Rise & Fall following True Values of Life
by K. Vijaya Kumar, Former Jt. Director of Information & Publicity
Migrating from UP (Bulandshahr) in mid- twenties to Mysore, late N. Munshilal at his young age of around 25 showed Mysoreans what a real hotel meant for. This is the story of a pious and honest hotelier, who founded the earliest hotel Sri Krishna Bhavan between 1925-30 (just opposite to Dufferin Clock Tower in a portion of present Visvesvaraya Building) and later adding a chain of hotels rising to great heights and going down for following true business ethics in running his hotels.
His son M. Parameshwar Dayal
Remembering late Munshilal, as his son M. Parameshwar Dayal and myself were classmates in Yuvaraja’s College in 1954-56 becoming very close friends and tasting Munshilal’s hospitality while experiencing the fatherly-love shown to me in the company of his son, how can I forget the taste of the ghee dosa personally prepared by him and fed to us on our return from the college.
Close contacts with Palace
Munshilal’s fame and the delicious pure ghee sweets brought him close to the Royal family and he became the caterer for the Palace functions and weddings. Carrying choicest sweets in big steel plates as gift during birthday celebrations to the Palace received the personal attention of Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar who liked the sweets as well as Munshilal. When the Maharaja came to know that Munshilal had to shift his hotel to give way for the construction of Visvesvaraya building, he even offers help to provide a new place for him which Munshilal politely declined, his son tells me. Who knows, if both were alive today, he would have been the caterer for the recently held Royal Wedding in the Palace !
Chain of hotels, next
Probably, the shifting of Krishna Bhavan to a new place — the present Indra Cafe Building on Sayyaji Rao Road — opened a new vista for Munshilal to establish a chain of hotels starting with Chamundeshwari Bhavan on Shivarampet Road, next to Gayatri Bhavan on Dhanvantri Road and later a hotel in Bangalore. It is interesting to know he grew to own even Rajkamal Theatre, Shivarampet, in the beginning with a partner one B.K. Gupta. He also opens a Departmental Store at that time itself.
Late Badri Prasad of Indra Bhavan Hotel and late Revati Prasad of Bombay Anand Bhavan were his contemporaries.
A Gandhian
Following Gandhiji’s ideals in life, he had close contacts with Gandhians of that time like H.C. Dasappa and others. Gandhiji’s first grandson Kantilal Harilal Gandhi was studying MBBS in Mysore and he came in contact with Munshilal, who introduced him to his physician Dr. Annajappa, a popular doctor of those times. I am told even Dr. Rajendra Prasad in his early days during a visit to Mysore had tasted the hospitality of Munshilal.
Did following ethics in his running of hotel business bring him down having reached such heights? Yes, partially, his son, my friend Parameshwar Dayal tells but more on believing and depending with good faith on his own staff, so much so one of his Managers occupies a position as partner of his father.
Parameshwar Dayal, now living in Channapatna with his wife Mithilesh and children, is doing well with his sweet stall business popularly known as Dayal Sweets. [Mobile: 94487- 40008].
e-mail: kumarkv59@gmail.com
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / July 10th, 2016