high quality care and service, particularly to the poor. The Mission , expected the Indian physicians and surgeons to continue this service, and to that end, they head-hunted those young Indian doctors who were being trained in England, and working at the English hospitals. They got excellent physician, your brother and an equally excellent surgeon. Unlike their counterparts in the KR Hospitals, these were trained to the standards expected in an England hospital, particularly the excellent ethos that go with providing the care. They could have easily been picked by top Bombay hospitals. In contrast ,the physicians and surgeons in the KR Hospital pocketed the non-practising allowance and became the doctors for Santhepet rich merchants!
During this time, England produced the Ford Escort right side steering wheel family cars, which was a roaring success. Ford also had factories in Europe which produced left side steering wheel cars.
Your brother’s car attracted attention by all when he drove through the Sayyaji Road. Its glowing red paint did this !
Your brother represented what was still good about Mysuru , before the rot set in. You can be really proud of this.