Curtains come down on dist Kannada literary meet

The two-day literary meet, held after a gap of 41 years, failed to convey the audience the glory of the past and also failed to draw people to the seminars. Dilly-dallying by the organisers to invite the president to inaugurate the meet, closure of the Kannada Khavan during the meet, ignorance on garlanding the statue of national poet Kuvempu and schoolchildren fainting during the procession, marked the event.

A culinary delight

Inspite of an array of problems bugging the Sammelana throughout the two-day affair, the participants were served with a delicious platter of sumptious food. Each one appreaciated the food arrangements and the quality and hygiene maintained there. Lip-smakcing dishes, mouth-watering delicacies, hot and piping main courses made the two-day event a memorable one.

Forgotten, forsaken

Writer Kotiganahalli Ramaiah lamented that the contributions of social reformers have being ignored in the day-to-day life. Their lives and works continue to inspire us and teach us to lead a life of philanthropy in this materialistic world.

Addressing the second day of the literary meet, he said Jyotiba Phule and Ambedkar worked for the betterment of the society. Not much is being said about their services to the mankind. “At least Dr Ambedkar could find a place in the history of the nation,” he said.

A change in folk art

Folk art is all about human relations. Due to change in the structure of human relations, the standards of study of folk art also need to be changed, said Dr J R Tippeswamy, professor at Kuvempu Kannada Study Centre, Mysore.

Delivering a special lecture on folk art, he said folk art is losing its importace in the wake of turmoils in various levels of human relations. Thus, there should a change in the study pattern of the folk art in accordance, he added.

Writer Varahmurthy presented paper on ‘Mystic Literature,’ and K S Prabha on ‘Women’s Literature.’ K R Narasimhan presided over the seminar.

Aravind Katti spoke on ‘Harmony among languages spoken in the District’ and Dr G R Tippeswamy on the ‘Flavour of Folk Literature.’

Poetry meet

Poets Shivakumar, Rayalpadu Raghavendra, V Ramakrishnappa, Na Muniraju, Doddakallahalli, Narayanappa, P K Lakshmaiah, D N Ganesh and others presented their poems.

Rayalpadu Ramappa Nayak, Nagaratna, Kuntur Chandrappa, Mangala Satyamurthy, Rameshchandra, P Chandraprakash, Dr K Rajkumar, Narayanappa, Seesandra Srinivasrao, BV V V Giri, V Narayanappa, Kusuma, Chi, Su Krishnashetty, R Nanjunda, Manjukannika, Timmapura Subrayappa, Dr M V Subramanya, Venkatamuniyappa, Chandpasha and Indira were felicitated on the occasion.

Current issues

On the first day of the meet, various writers presented their papers education, agriculture and water problems.

Emphasising on the importance of primary education, MLA Y N Narayanaswamy said that a uniform education system should be introduced from the primary school level in the country. MLC V R Sudarshan discussed at length on agriculture and water problems.

Told to cut short speech

It was a day to remember for all the literary lovers. Kotiganahalli Ramaiah was unhappy over the fact that he was given an opporutnity to speak during the lunch hour on the day of the inauguration, reports DHNS from Bangarpet.

And on Sunday, he simply walked out of the Meet in protest, on being instructed to cut short his speech at the concluding ceremony.

Initially, the concluding ceremony was supposed to be held at 4 pm. When Union Minister Muniyappa arrived late, the programme finally began at 7 pm.

At the concluding ceremony, Kotiganahalli Ramaiah began reciting some of his poems as part of his speech, just when the union minister arrived. During the poem recital, the writer is said to have referred to a few names of the leaders, which incidently also included the union minister’s name. At this juncture, district Kannada Sahitya Parishat president Prahlad Rao, instructed him to cut short his speech.

Irked by this, Ramaiah walked out of the Meet in protest against the incident. The audience was taken by surprise by the sudden turn of events. None tried to stop Ramaiah from walking out. Meanwhile, Prahlad Rao apologised for the incident.

Finally, after a some cajoling, Ramaiah arrived on the stage and resumed his speech.