‘Texas was his dream’: Bengaluru recalls Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah, motel manager beheaded in US

BENGALURU: Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah — who was brutally beheaded over a fight at Dallas motel where he was a manager — studied, worked and nurtured his entrepreneurial ambitions in his hometown, Bengaluru.According to his Facebook profile, Mouli studied in Indiranagar Cambridge School and later at National College, Basavanagudi, south Bengaluru. Mouli's brother and mother are rushing to the US for final rites.Many years before Mouli shifted to the US to chase his dream of becoming an entrepreneur, he had dabbled in many businesses in Bengaluru: Running a PG was main.

His neighbour from RT Nagar, Suresh Kumar, a government employee, told TOI: "How can we forget him or his happy family? He had told us about his strong desire of settling down in Texas and running a chain of hotels with South Indian food as mainstay.

I was shocked when cops knocked on my door around 7pm and narrated the horrific incident (of his killing). We were neighbours for almost seven years. We were more like a joint family.

"Texas was on Mouli's radar because his elder sister and brother-in-law were running a hospitality business in that state. Besides, they wanted him to join them so that they could expand the footprint of their business."One fine morning in 2018, Mouli declared he was, indeed, flying to the US.

From 2018 to 2021, he was in San Antonio before shifting to Dallas. He would show us his house and hotel through our regular video calls. Sometimes, Nisha would speak to my wife and invite us to the US," Kumar said.Mouli had applied for a passport with his then residence shown on 9th Cross, II Block, RT Nagar. He, wife Nisha and son Gaurav lived on the ground floor of a two-storey building. Kumar and his wife were on the first floor."We shifted to this house in 2012 and were warmly welcomed by the Moulis. My son and Gaurav — one year apart — attended a private school 300 metres from the house," Kumar said. Nisha was a homemaker. Mouli had lost his father long ago and his aged mother lived with him.Another neighbour, a homemaker, recalled Mouli and Nisha as a "soft-spoken and friendly couple".(Names of neighbours changed on request)