I f there is still some shade and green cover left in Bengaluru, if you’ve adored the many blossoming trees in summer, we owe a lot of it to Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel. If you are wondering who Krumbiegel is, you are not alone. Trying as much to find out about him and in the process revelling in the green cover of the city is his great-granddaughter Alyia Phelps-Gardiner.
Krumbiegel, a German botanist and landscape architect, is credited for his work in bringing trees from all over the world to Bengaluru’s famed Lal Bagh Botanical Garden (where he was Superintendent), Mysuru’s Brindavan Garden, the Botanical Garden at Ooty, for picking avenue trees of the city, and planting them such that the city had blooming trees all through the year.
He lived in Bengaluru till the end of his life, having spent over 40 years in India (mostly in Bengaluru) as a horticultural and town planning consultant to the government. He died in Bengaluru in 1956 and was buried at the Methodist cemetery on Hosur Road — it was Alyia’s first stop after arriving in the city. She was born five years after he died.
Meeting her at Cubbon Park, is seeing the British interior designer, who, till 2015 was pretty clueless about the extent of her great-grandfather’s work (as she admits) now completely transformed into the archetypal ‘seeker’ on her spiritual journey in India.
Alyia's bracelet – a gold gandaberunda – the royal insignia of the Mysore kingdom,now Karnataka’s State symbol, flanked by pearls and rubies.
She’s wearing a blue embroidered kurta (she’s shopped for many, and a sari for her daughter), stone-studded chandeliers on her ears, gilded thick bangles, a single gold-coloured anklet on her foot (a gift), and she’s even wearing a hair extension ponytail to give herself a more “regal “look, she says and laughs heartily. “It is like time travel,” is how she sums up her overwhelming journey, tearing up often as she speaks.
In 2015, when Germany and India celebrated Krumbiegel’s contribution on his 150th birth anniversary, Alyia missed it by a month. But one evening when she sat down at her laptop and scoured the Internet for Krumbiegel, a world of information popped up. “You may laugh at what I say, but, for me, it was like all the planets had lined up and a thunderbolt hit me; it was almost like a call from him saying ‘Come out here now’.” But when she looked up pictures of old Bengaluru before coming here, someone warned her that the city was not what it looked like in black and white photos from Krumbiegel’s era.
Efforts were also on in Bengaluru in the meanwhile to trace out all the descendants of the key architects of Lal Bagh, and their paths crossed.
“He was German by birth, married to an Englishwoman, but his heart belonged to India,” she declares about Krumbiegel. Alyia has been to Mumbai and Goa before; her daughter Alexa has danced with Karishma and Kareena Kapoor she says and even with Shah Rukh Khan in Billu Barber ! “Seven years ago she lived in India for two years; SRK is our neighbour in London.”
She talks of her mother’s recollections of Krumbiegel as the grandfather with a twinkle in his eye who always hugged her. She talks of how though her mother was born in the U.K., she was immediately brought to Bengaluru because her grandmother loved it here; they lived in Lal Bagh House. “My grandmother did not want to return to England. She rarely told us stories of her time in India...but there would be some times when she would.”
In the last week that she has been here, Alyia has been to Lal Bagh, met horticulturists, done the lezim dance with girls at a school (she’s mastered the steps and can give an easy demo!), been invited as chief guest to a host of functions; she will be the guest of honour at the annual Lal Bagh flower show. “He wasn’t just a gardener,” says Alyia, recounting the many stories she’s heard people tell about her great-grandfather, including how he was responsible for building some temples in the city as well, but how his name could not be put on the plates. “And the reason I wanted to come here was because I felt a pull. I wanted to walk in his footsteps and stand where he once stood. I think to lose history is terrible.” She hopes to be back soon with her three grandchildren, so that they don’t lose the connect with the land her great-grandfather so loved.
Linking to the past
Alyia shows a bracelet she wears on her wrist – a gold gandaberunda – the royal insignia of the Mysore kingdom, now Karnataka’s State symbol, flanked by pearls and rubies. “It was gifted to my grandmother Hilda by the Maharaja of Mysore on her 18th birthday." She has even got the original velvet case inscribed with “Barton Son & Co, Jewellers, Bangalore & Ootacamund”. “My grandmother kept it in a box and I would pester her to let me try it on. She always guarded it. When she died she left no will and I immediately said I wanted the bracelet. I’ve never worn it till now. But I knew I just had to wear it on my visit here.”
