My great grandfather Mylar Rao was born in 1868. In all probabilities his schooling would have been in Mysore itself going by one pencil rough draft he had made in the 1890s for an application for a govt. job where he introduces himself saying that his father was 'in Mysore Council Service'.
It was the British era when the standard of education was high class. The positive British influence reflected at jobs people held. Thanks also to our Mysore Maharajas several dedicated teachers from Britain were employed. Discipline, good habits, sincerity and hard work were inculcated in schools but they also came from within the families, almost naturally. Among the many 'good habits' was 'diary writing'. Mylar Rao had fairly regularly kept up this practice almost right through, but was inconsistent towards his end in 1936.
This post is about just some of the entries he had made in them.
Where did I find these 18-20 diaries?
My grandfather, renting the ancestral house, moved to another in 1950. Among the several old pieces of furniture was one wooden almirah, said to be full of 'unwanted' stuff. It had been kept in a passage that was the staircase room which led to the space [rented] upstairs. My curiosity in the late 70s led me to open and investigate the contents of this almirah. The black-painted doors were stuck with dust. I force-opened, alert to the chance of cockroaches flying out! Luckily none, but only dead specimens, as if trapped in. Books, papers, diaries, account books and letter correspondence - this was my actual interest for the old postage stamps - lay there! Most of them were from Mylar Rao's lifetime.
After a thorough dusting and screening, I segregated the items that were interesting and worth further preservation. It was only in more recent years that I found Mylar Rao's diaries had some beautiful [copied] quotes, some incidents, his activities at work, his brief daily routine and some amusing self-instructions and admonishments. The oldest diary is from 1898 when he was 30 years old. The little diaries and his handwriting are beauties in their own right.
Let me pick up a few pages that I found interesting.
Mylar Rao was working in various positions like Munsiff, Asst. Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in the towns in and around Mysore between 1898 and 1926 [retirement].
It was the British era when the standard of education was high class. The positive British influence reflected at jobs people held. Thanks also to our Mysore Maharajas several dedicated teachers from Britain were employed. Discipline, good habits, sincerity and hard work were inculcated in schools but they also came from within the families, almost naturally. Among the many 'good habits' was 'diary writing'. Mylar Rao had fairly regularly kept up this practice almost right through, but was inconsistent towards his end in 1936.
This post is about just some of the entries he had made in them.
Where did I find these 18-20 diaries?
My grandfather, renting the ancestral house, moved to another in 1950. Among the several old pieces of furniture was one wooden almirah, said to be full of 'unwanted' stuff. It had been kept in a passage that was the staircase room which led to the space [rented] upstairs. My curiosity in the late 70s led me to open and investigate the contents of this almirah. The black-painted doors were stuck with dust. I force-opened, alert to the chance of cockroaches flying out! Luckily none, but only dead specimens, as if trapped in. Books, papers, diaries, account books and letter correspondence - this was my actual interest for the old postage stamps - lay there! Most of them were from Mylar Rao's lifetime.
[I used it for many years and this is how it looked upon painting.]
After a thorough dusting and screening, I segregated the items that were interesting and worth further preservation. It was only in more recent years that I found Mylar Rao's diaries had some beautiful [copied] quotes, some incidents, his activities at work, his brief daily routine and some amusing self-instructions and admonishments. The oldest diary is from 1898 when he was 30 years old. The little diaries and his handwriting are beauties in their own right.
Let me pick up a few pages that I found interesting.
Mylar Rao was working in various positions like Munsiff, Asst. Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in the towns in and around Mysore between 1898 and 1926 [retirement].
"My conduct on the bench was rather regretable, caused partly by the unpreparedness of the lawyers and partly by my anxiety to turn out more work than it seems possible for me. Story of miracles we should not possess a gift of which we do not know the right use."
Left page of next day: "Conduct satisfactory. Strength of will can work miracles. Cultivate it. Many people discontinue reading after they enter in to life. I am one of them. I should hereafter make it a point to devote at least a few hours every day in reading something."
Left page: "Mr. Shama Rao's arrival. So far as manners, I am becoming a little rude. I should not be so. I must mend them and be more hospitable. Supper at Mr. Krishna Rao's. Work hard. Do not waste time."
Right page: "My boy is very delicate. A blow yesterday made him make water. I feel troubled nowadays at slight circumstances. Do not know the reason why. Have not finished arrears of work. Must be more sharp in writing out judgments."
"Sorry that my behaviour in court was not as it ought to have been. I was rather narrow-minded. There is no use of losing one's temper for the wickedness of others. An opportunity must be waited and the lesson taught. Why should there be any more pa.... "
"Beware of borrowing things from others. Had a fall from Cheluva Iyengar's machine. The brake was a little bent." [Machine = Bicycle]
"5.30 am. Was very slow in my work. After a record is read, it is always necessary to take some time to consider the points to be prominently set forth in the judgment and arrange them. My hurry has to some extent been the cause of my slackness. Obligations make one a slave."
"Be slow to place yourself under the obligations of another person. If possible, never place yourself in that position."
Death of his servant Puttappa is felt. ".... faithful and an obedient servant, never failing in his duty, character found wanting in many a so called educated man."
May 1899.
"Rode on the bicycle from here to Bankipur and back again. Owing to my rashness, I let the machine run into a pit, fell off it, and damaged two of the spokes. Beware of running headlong."
[They were all mud 'tracks' back then!]
Right page: "Entertained a new servant Nagappa by name. Sudden illness and harshness of the throat, commencing at about 10 a.m."
September, Nagappa dies. He writes: "I am rather unfortunate in my cooks. Both of them were good people and both died. God bless their souls."
This was printed at Krishna Vilas Press here.
May 1900... he writes "Must have a time-table and must work according to it. Every night half an hour for Kanarese reading and another half an hour general reading. Morning one hour for professional studies and the remainder for writing judgment. This seems to be a fair regulation of work. May I be helped to continue this kind of work."
He probably could not, as there are many blank pages!
On the left page he regrets having left the 'shed' [may be he was renting it during his job outside Mysore] and on the right, he realzes..."My conduct in leaving the sheds where I was so comfortable and had such excellent company seems inexplicable. The whole of this day my mind was disturbed. Many a time did it strike me why I should not go back to the sheds and be as happy as ever. Blessed be the Dr."
Left page: "Morning spent in cycling. Afternoon wasted in idle work. Wrote to brother regarding the Upanayana of the boy. Mother's wish must be respected. A man can have only one person who can be called by that name."
Left page: "Went out shooting in the morning. Crocodile in the river. Duck - Bagged nothing after all. Felt exhausted in the afternoon. Had a good nap."
Right page: It is the last page - December 31, 1900: ".... The apparent natural inclination of all people seems to be to utter a falsehood in all cases in which they think that the speaking of truth is against their interest in some way or other. Good bye to the 19th century."
Right page: It is the last page - December 31, 1900: ".... The apparent natural inclination of all people seems to be to utter a falsehood in all cases in which they think that the speaking of truth is against their interest in some way or other. Good bye to the 19th century."
Shooting? I did not know that! And what a fuss the world made with "Y2K" - Year 2000! The end of the 19th century passed just like any other day!
1917 diary.
In his official capacity Mylar Rao was accompanying the 'guests' to the "Kheddas" - a method they used to trap wild elephants in the forests for taming them - and shooting trips.
Left page: "The Gaekwar went bison shooting today and bagged a good one in no time. Very lucky."Right page: "In the evening, we walked up to the Chirakulli Hill from where we were able to have a good view of the surrounding country. It was one of the signal stations and by means of the telescope kept there, the temple and the bungalow on the Chamundi [hill] were clearly visible. Excitement on account of a wild baby elephant coming away to camp."
[There are some pictures of the Kheddas of those times in our album.]
Left page: "Traveled from Budipadaga back to Mysore. Excitement in camp owing to a wild tusker having come to the crawl. Yesterday the Maharaja shot a tusker and today the Maharani who was unsuccessful in the jungle where she had gone shot in the crawl the tusker which was giving a lot of trouble. Piety among the educated is at a low point."
Right page: "H.H.'s guest Mr. Oomabhai was shewn the Sandal Oil Factory, the Jagan Mohan Palace and the Garage in the morning. In the afternoon, he was taken to Seringapatam and Krishnaraja Sagara. H.H. returned from Budipadaga this day."
[Garage = the Palace Garage where the fleet of Royal Cars were kept.]
His diary writing had become irregular at times and there were a few blank ones pages of which he used for copying small portions of articles esp. from newspapers [The Hindu] that interested him. This he did after he retired in 1926, but never failed to write his family account, which will be in a separate post.
In fact, I did try to imitate this type of diary and account writing for a few years.
In fact, I did try to imitate this type of diary and account writing for a few years.
1 comment:
Exquisite almirah, quite well maintained too - I think the credit entirely goes to you.
Interesting diaries. The 1899 one even mentions "finest goose and swan quills and steel pens"! The handwriting is so good too. Your grandfather was a kind, benevolent and righteous man.
Post a Comment