G.L.Swamy
was a pioneer in tourism and journalism in Mysore. As early as in 1940,
he started The Tourist Bureau and produced Handbooks for all taluks
and districts of then Mysore State, presently named Karnataka. His and
books were a ready reckoner for each place with full of statistics and
information about tourist and attractive places. These works won handsome
appreciation by great personalities of the period like Sir M.Visvesvaraya
and Sir Mirza Ismail, the then Dewans of Mysore. The Tourist Bureau
became a travel agency also, arranging conducted tours with guides and
taxies covering different tourist centres in and around Mysore. Swamy
hailed from the Gauri Purohit family. The family was associated with
the Mysore Maharajas in performing of the Gauri Pooja on the occasion
of the Gauri festival, before the Ganesha Festival. Hence the family
came to be known as Gauri family. He was also a pioneer in journalism
in Mysore. He started the ‘Mysore Municipal Journal’ in 1948 to cover
the activities of the Mysore Municipality and the development of Mysore.
The journal was converted into a Kannada daily under the name ‘Samachara’
in 1950 and later into an English Daily, ‘Samachar’. He continued editing
the daily for about 10 years, till his death. After 50 years of continuous
publication as an English Daily in Mysore, in keeping with the progress
of technology, the same has been converted into a news and information
portal, mysoresamachar.com.
Swamy’s eldest son, G.Ramakrishna, is now settled in Los Angles, USA,
after serving the Department of Tourism, Government of India, as Director.
G.Satyanarayana, the Chief Editor and CEO of this site, mysoresamachar.com,
was the Editor of Samachar, for nearly 40 years, till it was converted
into a website. He has also served various national newspapers like
the Indian Express and the Times of India and regional language newspapers
like the Samyukta Karnataka and the Kannada Prabha. He has written a
number of articles under the pen name, ‘Gauri Satya’. His wife, G.Nirmala
Devi, has completed a 5-year term as Corporator of Mysore City Corporation.
Their daughter, G.Smitha, is an engineer from the prestigious National
Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysore and providing the technical input
for this site. Satyanarayana’s brother, Dr.G.L.Shekar is a Professor
at the famous Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore
(IIT-B) and another brother, Gauri Sunder is a film and video producer-director
in Bangalore.
This site is dedicated to the memory of G.L.Swamy, whose contribution
to promotion of tourism and development of journalism in Mysore is immense.
