Writer’s Corner: A friend of Bengaluru’s trees, how Vijay Thiruvady’s passion brought to life the history of Lalbagh

From a reader’s perspective, his book Lalbagh: Sultan’s Garden to Public Park is of particular interest to those who wish to know how the garden has changed over time. (Source: Express Photo)

He also assembled a unique array of old photographs and letters from Krumbiegel and Dr M H Marigowda – who is referred to as the father of horticulture in Karnataka – to name a few. Thiruvady had earlier written a book, Heritage Trees, on 140 of the oldest trees in Bengaluru, although its copies are no longer easily available.

According to Bangalore Walks founder Arun Pai, a longtime friend of Thiruvady who worked with him for 19 years, they made a series of videos on flowering trees in Bengaluru during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Vijay had never been captured on video. I am so glad I took the opportunity as he passed away a year later. He was a very good speaker. I used to call him the David Attenborough of India. His ability to narrate and hold a story was fantastic,” Pai recalled. Thiruvady died on August 1, 2023, when he was 82.

Pai said Thiruvady was not basically a writer but a person who loved nature and loved to speak about it. “He was very good at that. He had a particular style and depth of knowledge. He went to inordinate efforts to get the facts right. He would never believe everything without evidence and found a lot of original sources. If you search on Google, you will not find this information even now. He would have found it in some obscure book,” he added. Pai also recalled that Thiruvady, who often dictated his work to be written, tended to get it right the first time around rather than having a more iterative process.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Thiruvady’s wife Meera noted that after retiring from a career in the oil and gas sector, he got more opportunities to indulge in his abiding interest. Collaborating with Pai to launch his guided walks in Lalbagh, Thiruvady would also correspond with botanists around the world. Meera recalled, “He would regularly conduct his walks without fail, even in the rain, on Saturday and Sunday mornings between 7 and 10.30 am. He would cover history, geography, and botany, share anecdotes, along with (facts on) the trees… He would then take everyone to MTR for breakfast.”

Speaking in 2023 at a memorial for Vijay Thiruvady, Pai remembered him as a humble man who would insist on being addressed as “Vijay” and not as “Sir” or other formal terms. Pai said at the time, “A lot of us know very smart people, but to be able to bring all that knowledge and convey it to people, whether they are a schoolchild or a scientist in his 70s, was a special gift that Vijay had.”