Land of Lime

Before we enter the realm of the sublimely ridiculous, time to be serious for a moment. Deccan Herald reports a shameful story from Gonal village in Gulbarga district. A Dalit IAS officer was refused permission to hold his nephew’s wedding in the local temple and use its community hall. The story is shameful at so many levels, I wouldnt’ know where to begin. I wish Gonal Bhimappa, the IAS officer in case here, had raised a stinker. That’s even more upsetting. So let us delve into the sublimely ridiculous.

This could happen only in Mysore, capital of the Land of Lime. Look at this image:

It surely doesn’t look like this, right:

Mysoreans are used to seeing elephants and their mahouts on the streets of Mysore, preparing for the annual Dasara procession. Or during the procession itself, when decked elephants parade through the streets of the city, while being watched by hundreds of thousands of people.

But yesterday, Indira, a female elephant owned by the erstwhile prince of Mysore kingdom and former Member of Parliament, Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, decided to take a walk, for over three hours, keeping her mahouts and Mysore Police in tanterhooks. My favorite newspaper, Star of Mysore, screams in its headline ‘Providential escape for Mysoreans’ and reports:

People on the elephant route, puzzled over the unexpected sight of the animal, ran helter-skelter in panic, so also the vehicle riders who drove to their safety. … The elephant, Indira, sneaked out through the Southern Varaha Gate of Mysore Palace when Kavadi Nagesh (kavadis are assistants to mahouts) was bathing the animal. It appears, the elephant got angered as Nagesh was scrubbing its left ear with a stone. It nudged him and charged towards the Varaha Gate….It was an unusual scene with mahouts and their assistants, armed with clubs, running be-hind the elephant which proceeded menancingly on Purandara Dasa Road to enter Sayyaji Rao Road.

I wish I had the time to do a map of its route, since those of you from Mysore would have truly appreciated Indira’s ‘way’. Anyway, SOM reports that even bringing in four more elephants from the palace didn’t pacify Indira, who had decided to take a rest for a while. By this time, a huge crowd too had gathered, following the elephant at a safe distance. After a while, it decided to return to its humble abode, the Mysore Palace, along the same route.

In fact, its anger did not apparently subside. On reaching the Palace, the elephant collected mud with its trunk and sprayed all over its body. Later, it played with water sucked from the pond and had a bath. ….It was an elephantine task for the Palace staff, who chained Indira after struggling for nearly half-an-hour thus bringing the ‘Operation Jumbo’ to an end. The operation was supervised by Mrs. Pramoda Devi Wadiyar.

I am glad she did. If our former Prince was in charge, then Indira would still be roaming. We, Mysoreans, have such bitter feelings (at least, I do) at his incompetence and laziness, I don’t even want to verbalize my sentiments. Instead of that, let me quote verbatim another SOM report that seeks to explain Indira’s ways:

The Palace staff today claimed that the female elephant, Indira, is in heat and it was the reason for its unusual behaviour today. All the seven elephants owned by Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar are females. They are Preethi, Chanchal, Seeta, Ruby, Rajeshwari, Jamuni and Indira. The group has no male elephant. According to sources, Indira had attacked the mahouts Ashok and Riyaz about three months ago. They underwent treatment at BGS Apollo Hospital. The Palace security reportedly had given its opinion to Wadiyar that the female elephants were feeling the absence of a male companion.

Wadiyar had assured that he would purchase two male elephants as early as possible.

Surely, mahout Nagesh nibbling Indira’s ears with a stone ain’t gonna be enough. Yo, Prince, if you want to start a collection, lemme know. I will send a buck or two.

Folks, while we are at it, let us not forget Gonal too. There are too many of those villages, even in the Land of Lime.