Melukote ~ An Imagined Landscape

‘ They have come for shooting…’ 

‘No..no they have come for survey’ exclaimed the other, as they stared at
wooden cases we were carrying. 

We managed to reach Chennai Central two hours earlier even after all the
last minute printing and packing. The office had once again transformed into a space of festivity,with people involved in different works, preparing for the big day. We had decided to carry all the wooden cases and luggage ourselves into the train.Later after walking across from platform 1 – 10, receiving peculiar glances from everyone in the station did we realise that we did not have enough time to shift the rest of the luggage and sort the help of a porter, who literally ran with a heavy wooden case on his head. And thus began our journey to Melukote.

We reached Mysore next morning and a tempo was arranged till Melukote. All seven of us managed to fit  into the small tempo along with our luggage. The poor tempo with all our weight managed to climb up hill as we admired the landscape.Any landscape brings along a sense of admiration and ‘wow’ ness for the first time visitor,which fades off with familiarity.

We were welcomed by Santosh Koulagi from Janapada Seva Trust, who have been pioneers of conservation in Melukote and have been of immense constant support from the beginning of the research five years ago.Soon we started looking for the venue for the exhibition.‘Bale Mantapa’ adjoining the ‘ Pancha Kalyani ‘ – the largest tank with pillared halls in Melukote,a place visited both by the tourist and local people, was decided as the venue.

The first photographer to document all 135 ( as of now ) tanks of Melukote ,
Ayyalu.R.Kumaran also became our ‘Ropeman’ (similar to superman , batman , ironman ) as he started tying jute ropes across the pillars of the mantapa. The design of trail of the people moving in the exhibition happened during the process of tying the ropes. Its a huge learning process in itself. 

Next morning after a heartfelt invocation to water by Sivaraj from Cuckoo Forest School we started cleaning up the mandapa and pinning up the panels.Local kids, excitedly joined us in setting up of the exhibition. The trailer of the ongoing documentary was played in loop on a projector screen. The sounds of wind instrument played by Dasappas from the speaker at times was in synch with them playing in the kalyani. To see the movie in the place where it was shot simultaneously was an experience in itself.

The banners in Kannada and English, calendar, bookmarks, bags and a model showcasing the entire landscape (with streets, houses, tanks( along with the photo panels of all tanks in Melukote gave a new perspective to the locals about their own place. At about 11 am, about 100 school children in bright coloured uniforms were walking in a line on the steps of kalyani, towards the exhibition.. They all sat on the steps of the tank and had a quick discussion about the exhibition,water system of Melukote and Anupam Mishra, who the exhibition was dedicated to. The team who had worked tirelessly days and nights together were felicitated in the Kalyani with the applause of school children. 

There was intense sense of pride amongst children, to spot their houses and tanks they knew of in the model.The children at the end of the exhibition by their little finger prints pledged to save the tanks.

On the other hand were old aged men and women in their 90s, who lamented about the tanks that have been closed down and helped us to locate on the map.Cows, buffaloes, goats, monkeys were few of the regular visitors to the exhibition. Few local people who have never participated in public events, came forward to see the exhibition.The cloth bags which read ‘ Namma ooru..Namma kola ‘ were gifted to the local people. The documentary gained more attention as the sun went down and video became more clear in the open space. Lot of local people through word of mouth gathered to watch the documentary.

Priyanka who had assisted in coordinating all the research work, was seen coming along with an elderly person who was unable to walk. He was given a chair to sit upon and the documentary was played. The old man was in tears of joy as he saw himself weaving in the big screen. The documentary was planned to be screened in different places of congregation in the town, the next evening.The evening after packing up for the day was followed by Hot samosa and bajji from a small shop fondly called by localities as the ‘Mama kadai’.‘We couldn’t control smiling and tearing up looking at a dosa’ during dinner, for all of us had been on a puliyogare trail and badly wanted a change.After dinner in the night, we had walked to ‘akka-thangai kola’, two tanks adjoining each other.We had a round of sharing experiences through the day, along with songs in the soul stirring voices of Priyanka and Mirra, with a blanket of stars over us.

Next morning a young shepherd was talking to his mother as they were taking their cows to graze…” There are photos of more than 150 kolas in the mandapa there..we will go see it in the afternoon”. As we started putting up the panels, Thulsi, a young kid came with her notebook and pen,started noting down all the names of the tanks. These two kids to us were the proof of the exhibition having served its purpose. The exhibition went on during the day with tourists and local people visiting. There were also people from the local panchayath and ASI Karnataka who were hopeful for water system to be revived.We winded the exhibition with a circle of feedback,learnings and ideas for improvement.

The next morning we hiked up the hill to be blessed by the orange ball of light.
We circumambulated the hill and decided the venue for the release of documentary.We left in the evening to Mysore by the same tempo, except this time the tempo was late by an hour. As we reached Mysore just on time for the train, that was a test of resistance, perseverance and patience for all of us with wooden cases we carried back. Again we had to run with all the energy we had left to board the boxes into the train. All the people in the station were awe stuck with the way we all were frantically running in the platform, unable to carry the boxes. We surely wouldn’t have had such an experience if we had got help from a porter. 

The  night before leaving as we were sitting in the kalyani with our legs dipped in the water and recollecting our experiences through the day,the proclaimed guardian of the tank angrily said “Don’t spoil the water by dipping your feet”. And we smiled.

As we reached chennai we were stopped by RPF to enquire what was inside the box.
And we smiled again.