Battleground Hunsur: Why MLA GT Devegowda's support is crucial for the bye-poll

Politics

Chamundeshwari MLA GT Devegowda has chosen to stay away from campaigning in Hunsur, where former JD(S) state President AH Vishwanath is contesting on a BJP ticket.

Theja Ram

The poll battle in Karnataka’s Hunsur in Mysuru district is a crucial one, especially for the BJP, which has fielded rebel leader and former JD(S) state President AH Vishwanath as its candidate. The Congress has fielded HP Manjunath, a former MLA from the region. Vishwanath, who is a veteran in state politics, is facing anti-incumbency in the region. The JD(S) on the other hand has fielded C Somasekhar, a local contractor, who has bagged many road projects in the state. The JD(S) fielded a new face who has not been affiliated to state politics, sources say, in a bid to curb the power of Chamundeshwari MLA GT Devegowda. A consequential figure in Mysuru district’s politics, GT Devegowda’s support is important for the JD(S) candidate due his strong reach in the region. However, GT Devegowda has off late, openly expressed his disappointment with the JD(S) and has refused to step outside and campaign for the party’s own candidate. “I have nothing to do with this election. I am not for or against anyone,” GT Devegowda had told the media last week. GT Devegowda has also been seen with BJP MP of Chamarajagnagar – V Srinivas Prasad and speculation is rife that he is offering his support, indirectly, to AH Vishwanath instead. His reluctance to support his own party has raised several questions and the most important one is – what made him turn against his own party? Highly placed sources in the JD(S) say that GT Devegowda has been unhappy with his party ever since the coalition government, in 2018, offered him the Primary and Secondary Education portfolio. Devegowda, who had repeatedly told the media that he was unhappy with the portfolio allocation, is said to have been rendered unhappy when the JD(S) announced its list of candidates for the bye-elections. GT Devegowda had hoped to bargain with the JD(S) leadership for a ticket for his son Harish Gowda in return for his support, say sources. However, the party fielded C Somashekar in a bid to curb GT Devegowda’s powers, as he was openly holding talks with Srinivas Prasad. GT Devegowda, Ah Vishwanath and Srinivas Prasad are close, JD(S) insiders say, as they share a common bond – their rivalry with former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Both Vishwanath and Srinivas Prasad left the Congress as they blamed Siddaramaiah for trying to sabotage their political careers. GT Devegowda’s rivalry with Siddaramaiah stems from what he calls betrayal. GT Devegowda, a staunch supporter of the JD(S) says he was betrayed by Siddaramaiah when the latter joined the Congress. JD(S) insiders allege that GT Devegowda has decided to offer his support to his close friend – AH Vishwanath. “Both Srinivas Prasad and Vishwanath are now in the BJP. The two leaders have been trying to get GT Devegowda onto their team as well. But he has been reluctant to let go of the Dal. In order to get back at the JD(S) for refusing to give his son a ticket for the Hunsur bye-polls and to undercut Siddaramaiah, GTD is supporting the BJP,” the JD(S) source alleges. BJP insiders say that GT Devegowda’s support has given the party a good chance to win the elections as Vishwanath is facing anti-incumbency. “Srinivas Prasad and Devegowda know the old Mysuru region and its politics very well. He has huge following even outside of Chamundeshwari. When the disgruntled leaders resigned, GT Devegowda too wanted to. But he did not want to join the BJP,” the source adds. The BJP needs to win seven seats in order to continue as the ruling party in the Karnataka Assembly. The party currently has 105 MLAs and the support of one independent. It requires the seven seats to form a simple majority of 113 in an Assembly of 224 legislators.     

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International drug racket busted in Bengaluru, Amazon packaging used to ship drugs

Crime

Police have recovered marijuana, e-cigarettes, hash oil and chocolates laced with ganja worth over Rs 1 crore.

TNM Staff

The Bengaluru Police have busted an international drug trafficking ring allegedly operating from Canada via the dark web and arrested two peddlers on Friday. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said that the drugs were being shipped using Amazon’s packaging cover. The Central Crime Branch, which busted the racket has recovered 2.75 kg of marijuana, 100 e-cigarettes, hash oil, chocolates and jelly laced with ganja worth over Rs 1 crore. The CCB sleuths arrested a graduate in computer application – Atif Salim (25), who allegedly began the drug trafficking operation seven months ago, along with his associate Rohith Das (26). Both are natives of Kolkata and had been living in the city for a few years. The arrest was made on Thursday after which details of the shipment were obtained by the police The CCB sleuths had received a tip a few months ago that shipments of drugs worth lakhs were coming in to Bengaluru through the Kempegowda International Airport. According to the police, Atif Salim had contacted a drug peddler on the dark web through a messaging app Wickr Me. The drug peddler, police say, is from Canada and the information was obtained after the police questioned Atif. “The drugs were packaged in milk powder cans and shipped. They were put inside a bag that conceals the items inside and the scanners pick up only the shape of the bag, which would look like folded clothes or some such thing. The police have recovered 14 milk powder cans from the which had the marijuana concealed in them,” Bhaskar Rao said. Three packets of ganja-laced chocolate and jelly have been recovered along with hashish oil canisters that were to be used in 100 e-cigarettes. 900 ml of hashish oil was seized. How the accused used Amazon for shipping drugs Atif used to deliver drugs to peddlers and clients in Mumbai and Delhi through courier that used packaging material that looked like it was from e-commerce site Amazon. “We are trying to find out how he got access to Amazon’s packaging material. He would use this packaging and this would not raise suspicion. The shipment that came in with Amazon packaging as well. The product they were selling is called hydro and each gram of it would sell for Rs 4,000,” CCB Chief Sandeep Patil said. How he bought drugs from Canadian supplier Atif allegedly did not know the identity of the supplier and paid for the shipment through bitcoin. The CCB sleuths are now combing through Atif’s chats on Wickr Me and are trying to identify the supplier. “We will seek the help of Interpol after we figure out who the supplier is,” CCB Chief Patil said. Police say that Atif was the primary distributor of ganja in the country. Once the supplier sent the shipment from Canada, Atif allegedly supplied it to other peddlers in the city. The police have passed on the information of the peddlers to Delhi and Mumbai police, who are currently tracking them down. He would get a 25% cut of the money made from selling the drugs in the total consignment. Sandeep Patil said that the parents of a youth in Bengaluru, who had procured ganja from Atif allegedly informed the police.    

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Chemical inside IED that was being tested caused Bengaluru Forensic Lab blast: Cops

Accident

The explosion on Friday left six members of the staff injured, with three of them sustaining grievous injuries.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

An improvised explosive device (IED), which was being tested as evidence at the Karnataka State Forensics Science Laboratory in Bengaluru’s Madiwala, exploded on Friday afternoon leaving six members of the staff, injured. Three of them sustained grievous injuries, including one of the victims who lost an eye and a ear. While the fire and emergency service vehicle was pressed into service, the Deputy Commissioner of Police South East, Isha Pant, and a bomb squad also rushed to the spot. The victims are currently undergoing treatment at St John’s Hospital in Koramangala. Within minutes of the explosion, the police cordoned off the area. According to doctors treating the victims at St John’s hospital, the blast occurred due to an undetonated IED, which contained triactone triperoxide, a combustible chemical. Sreenath, one of the victims of the explosion, lost a finger, while Navya, the forensics expert, lost an eye and hearing in one ear as her ear had been detached due to the blast. Both were shifted to Apollo Hospital for treatment. Another victim of the blast, Prabhu, sustained an injury to his skull, and underwent surgery on Friday night.  "They told me he's in the operation theatre now, with a wound to his head. We don't know what will happen to him. We are praying,” said Amit, a relative of Prabhu, to TNM. The other three victims, Basavaprabhu, Vishwanath, and Vishwanathan, sustained minor injures, and were discharged on Friday evening after medical treatment. According to a senior police official, the victims were all new recruits and trainees and had begun examining the IED that was seized from Raichur in a case that was registered in 2016. In December 2016, soon after demonetisation, the Raichur Police had stopped a KSRTC bus on suspicion that new Rs 2,000 notes were being transported. A couple of cartons were recovered and the police had found they had wires attached to it. A bomb squad was pressed into service and the Raichur Police had declared that the bomb was not live. “The police took two years to catch the suspects and now they wanted the FSL report due to which the IED was being tested. The Raichur Police had in their report stated that the IED was not live. The staff were operating with this knowledge. Generally, when IED evidence is sent to the FSL, it is first detonated. In this case, it was the chemical inside the device that caused the explosion,” a senior police official said. Read: Two improvised explosive devices found in KSRTC bus going from Hyderabad to Raichur Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said that the head of the department Dr Vani, was in Shivamogga to depose as a witness in a case and hence was not in the lab on Friday. “There are numerous backlogs in the FSL. Evidence from all over the country comes here and there are 10 people to do the job. There has been a longstanding demand from the police for better equipment and more staff at the Karnataka State Forensics Lab. There are backlogs going back years that delay the progress of important cases because of the lack of staff,” the senior police official said.    

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The uncertain future of the Bangladeshi immigrants taken from Bengaluru to Kolkata

Immigration

The only thing that’s certain is that no one – neither India nor Bangladesh – seems to want these people.

Geetika Mantri

Prajwal Bhat

Image for representation. Courtesy: Acagastya [CC0]

The Bengaluru police recently took 59 Bangladeshi immigrants in a train to Kolkata to be deported to Bangladesh. These 59 men, women and children were deemed illegal residents in India, and were taken by the police on a train to West Bengal. According to reports, many of them were not even intimated that they are being taken out of their homes to be detained for about a month before ultimately being deported. Media reports surfaced of the kind of lives they led – most of them did menial jobs, were household helps or labourers in Bengaluru. And now, all that is known since they deboarded at the Howrah Railway Station, is that they are housed at Nischinda in Howrah. “They were brought here in good condition. But now, we have no idea what is happening because no one is allowed to contact them,” says Darshana of Alternative Law Forum, a Bengaluru based legal research organisation, who is following the issue in Kolkata. Even as activists and social workers are trying to make sense of what is happening with these 59 people, there have been reports of many immigrants being ‘pushed back’ along the Indian border by the BSF, into Bangladesh. These people have been arrested or detained by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) – and 20 of them are reportedly children. Operation Pushback A ‘pushback’ is when the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) allegedly just pushes people across the Indian border, leaving them to find their way into Bangladesh. The procedure is dangerous and illegal. The practice has its roots in the Narasimha Rao government of 1991. Operation Push Back was formulated by him as an “action plan” against Bangladeshis staying in India illegally. In September 1992, when the first operation took place, the 132 men, women and children’s heads were shaved off, so that they could be easily identifiable if they tried to enter India again. The operation received a lot of flak for the inhumane treatment caused by “forcibly pushing Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims into Bangladesh.” The operation was suspended in November 1992 after national and international criticism. However, similar operations have since been undertaken – such as Operation Flush Out which was carried out in Maharashtra against Bangladeshi immigrants. Are Bangladeshi immigrants from Bengaluru being pushed back? On November 22, Daily Star, a leading Bangladeshi newspaper reported that 329 people had been arrested in the last three weeks by the BGB while trying to illegally enter Bangladesh from India. The arrestees were sent to district jails in Bangladesh. A BGB official told the newspaper that most of these people were from Bengaluru, where some had shifted from Assam. Twenty of these 329 people are children, along with 28 women and 67 men. Another Daily Star report said that the BGB arrested 12 persons who were illegally trying to enter Bangladesh on Wednesday. They were caught by the BGB at the Daulatpur camp in Benapole, Bangladesh. Some of them were reportedly from Bengaluru, and had been living in the city for many years. They were reportedly handed over by the Indian police to the BSF, who allegedly pushed them into Bangladesh at the border. It is not yet confirmed if these persons were part of the 59 who were taken by the Bengaluru police to Kolkata. When TNM asked Bengaluru Commissioner Bhaskar Rao about the alleged pushbacks, he washed his hands off. “Our job is to take them to Kolkata and hand them over to the West Bengal police. It is now the responsibility of the Border Security Force (BSF). They are the designated agency to ensure that immigrants cross the border,” he said. The woman left in Bengaluru Meanwhile in Bengaluru, officials speak in hushed tones while describing the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants housed in a facility near Dairy Circle. “They were brought to the centre by the police and they will be taken away by the police. We do not allow anyone to visit them,” a caretaker tells TNM, speaking on the condition of anonymity.  The 59 immigrants taken to West Bengal were initially housed at the facility for a month. However, there is still one Bangladeshi immigrant left here. Her name, according to officials, is Ushnara. According to police officials, she was held along with two other Bangladeshi immigrants in a case under the Foreigners Act. However, while the other two are currently in judicial custody, Ushnara’s name is not even in the FIR at the Attibele police station. She seems to have been left in the detention facility due to delays in paperwork. And no one knows how long she is going to remain there. On visiting the facility, TNM found that Ushnara and the other detained immigrants were kept in two rooms in one corner of the building this facility is in, and were not allowed to go outside, beyond the grilled metal doors, which are kept locked. The building is surrounded on one side by a facility for the Association for the Mentally Challenged, and a Special School for Vocational Training. On the other side is the government home for children and the government homes for senior citizens and persons with physical disabilities. Officials say that Ushnara has two children who are staying at a children’s home nearby. The caretakers said that the women are allowed to meet their children, but only “on occasion”. No takers for the immigrants On one hand, the immigrants are faced with threat of pushbacks in West Bengal. On the other, those like Ushnara stare at uncertainty, where they are only allowed conditional access to their children, and no certainty about when they will be allowed out of the facility, or what will happen after that. The only thing that’s certain is that no one seems to want these people. Nisha Biswas, a Kolkata-based activist with Association of Protection for Democratic Rights (APDR), says that immigrants who are pushed back from India also face a very real risk to life. They could be shot, or the BGB could reverse pushback them. This, even as India and Bangladesh signed an MoU in 2015 which aimed to prevent trafficking, protect the rights of trafficking victims, and lay down Standard Operating Procedures for repatriation of victims which is to be done “as expeditiously as possible”. The home country is also responsible for safe and effective reintegration of these victims, according to the MoU. The treatment being meted out the immigrants right now is inhumane and unjust, activists say. “The problem is that the state looks at them as offenders, and not as victims,” argues Nisha. “Even now, there is no documentation,” she alleges, “The names of those who have been brought to West Bengal have also not been put down. When they came to Howrah, we (activists) were at the railway stations for six hours. But we got no answers.” “The due process should have started in Bengaluru. If the authorities believed that these people were illegal immigrants, then they should have taken the matter to court. The court would then have decided whether they are illegal residents. Then the embassy mandated procedure should have been followed. This whole activity of putting them in a train and bringing them here is illegal,” Nisha adds. The case in Karnataka High Court The Karnataka High Court is presently hearing a bail plea of 14 Bangladeshi immigrants who were arrested in 2018, which could also set a precedent for how issues of illegal residents are dealt with – including in this year’s case involving the 59 people. For instance, the court has sought answers about what steps the Union and state governments plan to take for the children of the immigrants. “If the child is a minor they can be allowed to be kept with their parents but what if he/she is not and the parents don't have the capacity to take their care, outside the detention centre. What is the fate of such children? State will have to make arrangements. If there is no solution, we will have to pass directions," the court said on Thursday, reported Live Law. According to Sirajuddin Ahmed, the lawyer representing the illegal immigrants arrested in 2018, “The two cases are very similar because in both cases, immigrants from Bangladesh were found without documents. But they were handled differently because there are no spaces to detain illegal immigrants in Bengaluru.” As of now, the state government has informed the High Court that it had identified 35 spaces to temporarily detain foreigners without documents in the state. These spaces are government homes for women, children and men.  The developments also come at a time Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), first implemented in Assam, will be extended across the country. The NRC asks residents to prove their citizenship, the citizenship of their ancestors, and their relationship to their ancestors. In Assam, residents were asked to produce documents proving that they or their families lived in India before March 24, 1971, and in the final list published, more than 19 lakh residents were excluded.

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Rebellion brews in BJP ahead of Karnataka bye-polls: Will it end in sabotage?

Politics

Party insiders allege that a certain faction of the Karnataka BJP may be working against the candidates in five of the 15 segments.

Theja Ram

A game of one-upmanship is underway in the BJP’s Karnataka unit ahead of the bye-elections. Disqualified Congress and JD(S) MLAs, who are contesting on a BJP ticket, are not only fighting the opposition but also allegedly those within the ruling party. Party insiders allege that a certain faction of the Karnataka BJP may be working against the candidates in five of the 15 segments as they were not happy about the decision to offer tickets to the disqualified MLAs. The rebellion is an open one in Hoskote, where BJP MP from Chikkaballapura – Bache Gowda’s son – Sharath Bachegowda, defied the party decision and filed his nomination papers as an independent. Sharath was unhappy about the BJP offering the ticket to former Congress MLA from the segment, MTB Nagaraj. Although the party expelled Sharath earlier in November for anti-party activities, sources in the BJP’s Hoskote unit allege that a faction of the BJP, who are loyal to him, are unhappy about the party’s move.  BJP insiders claim that Sharath’s followers within the party are actively working against MTB Nagaraj as the two candidates have been arch rivals in the region for over a decade. MTB Nagaraj and Sharath’s father – Bache Gowda have a long-standing rivalry as the two have been in opposing political parties for over a decade. Nagaraju has also defeated Bache Gowda senior in the 2013 and 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections from Hoskote. “MTB Nagaraj’s base was the Congress. Now that he has shifted to the BJP, he is banking on the fact that people will vote for him and not the party he is contesting from. He has a lot of clout in the region and hence Sharath Bachegowda’s team is trying to undercut him not only from outside but from within the party as well,” the source alleges. In Chikkaballapura, former Siddaramaiah loyalist – Dr K Sudhakar too is facing a similar predicament. With former Water Resource Minister and Vokkaliga strongman DK Shivakumar campaigning for the Congress candidate M Anjappa, sources in the BJP say that the party is struggling to win in the segment, which it has never won. The Chikkaballapura segment has always elected a Congress or a Janata Party (now JD(S)) candidate and the BJP had hoped to make forays into the region by putting up disqualified MLA Sudhakar as the party’s face. However, sources allege that Sharath Bachegowda’s supporters are trying to sabotage Sudhakar’s chances of winning too as well by offering their support to Anjanappa. Another segment worrying rebel leaders is Athani, sources say, where Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi has turned sour for not bagging the ticket to contest elections. Savadi was hoping to get the ticket and ensure that disqualified MLA from the region, Mahesh Kumatahalli would be made an MLC. However, Kumatahalli’s nomination has allegedly been a bitter pill for Savadi to swallow and party insiders claim that his supporters within the party, despite being given strict orders, are working against Kumatahalli in the region. “Savadi was the candidate that BL Santhosh (BJP national General Secretary) wanted the high command to pick. His rivalry with BS Yediyurappa is one of the reasons why the opinions of party workers in Athani have been divided too. It’s not just Savadi but also former BJP leader Raju Kage (now Congress candidate from Athani) and his supporters within the party who are helping him with the elections,” a BJP leader alleges. BJP insiders say that the state leaders and the high command have warned leaders and party workers about stringent action against internal rebellions. Although the supporters of these discontented leaders seem to be working for the party, the situation in these segments are somewhat similar to what happened in Mandya when Congress party workers worked against the coalition candidate and then CM HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil, choosing to support independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, who ended up winning.  “The state intelligence survey has also shown that the BJP may fall back in at least five segments. The fact that BJP party workers are working against party candidates is also a factor to this,” the source says.  The BJP currently has 105 MLAs and the support of one independent. The party needs 7 more seats to gain a simple majority and continue in power.  

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Six injured in explosion at Bengaluru’s Forensic Science Lab

Accident

The incident occurred at around 3 pm on Friday in the Chemistry Lab of the FSL building located in Madiwala.

TNM Staff

An explosion took place at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Bengaluru on Friday afternoon and left six people injured.  The incident occurred at around 3 pm on Friday on the first floor of the FSL building located in Madiwala.  According to DCP South East Isha Pant, the explosion occurred at the Chemistry Lab in the FLS building when the personnel were testing an explosive that was sent in as a part of the evidence. A set of nine explosives which were sent in from another district was being examined when the incident occured, police said. Fire and Emergency Services personnel from the Jayanagar Station were pushed into service. According to officials at the control room, the call came in at around 3.02 pm on Friday and fire engines reached the FSL building by 3.15 pm.  "There was no fire as such but the device that the people were testing inside the lab exploded. There was a combustible powder scattered all over the lab's floor. We are currently cleaning it up with water so it doesn't catch fire," a firefighter deployed at the spot told TNM.  DCP Isha Pant said that the six injured persons have been rushed to St John's Hospital in Koramangala and are currently undergoing treatment. "Five of them are injured and one person, who was testing the device is critical," she said.  This is a developing story    

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A royal exploration: Travel back in time with a visit to Karnataka’s Sandur

Travel

The remote town located in the heart of Ballari district is home to Shivavilas Palace, which once belonged to the scion of the ruling family and is now a heritage hotel.

Susheela Nair

Shivavilas Palace | All pics by Susheela Nair

Overshadowed by the neighbouring UNESCO World Heritage site of Hampi, this remote town located in the heart of Karnataka’s mining district of Ballari remains fairly unexplored as a tourist destination. With its sedate pace, untouched beauty, rustic charm and pleasant weather, Mahatma Gandhi described Sandur as ‘an oasis’ when he stopped over for a few days in 1934 at the invitation of the Sandur royal family. What makes Sandur distinctive is that it is hardly on the popular tourist itinerary and thankfully so. It came to be known only after the picturesque locales of Sandur formed the backdrop of the Kannada movie Manasa Sarovara, directed by Puttanna Kanagal. In times of yore, the place was known as Skandapuri in honour of the temple dedicated to Skanda, or Kumaraswamy, that still stands today. Once upon a time, it sheltered panthers, deer, chinkaras or Indian gazelles, peacocks, set in one of the earth’s oldest rock formations. Thanks to the ban on illegal mining, the land continues to be teeming with flora and fauna, and deposits of iron and manganese ore. Today it is known as Sandur, which in local parlance means ‘town between hills’. It is an apt name for an area that is defined by a valley surrounded by forested hills, with two natural narrow gorges on either side, and the expanse of the Narihalla Reservoir. Following Gandhiji’s travel advisory ‘See Sandur in September’, we embarked on a trip in September. We started with a visit to the 1200-year old Kumaraswamy temple built by the Chalukyas, now a protected monument. It was discovered by the local rulers, the Ghorpades, in the thickly-wooded Swamimalai hill in the 15th century. Though women were allowed to worship at the adjacent Parvathi and Shiva shrines, the Kumaraswamy temple was out of bounds for women for centuries. Initially special tin barricades and a curtain were hung across the precinct to prevent women from taking a peek at the idol of Kumaraswamy. According to a temple priest, the reason for the biased attitude is the belief that Kumaraswamy, the son of Shiva and Parvathi, does not want to look at a woman. Legend has it that when his mother Parvathi found a bride for him, Kumaraswamy was shocked to find that the bride looked like her. He not only decided to forgo marriage but also vowed never to look at a woman. So, in deference to Kumaraswamy’s wishes, women were barred from this temple. The head trustee of the Kumaraswamy temple, MY Ghorpade, a former Congress finance minister of Karnataka and also the last Maharaja of Sandur, felt that religion should not discriminate. Thanks to his progressive outlook, the ban on the entry of women into the temple was lifted in 1996. The Ghorpades, well-loved and respected by the locals, had declared the temple open to Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes as early as the 1930s. After learning of this on his visit to Sandur, Mahatma Gandhi said, “A small state in south India has opened the temple to the Harijan, the heavens have not fallen.” To delve deeper into Sandur’s history we start our royal exploration at the Shivavilas Palace, home of the scion of the ruling family who handed over his territory to the Government of India in 1949. Built in the 1900s, sprawling over 20 acres, and painstakingly restored in 1941, this palace started its operation as a WelcomHeritage Hotel in 2012. A driveway lined with trees leads to the red-domed palace. Strolling around the palace, we felt we had travelled back in time. A bronze statue of a lady with a lamp in the open courtyard welcomed us. The palace has two floors of about 20,000 sq. ft each. The pillars, the corridors and the arches of the two floors overlook the courtyard. The first floor is the residential section with 12 rooms and suites of which the Maharani Suite is the pièce de résistance. The Maharaja Suite and the deluxe rooms are all equally impressive. The ground floor houses the offices, dining hall, two temples, a billiards room with bar, and a ‘durbar hall’, a virtual museum of regalia and weaponry. The library is a treasure house of ancient books. Around the ground are a swimming pool, a spa, and a garage housing the Maharaja’s collection of vintage cars. This includes a hunting jeep, a Mercedes and a Dodge. The vintage edition photos and relics of the royal family, Lambani wall hangings, antique furniture, weathered cannons, elaborate embellishments on the pillars, delicate jali work – all transported us back to an earlier era. After a tour of the palace, we had Sandur Thali, a platter of north Karnataka dishes for lunch. No trip to Sandur is complete without a visit to the Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra (SKKK), which is just a hop, skip and jump from the palace. The centre was started to revive and market traditional Lambani craft. As we walked into the SKKK premises, we saw a colourful group of Lambani women from the neighbouring settlements engrossed in creating magic and marvels out of scraps. It was fascinating to watch them fashioning rhythms with needle and thread. Using thread pulled from old saris, they sewed together small pieces of cloth to create beautiful garments, linen and accessories. They create wonders with their applique patch work and thread embroidery with mirrors, shells, wooden beads, coins and other tiny metallic jewellery to add more shine and elegance to the fabric. The designs, motifs and colours are inspired by images from their nomadic lifestyle and their folk traditions and rituals. Traditionally, these painstakingly created items were an essential part of the bridal trousseau. In the past, work on a trousseau began as soon as a girl was born! SKKK owes its existence to the initiative and involvement of Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Limited (SMIORE). The centre has also units for khadi, cane, bamboo, stone and wood sculpting, traditional block-printing and natural dyeing. Susheela Nair is an independent food, travel and lifestyle writer, and photographer based in Bangalore. She has contributed content, articles and images on food, travel, lifestyle, photography, environment and ecotourism to several reputed national publications. Her writings constitute a wide spectrum, including guide books, brochures and coffee table books.

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