India, Feb. 16 -- I was raised in Mysuru and have spent all of my childhood here. I attended school and college in this beautiful and amazing city.

Though I have lived outside India for over two decades, I try my best to return every year to visit my family. Each visit is meant to feel like coming home. Instead, it increasingly feels like watching someone you love slowly lose their way. Mysuru was once known for its greenery, its calm, its dignity. It was a city that moved at a human pace - clean streets, functional roads, orderly traffic and a shared sense that public spaces mattered.

Today, Mysuru feels like a fading memory. What greets visitors now is stark and painful: garbage patches everywhere, plastic choking footpaths and drains...