There’s a certain laziness in the air at Muddenahalli. Except for the construction worker slapping wet cement on the ground in front of the State Bank of Mysore, there’s very little movement.
Opposite the bank, on the steps of the public library, a middle-aged, heavily tanned man is slowly turning the pages of a Kannada newspaper.
The only sound for a very long time is a cawing crow from atop the banyan tree that stretches out majestically with the Nandi Hills for a backdrop.
Muddenahalli could easily pass as another nondescript village in Chikkaballapur district but for the fact that the country’s most illustrious engineer, Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, was born here. Visvesvaraya took the erstwhile Mysore state to the heights of progress with his vision of modernisation, but his village, Muddenahalli, remains a picture of neglect to this day.
The State Bank of Mysore (SBM), which Sir MV founded in 1913, has touched the lives of lakhs across India. But the SBM branch, Muddenahalli, was born only four months ago.
The villagers are just grateful there is now a second bank.
“If you compare Muddenahalli’s development to the previous years, the last year has been very good. Part of the Rs2-crore fund given by the Centre is being used to renovate Sir MV’s samadhi and the museum,” says Manju Tulasi, a gram panchayat member.
Ask her to list what she would like to see in Muddenahalli and she does not hesitate for a moment. “The village urgently needs a samudaya bhavana (community centre).
All the villagers have to go elsewhere looking for space to conduct wedding ceremonies and large gatherings. We need a students’ hostel; setting up a few factories here would also go a long way in reducing unemployment,” she says. It’s not that this village does not get the mindshare of policymakers.
One has to only look at the projects lined up for Muddenahalli to know it is perched on the threshold of progress. The village is part of the 12,000-acre BIAL IT investment region. There’s a proposal to connect Bangalore to Devanahalli and then to Chikkaballapur by Metro.
The 150th birth anniversary of Sir MV falls on September 15. Muddenahalli, his native village, will observe it with hope.
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