Vijay Thiruvady was a type of outdated Bangaloreans who defied simple description. Having penned one of many only a few definitive volumes on the historical past of Lalbagh, he did match the outline of a author, however that was only a small fraction of who he was. Many grew to know him through the years from the walks he tirelessly carried out over the weekends in Lalbagh. Nonetheless others marvelled at his encyclopaedic data of the bushes in Bengaluru, made much more spectacular by the truth that he was not formally educated as a botanist.
From a reader’s perspective, his e-book Lalbagh: Sultan’s Backyard to Public Park is of specific curiosity to those that want to understand how the backyard has modified over time. Aside from Thiruvady’s in depth data of its vegetation and bushes, one finds an exhaustive account of the historical past of Lalbagh from the attitude of those that supervised it. This historical past traces a broad path from Tipu Sultan and earlier than to extra fashionable days, with the affect of figures resembling German botanist G H Krumbiegel and horticulturist H C Javaraya, who was the primary Indian superintendent of Lalbagh.
From a reader’s perspective, his e-book Lalbagh: Sultan’s Backyard to Public Park is of specific curiosity to those that want to understand how the backyard has modified over time. (Supply: Categorical Photograph)
He additionally assembled a singular array of outdated images and letters from Krumbiegel and Dr M H Marigowda – who’s known as the daddy of horticulture in Karnataka – to call a couple of. Thiruvady had earlier written a e-book, Heritage Bushes, on 140 of the oldest bushes in Bengaluru, though its copies are now not simply obtainable.
In accordance with Bangalore Walks founder Arun Pai, a longtime good friend of Thiruvady who labored with him for 19 years, they made a sequence of movies on flowering bushes in Bengaluru in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Vijay had by no means been captured on video. I’m so glad I took the chance as he handed away a yr later. He was an excellent speaker. I used to name him the David Attenborough of India. His skill to relate and maintain a narrative was incredible,” Pai recalled. Thiruvady died on August 1, 2023, when he was 82.
Pai mentioned Thiruvady was not mainly a author however an individual who liked nature and liked to talk about it. “He was superb at that. He had a selected model and depth of data. He went to inordinate efforts to get the information proper. He would by no means imagine every little thing with out proof and located a number of authentic sources. When you search on Google, you’ll not discover this data even now. He would have discovered it in some obscure e-book,” he added. Pai additionally recalled that Thiruvady, who usually dictated his work to be written, tended to get it proper the primary time round quite than having a extra iterative course of.
Chatting with The Indian Categorical, Thiruvady’s spouse Meera famous that after retiring from a profession within the oil and gasoline sector, he obtained extra alternatives to take pleasure in his abiding curiosity. Collaborating with Pai to launch his guided walks in Lalbagh, Thiruvady would additionally correspond with botanists all over the world. Meera recalled, “He would often conduct his walks with out fail, even within the rain, on Saturday and Sunday mornings between 7 and 10.30 am. He would cowl historical past, geography, and botany, share anecdotes, together with (information on) the bushes… He would then take everybody to MTR for breakfast.”
Talking in 2023 at a memorial for Vijay Thiruvady, Pai remembered him as a humble man who would insist on being addressed as “Vijay” and never as “Sir” or different formal phrases. Pai mentioned on the time, “A variety of us know very good folks, however to have the ability to deliver all that data and convey it to folks, whether or not they’re a schoolchild or a scientist in his 70s, was a particular reward that Vijay had.”
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