<p>Noted writers of the State have demanded that the State government should drop the move to convert the house of novelist R K Narayan at Yadavagiri in the city into a memorial for the author.<br /><br /></p>.<p>D A Shankar, G Venkatasubbaiah, M Chidanandamurthy, G S Shivarudrappa, Sumatheendra Nadig, G S Siddalingaiah, S L Bhyrappa and L S Sheshagiri Rao, have in a joint press statement opposed spending more than Rs one crore of the State’s taxpayers’ money for a memorial in Narayan’s name. <br /><br />He said the government had not come forward to convert the homes of any Kannada writers, except four, into memorials. <br /><br />Hence, such huge spending on the memorial for Narayan was uncalled-for, the statement said. <br /><br />‘Not a kannadiga’<br /><br />“Narayan is not a Kannadiga and was born in Chennai, where he spent the first 15 years of his life. “He never introduced any Kannada work to the outside world through an English translation. <br /><br />“In fact, he sold the original scripts of his novels to a US university and did not hand them over to any university in the State,” the statement said.<br /><br />Narayan could hardly speak Kannada, the statement said, adding that the writer’s descendants were only selling the house where he lived to the government at market price and not gifting it.</p>
<p>Noted writers of the State have demanded that the State government should drop the move to convert the house of novelist R K Narayan at Yadavagiri in the city into a memorial for the author.<br /><br /></p>.<p>D A Shankar, G Venkatasubbaiah, M Chidanandamurthy, G S Shivarudrappa, Sumatheendra Nadig, G S Siddalingaiah, S L Bhyrappa and L S Sheshagiri Rao, have in a joint press statement opposed spending more than Rs one crore of the State’s taxpayers’ money for a memorial in Narayan’s name. <br /><br />He said the government had not come forward to convert the homes of any Kannada writers, except four, into memorials. <br /><br />Hence, such huge spending on the memorial for Narayan was uncalled-for, the statement said. <br /><br />‘Not a kannadiga’<br /><br />“Narayan is not a Kannadiga and was born in Chennai, where he spent the first 15 years of his life. “He never introduced any Kannada work to the outside world through an English translation. <br /><br />“In fact, he sold the original scripts of his novels to a US university and did not hand them over to any university in the State,” the statement said.<br /><br />Narayan could hardly speak Kannada, the statement said, adding that the writer’s descendants were only selling the house where he lived to the government at market price and not gifting it.</p>
