Banks and Beaches of Dakshina Kannada

Our Drive to Dakshin Kannada

After missing out on the coasts of the Uttara Kannada, we criss-crossed the Western Ghats one more time (after the Amboli Ghat) to reach the Arabian Sea in Manipal and then Mangalore in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada. Its known for its beaches, amazing food, education and banking industry. We got a glimpse of it while we passed the Manipal University, where we met familiar faces (Asim and Karen) for the first time during our road-trip, and then Mangalore. We had driven from Hampi with a brief stay at Teerathalli we made our way to Dakshin Kannada passing through Sringeri on the banks of river Tunga and picturesque Agumbe Ghat negotiating almost 13 hairpin bends to first reach Manipal. (The ghat is going be closed soon for almost 3 months for repairs now)

Agumbe is also the place where the legendary Malgudi Days of RK Narayan (directed by Shankar Nag) was shot.  Given the heavy rainfall it receives, it is also called Cherrapunji of South and we got our first dose of heavy incessant rain of the road-trip while crossing Agumbe. As we moved ahead on the state highway, we saw rice and areca-nut plantations and also a lot of slip-roads going towards various falls and we could feel the the hills recede behind us. Knowing that we are heading for the coast, every blind turn or a high blind point on the road makes you think you will see the ocean. That however didn’t happen till we reached Manipal and then drove to Kodi Bengre beach, a less explored beach on an estuary where river Suvarna meets Arabian Sea.

Those who haven’t been to Manipal, as a University town, it feels like a big college campus brimming with young energy at all times. Medical students coming to restaurants/public places in their lab coats and stethoscopes and a motley crowd of students from over 200 UG, PG, diploma and PhD courses dots the landscape as far as you can see. Tiger Circle or TC with ‘Dollops’ of multiple lives encircling it day and night, is the center of the town and also the life in the town. With Asim, we went and saw the beautifully designed Center for Philosophy and Humanities where he is doing his PhD. The building blends with the kind of old Mangalore people probably knew once-one which hasn’t competed with the sky for the heights piercing the skyline. It has gently sloped along its invisible embrace on both sides. The charm that is to see clay red Mangalore tiles against a blue sky and green foliage was what we experienced here. This building also, we were told, was going to be a glass building but thanks to the efforts of some concerned people, it didn’t go that way. However the story of rest of Manipal isn’t the same and the real estate hasn’t put any premium on the way old buildings used to look like and hence you can see a lot of high-rise boxes all around.

The Cradle of Indian Banking

Something else, seemingly incongruous with the picturesque real/physical realm of the region but one which underlay the relative prosperity of the region (including Mangalore) was the historic financial aspect of this region. Dakshina Kannada is known as the Cradle of Indian Banking and even today we encountered a very high number of bank branches and ATMs in the cities we passed through here. Given the coast and the port, needs for Banks arose as Britishers were dealing with export of coffee, pepper, cotton, timber, cardamom and other products. Many of the presently nationalized banks started in this region including Canara Bank, Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank and Vijaya Bank. The district at one point gave rise to as many as twenty-three banks may of which had come up during the early decades of the 20th century. The wave of Swadeshi movement also gave banking a push and they were mostly steered by private initiative of the local traders.

The Canara Hindu Permanent Fund Ltd founded by Ammembal Subba Rao Pai in 1905 with a seed funding of Rs 10,000 turned into Canara bank. When I joined Delhi University in 2003, I had come across a certain Corporation Bank and its ATMs in North Campus and was always amused to come across this seemingly obscure (to me) bank. When Yutika joined college in the same year some 1000 kilometres away in another metro-Mumbai, saw this unknown bank branch nestled inside her college campus. She even opened her first solo bank account there. Few years later, she was amused when the bank manager said that he needed to call Mangalore when there was some issue with the account closing. 12 years later, we both found the reason as to why the call was made to Mangalore as we  were in the birthplace of Corporation bank. It was founded in 1906 by a small group of philanthropists led by Khan Bahadur Haji Abdulla Haji Kasim Saheb Bahadur. Vijaya Bank is another relatively lesser seen nationalised bank in the northern parts. Vijaya Bank was started in 1931 by Attavara Balakrishna Shetty at Bunts Hostel in Mangalore with an objective to help local farmers. Syndicate Bank too started here as Canara Industrial and Banking Syndicate Limited and was founded by Upendra Ananth Pai, Vaman Srinivas Kudva, and Dr T M A Pai.

The financial and real economies meet seamlessly in this region and have provided it with centuries of abundantly rich culture, educational institutions, cuisine, climate, commerce & industry and people. As we recall (and miss) the wonderful days we spent in the Dakshina Kannada region, it must be brimming with the excitement and fervour of Hulivesha/Pilivesha, the tiger dance. We hope to go there a second time soon.

PS: A recommendation of a recent movie that captured the beautiful region and a small coastal town Malpe - Ulidavaru Kandanthe (As seen by the rest)

Mangalore Tiles

In Mangalore, we had contacted someone running a Mangalore tiles factory. They were kind enough to give us a tour of the production facility. During the tour, we learned that the pioneers of the Mangalore tiles were the German Basel Missionaries, a Christian missionary society that settled in Mangalore around the mid-19th century.  The Basel Missionaries discovered the rich alluvial soils along the banks of Gurpur and Netravati rivers and started the first factory in 1865, on the banks of Netravati river near Jeppoo under the management of a certain Geoge Plebst. Coincidentally, we ended up staying right next to this factory, and the Netravati river.

The process of seeing clay transform from the mud lying in the backyard of the factory grounds in its most natural, unassuming, non-technical and rawest form turning into beautiful burnt red tiles was incredible. The process of production is a mix of labour and relatively simple machines including preparation of the clay by its mixing, grinding; cutting the clay it into tile slabs of required sizes (pugging); pressing/moulding of the slabs into the tile presses; putting the stamp/seal of the manufacturer; and at various other points along the assembly line/conveyor belts. Once made, they are first dried naturally and then put into baking ovens where they harden to their usable threshold. The various categories of finished tiles are based on parameters such as strength, usage, ornamentation and so on.

Though the industry once provided an economical and reliable roofing material and was flourishing till few decades back, it is now facing a steep decline in terms of its demand. In the factory that we visited, some of the machines were not functioning because of lack of labour and lack of demand. There used to be almost 50 tile factories in the region but now only a few remain in operation. The industry had built itself upon the natural advantages of the region which included great quality of clay, firewood, labour and suitable weather. 

Several times we passed the black and white board reading The Commonwealth Tile Factory-Manufactures of Basel Mission Tiles, bearing the mark of the manufacturers Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL). The board was peeling off with only a few characters making themselves visible to spell out what they meant. This surviving board, bearing the name of the factory that bore the entire Mangalore tile industry, felt symbolic of the strong and dogged fight the tiles are upto against the various alternate building and roofing materials. Thus it was only justified and, an event of immense happiness for both of us, when we found ourselves under a terrace tiled with CTL tiles (as well as tiles of the factory we visited), when we were hosted by the generous friends Neha and Shail in Bangalore.

Mangalore Files

After an hour-long drive from Manipal (after a stunning drive from Tirthahalli through Agumbe Ghats to Manipal), over a road that our friends in Manipal University said was being built for last 10 years, we reached Mangalore. The road indeed seemed to be a wonder of time as it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be 2 lane, 4 lane or no lane road. Trucks and cars kept surprising us by deciding to give their sneek peek in our lane from behind other cars and trucks in the opposite lane. We managed to reach by evening before sunset, after crossing the legendary NIT Surathkal and the new Mangalore Port.

The city not only has its name rhyming with Bangalore (not to forget Mangaluru-Bengaluru too), its one-way streets are also equal head-spinners for a new entrant. Apart from the one-ways, it also seemed to be high on dead-ends. We ended up on so many of them on the first day when we were trying to be innovative in trying to find our way without maps. In the few days we were here, we came across and went past a few major landmarks in the city such as the Municipal Corporation Building, Syndicate Bank building, Aloysius Chapel and so on. Every single time, these buildings just always appeared and we never could recall if we had driven before on the route that led us to these buildings-including the hotel we stayed in!! As if our human compasses were disoriented completely.

Other than this, our stay in Mangalore was extremely warm. After Ratnagiri and Belgaum, it was yet another city that people thought of as a 'retirement destination'. We came across quite a few people who were not even born here but decided to settle here after retirement. One was a early retiree couple in early 50s (or late 40s), husband was a retired merchant navy captain and wife, a chef. Also someone else who was not from Mangalore but worked in middle-east for greater part of his career and decided to move back not to his native place but Mangalore. The city was described as, and it also came across as a laid back town. Given the compact nature of the city (less than 200 sq km), most trips can be done in less than half an hour and hence like many other small towns, people come home for lunch and a siesta. 

Mangalore is a very old and historic city, and has references dating back to 1st century AD. At that time its name was derived from the river Netravati, which flows till now and meets the Arabian Sea south of Mangalore.  Within Karnataka, it is probably the only major city which is well connected by all modes and has an airport, a seaport other than connectivity through railways and roads. It is famous for many things and one thing that one can think of right from the top of their heads (literally) are Mangalore tiles.  Other than tiles, the city is also known for its beedis and also cashews. Mangalore port is the biggest exporter of coffee and cashews. All of it came in front of us at a Mangalore tiles factory we went to visit (see next post) where the tiles were being baked using cashew shells as fuel for the furnaces and as the staff smoked their beedis, we sipped on to our coffees.