I heard this news of senior journalist KB Ganapathy passed away on 13th of July, 2025 through Krishnaprasad on twitter. Krishnaprasad was the editor of Outlook Magazine. After a while, my colleague and friend Moses also shared the news. Being Mysoreans, I and Moses could understand the importance of KB Ganapathy in Mysore landscape and cultural space. Moses apart from being a Mysorean also worked as a journalist briefly. So, he was obviously concerned. The last I heard about KB Ganapathy was just a week back when his book “The Hidden Life of A Yogi” was released at the Mysuru Literature Festival. Mr. Ganapathy was not present in the event. I thought he was traveling.
Did I know KB Ganapathy personally? No. But, I know him through his daily evening English newspaper The Star of Mysore. It was referred as SOM. He started his newspaper about 48 years ago – that is in 1977. A few years after the English newspaper became successful, he also started a Kannada newspaper “Mysuru Mithra” – meaning The Friend of Mysore. I can for sure say that Mysuru Mithra was NOT the Kannada version of Start of Mysore. Though the two shared some common news items, Star of Mysore stood apart due to its unique columns and features. Mysuru Mithra had independent articles written by Kannada writers. News items were also about 60-70% different.
Local Newspapers of Mysore
Before I proceed to the Star of Mysore, let me spend some time speaking about the local newspapers in Mysore. Apart from Star of Mysore and Mysuru Mithra, the other local newspaper that was prominent in Mysore was “Andolana” started by Rajashekhar Koti. It started as a weekly newspaper in Dharwad in 1970 and later shifted to Mysore. Rajashekhar Koti probably passed away much before Covid times. In terms of journalistic quality Andolana stands out. Somewhere around 2005 onwards, there were a couple of local newspaper attempts like The Mysore Mail and Prajanudi funded by politician Vasu and edited by senior journalist Krishna Vattam. Krishna Vattam had worked in Indian Express as per my father. Both Vasu and Krishna Vattam are no more. I have a few memories of meeting Krishna Vattam during a tree planting programme.
My First Meeting with Star of Mysore
We used to stay in Saraswathi Puram when we were in the middle school. As long as I remember, my father used to get Prajavani newspaper in the mornings. It was my mother who felt that there was a need for an English newspaper. Though my mother is not fully educated with a bachelor’s degree, she still had a fair idea about many things and she asked and learnt things from her friends around. She felt a need for another newspaper for two reasons – one, to improve our English skills; two, to get some local news. When it comes to local news plus English combination, Star of Mysore was THE obvious choice.
I remember evening times after coming back from school, waiting for the newspaper to be thrown inside our gate by the newspaper cycle boy. The newspaper cycle boy would fold it well and throw it from his cycle. I remember how he would arrange a few of them in between his cycle handle and break wire. I was eager to open the newspaper because there were features that I liked going through.
Features of Star of Mysore
The front page usually had 2-3 news items that mattered for the evening. If there was one big news, it would cover the entire front page. (The front page in journalism circles is the first page on the printed newspaper. When Microsoft came out with a Software Application to design web pages, they named it as “Front Page” and this was the first web designing tool I learnt to use!).
As I turned to the second page, that was the editor’s page – that is KB Ganapathy’s page. I am writing all this from memory as the newspaper existed back then. So, the details may not be perfect. The editorial on page 2 had a quote from somewhere. There was one main editorial piece about a pressing issue that was usually in italics. And sometimes in bold-italics! I am not sure about the “editor’s bottom line.” Ganapathy would also reproduce a small part from another newspaper that he felt was important and cited the source. I do not know how many newspapers today cite another newspaper like this!
The same second page also had a word puzzle and a funny non political funny cartoon taken from some syndicate. These are the two things I liked. If I am not wrong, on Fridays or Sundays, we used to get some special features like puzzles and games. The same second page also had a one line joke, maybe some health tip etc. Page 3 had an interesting section called “Voice of the Reader”. Here, the readers could write their opinion. Most of the letters pertained to the local civic issue. Whenever there would be any news about the heritage structures, there would be some good letters by senior citizens. Also, it was a nice thing to read about the broken roads, drainage issues raised by citizens.
Page 4 onwards would all be local news. The nature of local news would be about the various programmes held in different parts of the city. There were some columns written by some senior people about Mysore heritage and (g)olden times. It was nice reading these columns to understand how our city used to be earlier. After reading these columns, I would ask my father about some of the references to old places, people and practices. And my father would be surprised how I knew all this. And I would show him the newspaper!
KB Ganapathy used to write two columns – “abracadabra” and “hocus pocus” – both are words borrowed from magicians. His columns never interested me because they dealt about something about national politics and other things. All I was interested were the features his newspaper provided. There was a section on “events for the next day”. Seeing this, you could decide to attend some drama or music concert or any other programmes. There was a special events section during Ganapathy festival and Dasara festival! We would totally rely on this section to plan our visits.
Star of Mysore also used to cover the achievements of Mysoreans at the national and international level. Somehow, they covered a lot of news about Karate people’s achievements abroad. Mysore had one active Karate club called “Okinawa something”. If the staff of some company or government department was selected for a training programme abroad, that would be a short snippet. Achievements by young and old would be mentioned. Youngsters’ achievements in sports also was covered. Some of the achievement news used to be covered once a week after some delay.
Once, our math teacher S Basavanna’s son was selected for a tournament held in Japan. This news appeared in Star of Mysore with a reference “he is the son of well known maths teacher S Basavanna”. One of our tuition fellow got this newspaper and showed it to all of us and showed it to the teacher Basavanna. Sir was very happy and shared his happiness with us. Someone from the back bench demanded that he should host a party on account of this. Every day, when sir entered the tuition, one back bencher would shout “sir japan party”. But this sounded odd, due to a different meaning given to the word Japan among the youth!
One more section I loved was the page before the last page where they would put the cinema listings. Mysore in those days had about 15-20 main theatres. The theatre names were listed in alphabetical order mostly. Morning and evening shows would be mentioned. Sometime later, they started mentioning the phone number of the theatres too. In the pre – Book My Show era, this is how you checked for movies in the theatres. There was no opportunity for advance booking. Although our area boys had contacts inside to get the tickets well in advance sometimes. If you went late, you had to purchase the black tickets.
The last page was always filled with advertisements. Small small box advertisements were common. Even obituaries and remembrance of loved ones. Also, we would find the photos of Mary or Jesus with the caption “thank you” – [initials]. These were probably “gratitude” offered by people who had prayed and got their wishes fulfilled. Most of the advertisements in the in the last page were about property matters, some of them clearly mentioning “brokers excuse”. There were also ads about clothing businesses. New businesses and offers would also be given as ads. It used to be nice to read some of these ads. Also, front page had two box ads on either side of the newspaper title or masthead. This space was usually taken by Joy Ice Creams or else Siddhartha Hotel. Both owned by the same family I guess.
Mysooru Grahakara Parishat
This is an NGO established by some good senior citizens of Mysore like Bhamy V Shenoy and Bapu Sathyanarayana. I got introduced to these good people when Bapu Sathyanarayana had delivered a lecture at our law college. Bapu Sathyanarayana was an old friend of our law professor CKN Raja. After the programme, our history teacher wanted some 3-4 students to attend the meeting of Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) at Yadava Giri. I went along with 2 more seniors. Here, I met Bhamy V Shenoy and Bapu Sathyanarayana. After this, I kept attending some other programmes like sapling planting in Vijayanagar parks.
Mysuru Grahakara Parishat has been spearheading the fight for consumer rights and civil amenities. I must be writing in detail what all works this group has done. Most of their works were supported by Star of Mysore. If not for the newspaper, their work wouldn’t have reached the people so effectively. Not just MGP, even when other NGOs did some good work, Star of Mysore used to report the same.
Nethra Raju
Nethra Raju was a photographer and a photo-journalist who worked mainly for Star of Mysore, Mysore Mithra and even Andolana. I remember he clicked some really memorable photographs of the city through the decades. He was also the regular class group photographer in our school every year. He had a “Nethra studio” in Vidyaranyapuram. The last I met him was in front of his studio when he was injured and taking rest. I asked him about his vast collection of photographs. He said, he had preserved the negatives safely and if he had time, he could get us the negatives from our school days. He had also photographed the events at Mysore Rangayana when I was a part of the Chinnara Mela. I had collected all my photos from him. It is sad that he passed away at a not very old age. He was a workaholic and I am sure his haphazard work scheduled caused him health problems and an early death.
Kodava and Lion
KB Ganapathy was a Kodava and it was pretty well known. I used to notice a good coverage for the Kodava samaja events. Just now I was reading a tribute to him in SOM and saw that he was the vice-president of the Mysore Kodava Samaja. He was instrumental in getting recognition for the Kodava soldiers and war veterans. He was also a member of Lion’s Club and Rotary club both if I am not wrong. And there would be a good coverage for these events.
Veerappan News and Bold Headlines
SOM, Mysuru Mithra and Andolana – all three were able to gain prominence due to the Veerappan news. Veerappan was this forest brigand involved in sandalwood and elephant tusk smuggling. He operated in the jungles of Madumalai and Malai Mahadeshwara Hills, often crossing forests, mountains and even Karnataka-Tamil Nadu borders via small forest roads. He operated for about 20-25 years after which, he was killed by the Karnataka special police force. Veerappan’s news was very much sought after in the early days because he killed several Karnataka police officers brutally. This is when special force was organized to catch or kill him.
The local newspapers Andolana, Star of Mysore and Mysuru Mithra had some good local journalists in Chamarajanagara area – due to which they got hot news about Veerappan. My math teacher S Basavanna had joked about SOM’s style of headlining. In his words, “the other day, Star of Mysore had a headline ‘Veerappan Surrounded’ in bold big letters and a photo of Veerappan. I was of the opinion that Veerappan has been surrounded and by tomorrow morning, we may get the news of his arrest or killing. But no, once I checked the write up, it says, ‘Veerappan surrounded by police around 25 Kilometres radius!’ This is how the newspaper tries to surprise me or mislead us.” He was probably connecting this to the way some students have a good handwriting, but the problem solvng is completely wrong!
I remember SOM had a special heading for Veerappan news and it was “Veerappanorama”. I even remember the fonts from the left to right increasing and giving some nice “growing” effect. For a long time, SOM was printed in black and while. In such times, they designers did a lot of creative stuff with black ink they had! Only a decade ago, SOM upgraded to colour print and that too only for front page headlines in red and a few other pages.
I would term SOM’s coverage of Veerappan’s news more of “sensational” type. However, comparing to today’s low standards of TV channels, SOM’s news coverage would have to be placed very high. SOM was famous for picking up sensational news items 1-2 times in a week when there was any and put it on the frontpage. Usually news about deaths, accidents, crimes, robbery are the sensational type of news that would go to the front page. However, even the visit of Chief Minister, President, Prime Minister and other dignitaries to the city would be covered on the front page. I remember the headlines “VIP in the City”. I must credit SOM for teaching me the meaning of the word “VIP”.
There are many memorable news items I have read from SOM. One was when a man murdered his employer in a fit of anger and soon went to the coconut groove in Saraswathi puram near JSS college. He climbed one of the trees with his machete and threatened to kill himself if they tried to bring him down. Some day, I will write in detail about this. Another incident I remember is when Chief Minister S Bangarappa was in the city and he played badminton at Ramya hotel. The photos were on the front page of SOM! We were all surprised that the CM can also play! One more memorable news was when my grandfather was given Karnataka Rajyothsava Award and his photo appeared along with other awardees like singer HR Leelavathi and other prominent Mysoreans. We still have that paper clipping.
Importance of Evening Newspaper
When we started getting SOM, cable TV channels existed. However we had not taken a cable connection. We did not have any 24×7 news channels. We had morning and evening news on the government run DD. So, our detailed news came always from the morning newspapers. But the morning newspapers could cover all the news that happened till the previous evening. If there was a cricket match, the score till 10pm could go to print. A few years later, the score till 11pm could make it to the newspaper. I remember Prajavani used to take score until 12am or 1am. Being a newspaper that mainly focused on Karnataka, they used to start their printing little later. However national newspapers like The Hindu and Times of India had a huge load to print and distribute across the country. They would take the score till 11pm only. I remember during one match, the sports headline in The Hindu was “Match at crucial stage”. Whereas Prajavani had the headlines, “India emerge victorious”.
India has very few evening newspapers. Ee Sanje – a Kannada newspaper is published in the evening and is focused on Bangalore. I remember Ee Sanje editor telling how the death of Dr Rajkumar published in the evening sold 3-4 times more copies. Dr Rajkumar passed away somewhere around 10am. And the evening newspaper Sanje Vaani had a big photo of Rajkumar on the entire front page. Fans used the same as posters to put in front of their shops and homes. Those were the days flex printing was not so common and affordable. Mid-Day in Mumbai is one newspaper that used to come up with an afternoon edition of the paper as well.
An evening paper has this advantage of covering the news that happened in the morning till the noon. Since SOM was printed locally in Mysore had to be distributed only within Mysore – which is a small city and no traffic hassles, the publishers had the privilege of sending the paper for print as late as 2pm. The newspaper would usually be delivered at our home by 4-5pm in the evening. SOM also used the advantage of getting the morning and noon news. During Dasara, we could get the glimpses of Jamboo Savari being flagged from the palace by evening! This was way before DD started telecasting the Jamboo savari live on Chandana.
When it comes to cricket, SOM did not have much advantage, because most of the matches played in India would start at noon time. Sometimes, SOM would report who won the toss and started the batting. Some of the events that would happen in other parts of the world at late night or early morning could be published in the evening due to the difference in the time zone. I think they had an advantage reporting the FIFA World Cup matches. Their biggest advantage was seen in the morning events of CM, Ministers and big personalities. The news would be in print by 4pm. So, people who were a part of the event would be excited to buy a copy of the newspaper.
SOM was also famous among the traders in Mysore. I remember so many shops that did good business in the evening would have SOM in their shops. There are times when I would be bored while my mother and brothers would be buying clothes. I would silently grab SOM or any other newspaper and pass my time. Shops would surely get SOM because they used to advertise regularly in SOM.
KBG Leaves a Legacy
It has to be mentioned that KB Ganapathy and his newspaper had started leaning towards the right in the recent years. But I never found any instances of low quality journalism and fake news in his newspapers. He did balance and speak for all sides. His newspapers did carry all sorts of news. He gave space to people from all sections of the society. The newspaper was behind several citizen movements to protect heritage structures, saving trees, save Chamalapura, collecting funds during Tsunami and natural disasters, fund collection during Kargil war etc. SOM also was instrumental in restoring the house of RK Narayan by running a campaign. The then Mysore City Corporation Commissioner Betsurmath initiated the restoration of RK Narayan’s house.
KBG was a part of many organisations, was a patron and donator for so many NGOs. He built the brand Star of Mysore – which has been a voice for Mysoreans. He gave us so many memories. His newspaper became a space to save the memories of Mysoreans. He leaves behind a great legacy. If you know what all he did, I can say, he led a satisfactory life. He will be remembered.
The only request I have for the present management of SOM is – please preserve the SOM archives from 1978 in a digital format. If possible, all the news items should be searchable. This will help the future generations to access them for any research purpose. Take for example, there used to be one “Phalamrutha” ice cream and fruit salad shop in the Lansdowne Building. It has shut its doors. Google map does not have any details, because the maps delete old information. But SOM still has some news items about Phalamrutha ice cream shop! Only archives dating back till 2016 are available on SOM website. The SOM team should digitize their entire archives. If there is any initiative to digitize their archives, I would be the first one to make a small contribution for this endeavor. To digitize the archives of SOM is to keep the legacy of KBG alive.
At a time when many newspapers have shut down, SOM is going strong. National newspapers do cover important news. But it is the local newspapers that are connected to the grassroots. Local newspapers echo the voice of the common citizens and their problems. If there is a power outage, it the local newspapers that make an announcement. Long live local newspapers.
There is so much more I wish to write. Maybe some other day. Meanwhile, this tribute piece on SOM is so good. Please do read it here.
