A few days back, I attended a felicitation function arranged by ಅ .ನ ಕೃ[ Anakru] foundation to felicitate the famous Kannada Author Shri S.L.Byrappa.Former Chief Justice of Supreme court of India Shri M.N.Venkatachalaih was the chief guest and Prof .Venkatasubbaih presided over the function.Shatavadhani Shri Ganesh spoke on the works of SLB.
What touched me most during this function was, the speech delivered by MNV ,which of course was in English,may be because ,he was more comfortable speaking in English.During his speech he gave an example of one particular leader of Famous Dravidian party.Shri Chakravarti Rajagopalachari [CR]was a well known leader veteran freedom fighter of congress party who later on switched over his own party called Swatantra party.This Dravidian leader had so much hatred towards CR,that in all his speeches he used mainly target CR with highly vitriolic language.His animosity towards CR was well known in political circles.This Dravidian leader was later , admitted to CMC Vellore for a treatment of some serious illness.During his stay at CMC ,CR passed away in Channai.Even though,Dravidian leader was seriously ill he wanted to attend funeral function of CR, much against the advise of doctors .But to every one's surprise, he refused to budge and against all their advise he went to attend the last rites of CR.
In CR's house he wept like child after seeing the dead body of CR.Every one was surprised by his behaviour.After a year this leader became seriously ill and Doctors left all hopes of his survival.He enquired the doctors when is the death anniversary of CR.They informed him the very next day is CR's death anniversary.Then it seems he told them ," Then tomorrow must be a very auspicious day".Believe it not,he died on the very next day i.e on the death anniversary day of CR.Is it not a great surprise, the man who hated CR for his political and personal belief,and who never believed in religion ,caste or even god wanted to die on the same day, CR left for heavenly abode! It looks to me that he did not hate CR,but he was only fighting for the same space occupied by CR.
To me,,by telling this story MNV was sending message for the people on the Dias ,basically for two literary giants shri SLB and shri URA who are in the opposite camps and their dislikes to each other is well known in literary circles.URA takes every opportunity to criticise SLB for his beliefs and writing's.URA is more sophisticated urbane,polished and diplomatic.He has capability change his philosophy depending on the circumstances and hone his thoughts to please intellectual community.Where as SLB is rustic in his approach and is a realist and does not bother what other people think about him.There is hardly any Kannadiga who has not at least read one novel of SLB.People wait for his next book and therefore ,as on today he is one of the most well known writer in Kannada literature.His books sell like hot cakes and see several editions.This has created lobby in Kannada literary field to undermine his books and deliberately see that no literary honours worth mentioning is given to him.
Do these people really have a hatred to each other? I do not think so.They are jealous of SLB as a writer and respect he commands in the heart of normal Kannadiga.He has effectively filled the vacuum created by Anakru.One need not accept him as an affable person, but nobody can ignore his literary works.After all, there are many writers,whose personal life and beliefs may not be acceptable to larger community,but their contributions to literature is enormous.The outstanding example is MR Naipaul[Noble Laurette] whose had tumultuous personal life .Therefore,when people are fighting for the same space it looks as if they hate each other,but on the contrary, they have admiration for each other,but jealousy will not allow them to accept it I People are jealous of SLB because, irrespective whether they like it not people read his books and admire him.In fact they are giving more popularity to his books by writing against him.While SLB lives by his books ,others live by awards and honours.In the end what matters most is left to the imagination of the readers.
In our country we see the habit of hounding highly talented and famous people.It is not only confined to literary field but also in all other fields like sports,scientific,politics and film etc.We have seen SM Gavaskar making uncharitable remarks on PT USHA another legendary figure.We always debate when Tendulkar will retire from cricket, instead of appreciating his contribution to cricket.In science situation is far worse.In post independence era we can not even think of one persons who can match the abilities of SIR CVR,BOSE,SIR MV.All talented people migrated to foreign countries after independence ,what is left out is managing our scientific institutions.All they have done is to open innumerable number of laboratories producing no tangible results.
There may be some small sparks here and there but,the over all achievement is far from dismal.Under these government owned laboratories nothing much expected other than some mediocre results.
It is not that whole generations after independence is bad.We have devised a system which is intolerant towards talented people.Look at the way politicians treated NRN on flag controversy .We had BINDRA,TENDULKAR ,PT USHA,V.ANAND,PERIERA not because of our system but because of their own initiative and talent.If we look at the history of persons who are heading various government organisations , nine out of ten reached there not by talent or merit but, by various other considerations.
If we want to produce results of international quality we need to respect talent and merit.We should not look at the person but should look at his work.We should rise above narrow considerations of region,caste,religion and language in recognising talent and merit.
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