GVK -' Bye Mysore... Hello.. Chennai...!

G.V. Krishnan moved to Mysore from Coonoor as per his own words, ' to explore something new in the quaint little Royal town-city' of Mysore.

And explore, he did.

He had worked in Times of India as their correspondent in a number of offices from Gwalior, rubbing shoulders with the late Arjun Singh and was regarded as one of his 'men', to London where a visit to Veeraswamy for Masala Dosa was one of the pleasures in the posting after mandatory visits to Hyde Park.

GVK , affectionately so called by friends and strangers alike, soon settled down in Mysore and quickly found Mysore was too laid-back for his liking.

Five years back the Internet was taking roots, Blogging had just started and Facebook and Tweeting had not made their appearance.

GVK started the Blog' Mera Mysore Mahaan' which later morphed into' Mysore Blog Park' with bloggers from all over the world expressing their views on' masala dose at Vidyarthi Bhavan' to' aviation mechanics' to' 'Temples of Tamil Nadu'. It became a hit and is still a meeting point of many a blogger.

But contentment has never made its presence in GVK's genes. 'Why are there so few trees in Mysore?' Why not involve the youngsters to do something to plant saplings?' were the refrain going on in his head; so was born the ‘Friends of Roadside Trees' (FORT) blog. Tree enthusiasts share their common interest in saplings and how to coax the Municipality and corporators to do something in their wards.

As expected with GVK, he further branched into actual planting of saplings with Mr. Gurkar who had made his ambition in life to plant as many saplings in road corners as possible. Then, ideas such as 'why not Present' saplings for birthdays, or ‘while joining a school?' or ‘give the gift of a sapling to the newlyweds'?, came up..

Then came a blog for 'Giving it a shot’ in which people wrote about one idea which can make a difference to the community. In 'Giving it a shot', we had proposed an idea to make children wash their hands with soap every time before having food which can bring the sickness in children dramatically down. Subsequently it became a rage.

The students of Anantgeetha' school was also exposed to the idea of tree planting as was' gap planting ‘which was done in front of Mysore mail itself.

The shelfari collections of Books came on the scene in between...

For most people this should have been enough to rest and spend their time feetup with their grandchildren ...but our friend is made of different stuff altogether…Glaxo should do well to do a study of his energy levels.

Soon, it was 'Mysore Santhey' - a unique concept of mixing with young and old on sunday mornings and sharing their experiences on anything.. These were 'harate' sessions which helped strangers to walk in and introduce themselves and participate in the discussion or initiate topics on their own...

With Facebbok coming in a big way, GVK , who has a separate vein for technology flow , took it up like fish to water.. rather a jockey to Ascot.... he scanned all news, TED, NYT and scooped out nuggets.. Then it was tweeting.. In between Mysore Banyans was launched which was put in Facebook.. Long lost Pollachi clan was hunted down..

Early mornings were reserved for walk around JLB road, University Campus and these GVK'S haunts were put in the' My Mysore' photo blog...

The posts in ‘Mysore Blog Park’ were also edited and put in Mysore Mail' as ' Bloggers' corner.’

'The Mysore Photowalk' is a stunning success with youngsters scouting different locations for taking photographs once every fortnight.

In between GVK and his wife would visit their grandchildren in California at least twice a year.. It was while going to the airport to Bangalore they survived a near- miraculous escape from a bloody road accident with a huge tanker.

Now GVK is packing off and is heading to Chennai.

Knowing him, I am pretty sure he is not the type to' take it easy' or 'slow down'.... far from it..He hasn’t heard of these words… With a frown he will survey what needs to be done in Chennai and will be at it from next morning at 5.30 sharp along with his wife.

That's GVK for you.

It was ‘Namaskara’, when he came to Mysore.

Now we say, 'Dhanyavaada' and 'Nanri' as he goes to Chennai for what all he did here in Mysore.

GVK, ‘Vanakkam’....., 'Paarkalaam' in Chennai!

................

E.R. Ramachandran March 21, 2011

(In the picture GVK is with Kiran Ravikumar with the idea of ‘Mysore photowalk’ just brewing in Manuvana Park opposite the Law Courts…..)