In the 18th century, the neighbourhood of Mavalli had been the stamping ground of the brilliant military strategist and one-time ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali. It was here, in 1760, that he set up a 40-acre rose and cypress garden, which, by KS Nisar Ahmed’s time, had grown into the 240-acre botanical garden of Lalbagh. Nisar was born in Devanahalli, which is also the birthplace of Hyder’s famous son, Tipu Sultan. But it was Mavalli – and Lalbagh, in particular – that had the biggest and most enduring impact on Nisar’s life and work.
“Like everyone else interested in Kannada literature, I read Kuvempu as a boy,” he recalls, referring to KV Puttappa, considered to be the greatest Kannada writer of the 20th century. “Reading his epic novel Kanooru Subbamma Heggadathi (translated into English by Ramachandra Sharma as The House of Kanooru in 1999), I was transported to the verdant hills and dales of Kuvempu’s home region, Malenadu, and wished I had that kind of inspiration for my writing, instead of the tedium of the city. But not for long, because I had Lalbagh. Every evening, after my Quran class at the local masjid, I headed straight for my own Malenadu…
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