Look closely at the central tower of Minto Ophthalmic Hospital, and you can make out the year 1913. On 31 January that year, Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore, opened the building in this photograph. It takes its name from Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, the fourth Earl of Minto, who served as Viceroy of India from 1905 to 1910.
The hospital’s story goes back a little further. On 9 November 1896, Dr S. V. Ramaswamy Iyengar began seeing patients at a small eye dispensary in a shop in Chickpet. It was called the Bangalore Eye Hospital. That makes the building 113 years old, while the institution turns 130 this week.
What I like about this view is how the trees frame the long rows of windows on either side of the arched entrance. The builders used grey granite from demolished sections of Bangalore Fort for the façade. On either side of the entrance porch is the Gandaberunda, the mythical two-headed bird of the Mysore royal family. It turns up again on some of the old windows and railings. Much of the original Victorian building survives, and people still come here for eye care.
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