Ananthamurthy was always the shepherd, never the sheep

NISSAR AHMED

Ours is a relationship forged over 50 years. We would address each other in the singular always, though he is a couple of years older than me. He was the biggest ideological and intellectual writer of our generation. He never compromised on things like superstition and blind beliefs that harm our society. He lived with great sincerity right to the end of his life. Whenever there was an occasion to fight issues, he would speak up and take up the cause with typical vigour.

We worked together in the Karnataka Sahitya Academy in the Ramakrishna Hegde government of 1983-87. We had very senior writers like Chaduranga, Yeshwant Chittala, Shantinath Desai, Kaiyyara Kinhanna Rai as members. He would come without fail from Mysore for every meeting and he would support all progressive moves.

I met him two years ago at the ninth convention of Alva’s Nudisiri. He spoke with such affection about me. His heart was like a child’s, expressing everything straight, true and warm, easily, without any pretenses. If any good work came from any writer, he would praise it with all his heart. At an event on Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, I read out a poem. He heard it, but was in a hurry to go back to Mysore. However, I was very touched because he called me the next day, all the way from Mysore and said that he really loved it. How many people will do something like this? He never stood on prestige.

Kannada litterateurs like Kuvempu, Shivaram Karanth and Masti have all contributed to world literature, but in my generation, it was Ananthamurthy who did that job, not just through his writing but through lectures and teaching stints at various international universities. He served the cause of Kannada and its culture, all through his life.

I was studying in Bangalore University when I read a short story that he had written in Mysore University’s newspaper, Varsity News. The short story was called ‘Khoja Raja’ and dealt with a very sentimental guy and his experiences with sex. It sounds infantile now, but in 1958, it was a very revolutionary piece. He maintained that standard all through his works and wrote very mature, balanced pieces on criticism. He was always the shepherd (kuruba, a reference to Nissar Ahmed’s famous satirical poem Kurigalu saar kurigalu), never the sheep (kuri) on any issue. He led from the front and stuck to his beliefs.

The author is an eminent poet.