Obit: N Lakshman Rau

OBITUARY N. LAKSHMAN RAU
The man who built Bangalore
The Times of India

Bangalore: N. Lakshman Rau used to say that, as a child, his ambition was to build Bangalore.

In truth, he did. He built the city’s first really tall structure (Utility Building), some of its most important hospitals, and looked after its aesthetics. He developed the boulevard near Nanda theatre in Jayanagar and it is now named after him. But Rau had no delusions of grandeur. “If there was no boulevard, even that place would be converted into sites,’’ he told this paper in his inimitable style, three years ago.

Rau passed away at his daughter Nalini Sarpeshkar’s home on Banaswadi Road on Friday. The end, his family said, came at 6.55 am. He was 88. Ashwini, one of his four granddaughters, said till that the very last, his mind was as alert as ever, though physically, he had grown more frail.

Rau had administration in his blood. His father, N. Madhava Rau served as Diwan of the Mysore state. Younger brother, N. Narasimh Rau retired as Chief Secretary and passed away quite recently. The third brother, N. Nagaraj Rau, chose another kind of service, in the Army. He rose to become Brigadier. He too is no more. “They were three brothers and three sisters. Only the eldest sister remains,’’ Nalini, Lakshman Rau’s eldest daughter, said.

In his long and chequered career, Rau worked everywhere. He was in the Delhi Municipal Corporation, at the Mines and Geology Department at the Centre and Home Secretary for Karnataka. But he was happiest in Bangalore, his “favourite city.’’ He is today best known as the first administrator of the BCC and the man behind the 1986 report on the state of the city’s tanks and lakes.

To friends and admirers, Rau remains a visionary. To former principal secretary, environment, ecology and forests, A. N. Yellappa Reddy, he was a rare administrator: one who cared equally deeply about developing the city and preserving its lung spaces. Former chief secretary, A. Ravindra, said Rau “showed great ability in handling men and matters.’’ Lakshman Rau and Narasimh Rau, he said, were “very fine gentlemen of the first order.’’ But, for the former chairman of Bangalore Urban Art Commission, M. A. Parthasarathy, Rau’s passing has left him bereft of a guru. “He worried about the direction of the city’s growth,’’ he said.

BUAC and Rau shared similar aims. Parthasarathy once crowned him ‘Mr Bangalore’ for his commitment to the city.