By M.B. Pavan Kumar
Koi Haseena Jab Rooth Jaati Hai’ is one of the famous songs in that 1975 blockbuster movie Sholay, with Basanti (Hema Malini), the tongewali and Veeru (Dharmendra), the ex-convict trying to woo her. But Mysuru has always been known for its tongas and the old Mysureans have been familiar with ‘tak..tak..tak..’ — the hoof sounds of the horse-drawn tongas. In fact, in the early part of the twentieth century, there were hardly any vehicles on the road and one could count the number of cars and scooters on one’s finger tips. But the tongas were there in plenty even till the late 1970s. The tonga, it is said, entered Mysuru around 1897 and it was the main form of transport for Mysureans. Even for the kings, it was a major attraction and they also used it to move from one place to another at times. Every Mysurean remembers tonga with affection and awe and the experience of climbing into it, keeping one foot on the support and then stepping on to the platform and sitting in the back seat. (Incidentally, it is very confusing to describe this as what is front becomes the back seat because the tongawala drives the horse sitting in the front. But the passengers sitting facing his back also have the view of the road in the front!). Some tongas had soft cushions and some hard ones. The children would invariably be picked up by the tongawala and made to sit in the front. He would ask the elders sitting at the back to move a bit back in order for the tonga to get a balance. But all these experiences have now remained a memory. With the advent of technology, the mean machines started occupying the space in the city and the tongas slowly started fading.
