Rashtrakavi M Govinda Pai's Manjeshwar house renovated under Gilivindu Project

The residence of Kannada’s first Rastrakavi M Govinda Pai in Manjeshwar has been renovated and a state-of-the-art auditorium ‘Bhavanika’ has been built under the ‘Gilivindu’ project.

The restored residence and the auditorium are expected to be inaugurated by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan in December.

Project ‘Gilivindu,’ a joint venture by Karnataka and Kerala governments, was chalked out in 2005-06 by Rastrakavi M Govinda Pai Trust, headed by MP M Veerappa Moily along with 17 trustees from both the states.

The project included the restoration work of the poet’s residence which is now Rastrakavi M Govinda Pai Memorial, construction of Bhavanika -- a 12,000 sqft auditorium meant for cultural activities, construction of three houses ‘Ananda,’ ‘Saketa’ and ‘Vaishakhi’, Nalanda -- a research centre -- and Bodhiranga, an open air theatre. Various development works were initiated on December 23, 2013.

Gilivindu project director and former MUDA chairman Tejomaya said that the Karnataka and Kerala governments have contributed Rs 2.5 crore each for work related to Bhavanika. A total of Rs 1.25 crore has been contributed by Bharat Petroleum, Rs 35 lakh by ONGC, New Delhi.

The auditorium has been completed at around Rs 5 crore and the work on acoustics is going on. The poet’s house is being restored at a cost Rs 1 crore. The guest houses were built with Kerala legislators’ MLA funds of Rs 13.75 lakh each. The construction of the compound wall has been done with a contribution of Rs 6 lakh by P Dayanand Pai.

There was earlier a plan to institute the research centre ‘Nalanda,’ in the residence of Govinda Pai. But, the plan had been dropped as it needs facilities such as air conditioning for palm leaf (thalegari) archives as well as separate electric wiring for computer systems. Hence, it was decided not to disturb the poet’s old residence. A separate building will be constructed for the study centre. Pai’s personal articles, which are in possession with his relatives, will be kept at Rastrakavi Manjeshwara Govinda Pai Memorial.

The construction of Bodhiranga, open air theatre, has not been taken up due to space constraints. Digitisation of Pai’s books Poet Govinda Pai was an avid reader and researcher and owned around 4,500 books. After his demise, the books went to the custody of his relatives, as Pai was childless. They had in turn handed over Pai’s book collection to Manjeshwara Govinda Pai Study Centre at MGM College, Udupi. The Govinda Pai Trust signed a memorandum of understanding with World Konkani Centre towards digitisation of the books. The work started in 2013-14 and the first phase of digitising 300 books has been completed recently. The digitised copies will be part of the study centre in Manjeshwar, Gilivindu project director Tejomaya said.