Bangalore :
The absence of Bangalore’s chronicler might leave some of the finest memories of the city rudderless. For, the narrative, in this case, is as much about its creator as it is about the city. The chronicler portrayed what he saw — simple and often funny things taken from the daily affairs of the city, unlike ones found in history books – bringing smiles to his readers’ faces.
Peter Colaco, author of bestseller ‘Bangalore, A Century of Tales From City & Cantonment’, passed away at the age of 67 on Friday, following a cardiac arrest. His work is considered one of the finest accounts of the city’s post-Independence era ground realities.
Peter was a versatile personality. A former professor of advertising at IIM-B, he also donned the caps of documentary filmmaker and musician, besides being successful in his advertising career.
“Above all, Peter was a very nice human being. I remember him dragging me to old age homes where he would just take out his guitar and sing. The aged there loved him,” said Sadiqa Peerbhoy, author, advertising professional and a good friend of Peter.
Many were inspired by the man who was known for his unrelenting quest for precision and perfection. But those who grew up with him, particularly his siblings, perhaps knew him better than most. “Peter spent hours trying to work out rose grafting, and that’s why, perhaps, can still be either prickly as a thorn or soft as a rose petal,” writes Jacqueline Colaco, one of Peter’s siblings, in her work, ‘Growing Up With Brothers’.
The man himself may be gone, like most of the subjects of his best-selling book. Yet, his readers will find him alive in the reminiscences of the old city.
A few weeks before his death, Peter had pledged his body for research to St John’s Hospital. His end, incidentally, came on Good Friday , a day before he was to turn 68.
He wanted small joys
Peter Colaco was perhaps the most multi-faceted people I’ve known. Peter, as a person, was so powerful and yet so fragile, often torn between the strong mind of sheer genius and the simple mind of the good. There was very little he wanted because there was very little he needed. All he really wanted was the joy of enlightened conversation with good friends and family.
Paul Fernandes | cartoonist and friend of 35 years
An excerpt from Peter’s book
Grandfather bought Oorgaum House in 1920. It was something of a landmark with a pillared portico and battlemented terrace, an imposing bungalow set far back in a very large compound. It had virtually no neighbour on one side, just a playground of St. Jospeh’s ‘Indian’ High School, and then the expanses of Cubbon Park – excerpted from Peter Colaco’s Bangalore – A Century of Tales From City & Cantonment.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Bangalore / by Rhik Kundu , TNN / April 02nd, 2013