Shivamogga cherishes its bond with Bhyrappa

Shivamogga/DHNS: Noted novelist S L Bhyrappa, who passed away in Bengaluru on Wednesday, had an inseparable bond with Shivamogga. The novelist was regular at the literary and musical programmes of Karnataka Sangha and when he was in the city, he would stay with his childhood friend S D Krishnamurthy, who lived at the Fourth Cross in Gandhi Nagar.

Krishnamurthy was also from Santeshivara of Hassan district, Bhyrappa’s native. Bhayrappa and
Krishnamurthy were neighbours in their native. Krishnamurthy, who was a teacher at the National Boys High School in Shivamogga, retired as a lecturer at the Silver Jubilee College in Bhadravathi. Krishnamurthy’s younger brother S D Nagarajarao was at the forefront of establishing the Bhayrappa Foundation in Santeshivara.

“My father Krishnamurthy passed away in 1996, and until then, Bhayrappa used to come to the house whenever he visited Shivamogga.

“Even after my father passed away, he came to the house and spoke to me. Bhyrappa has written about his association with my father in his autobiography ‘Bhitti,’” recalls S K Satish, Public Relations Officer at Shivamogga Rotary Blood Bank.

The writer had taken part in a discussion programme on his works organised by the Pratibha Ranga in Shivamogga under the leadership of writer Vijayashree on June 6, 2003. 

Bhyrappa used to come every year to participate in the national level music conference organised by the
Karnataka Sangha in Shivamogga.

“He used to stay at the house of
Panduranga Udupa, the principal of DVS College.

“He would attend the music conference without fail for eight days,” recalls senior litterateur Satyanarayana Rao Anati.

After Bhyrappa was awarded the ‘Saraswati Samman’, he was felicitated in Shivamogga at a programme organised by Karnataka Sangha’s then President Thi Na Shankaranarayana.