Kaaluru Kronicles: An Introduction

On the way to Mysuru from Bengaluru, around thirty kilometers before Mysuru, on a nondescript board was written in English and Kannada “Kaaluru” with an arrow pointing left. The distance was written below the arrow – twenty-five kilometers. The board stood next to a banyan tree, comfortably in its shade. Buses that ran on the highway stopped here and people who wanted to go to Kaaluru boarded the private bus that started from the banyan tree. There was no government bus to Kaaluru and all the private buses were owned by the son of a former village accountant. Some smelt a scam. It was said, although in hushed tones, that a few years ago, the government had taken unusual interest in introducing government buses on the Kaaluru-Highway line. Then, the owner of these buses had lobbied with the MLAs from Mandya & Mysuru to get the plan stopped midway. He had spent lakhs on getting this project scrapped, it was believed. Nobody knew how he had earned so much money, because not many people travelled to Kaaluru and the population of Kaaluru itself was a few thousand at the maximum. People spoke of unauthorized bars he operated in Bengaluru, with a famous politician for a god-father. Nobody knew for sure, though.

In Kannada, “kaalu” has dual connotations – one is “leg” and the other “quarter of a whole”. “Ooru” could mean any inhabited place like a village or a town or a metropolis. The origin of the name “Kaaluru” was rooted in a legend, some learned folk said. When Goddess Chamundeshwari slayed Mahishasura (after whom Mysuru is named), his legs fell where the town stood today, giving rise to its name. Some “new-age rationalists”, the youth mainly, had an entirely different theory. According to them, while administration was run from Mysuru by the royalty, Kaaluru was very significant. Since it was nearly a quarter of the distance between Mysuru and Bengaluru (two big cities of the erstwhile Mysore state) it came to be known as Kaaluru or the “town which is one-fourth” the distance. The old guard, who could not tolerate such blasphemy (of disowning the puranic origins of their town), had a counter-argument ready - if the town was significant as recently as around seventy years ago, why was there not even something as elementary as government bus service?!

The entrance to Kaaluru was shaped like an entrance of a fort. It was mentioned in the footnotes of some history books as the Kaaluru Fort, although some believed it to be just an abandoned extension of the Srirangapatna (famous for Tipu Sultan’s summer palace) Fort. It was a small town, with just one main road running from the entrance of the fort to the end of the town, which ended on the banks of river Kaveri. It was called the M.G. Road. According to those who lived long enough after the freedom struggle to tell the tale, the Mahatma was supposed to visit Kaaluru after visiting Srirangapatna & Mysore. Local Congress workers along with the Headman, accountant and priest had gathered enough man-power to lay a new road to welcome the Mahatma. They said Gandhi was to arrive on February 2^nd. News broke out on January 30^th that “the light had gone out”, plunging the nation into darkness. Even in his death, Gandhi had given Kaaluru a lesson in self-reliance and self-sufficiency – they had built the road themselves, without government interference. The Mahatma had always wanted decentralization, that the village should be the unit of governance. Ironically, he did not live long enough to see this village realize his dreams. [Gandhi’s secretary never recollected any mention of a plan visit to Mysore, let alone Kaaluru, though!] 

An old, abandoned temple of Lord Vishnu lay on the banks of Kaveri. According to some, the temple was part of the town centuries ago which was abandoned when there was a huge flood and people were forced to move higher up, where the town now stood. Nobody built a temple for Vishnu on the outskirts of a village or town, they argued. The responsibility of protecting the village was traditionally left to Lord Hanuman. During every election, whenever the sitting MLA visited Kaaluru, people petitioned him to declare the abandoned temple as a monument. The leader would listen to them sincerely and promise to do his best. However, he would return to the town only during the next election, to receive similar petitions. A mantap belonging to the abandoned temple lay with its steps submerged in the river. People did not dare to venture near the temple or the mantap alone in the night. Voices were heard from the temple and figures were seen moving around the mantap, they said. In fact, mothers frequently invoked the ghosts of the mantap and the abandoned temple to ensure their children listened to them.

The railway line ran along the banks of river Kaveri. However, not many trains stopped at Kaaluru. The station itself was very small. It had only one platform with a couple of benches. There was also a small shop which sold tea, biscuits and juices of different colours. The owner supplemented his meagre income by being the sole newspaper agent for the whole of Kaaluru. The Mysuru-Bengaluru passenger train stopped regularly in the mornings. He had an arrangement with the drivers on the route and they would deliver the newspapers from Mysuru. The whistle of the train leaving Kaaluru served as an alarm to the people. Other trains stopped only if there was traffic at subsequent junctions. The platform was used by the idlers of Kaaluru and the surrounding villages for playing cards. In fact, they provided more business to the shop than all the passengers from the train could provide in a week!

A little distance away from the railway station stood a banyan tree, with its shade spreading across the road. The stone platform around the tree was used as a bus-stop and buses to the highway started from here. The entrance to Kaaluru Government Primary & High School stood beside the stone platform. The school itself consisted of three single-storied buildings with huge grounds in the middle. Every year, during Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti, the entire town gathered there for celebrations. The school had four teachers for around a hundred students from class one to class ten. For education beyond school, they went to Srirangapatna. Fellows who were a little more ambitious went to Mysuru and only those who could afford it dared to even dream about Bengaluru!

Welcome to Kaaluru!