anantha mukhada murthy (Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy - The multifaceted Icon)

The book ‘anantha mukhada murthy’ is yet another fruit of Dr. Nag Aithal’s passion towards Kannada literature. The book was released in Bangalore on Dec 21 2009, which is also URA’s 77^th birthday. Later on Feb 3^rd 2010, it was re-released at mELige, Dr. Ananthamurthy's birthplace. At this function, the `pustaka parichaya' or the formal introduction of the book was made. Here is a write up of my experience, being part of this project. You will find my Kannada review of URA’s Bharathipura at the end.

Last year one of my elderly well-wishers Dr. Naga Aithal contacted me and told me that he was planning to bring out a book to commemorate the 77th birthday of the famous Kannada Literary giant Dr. U. R. Ananthamurthy (URA). He asked me if I wanted to write a review of one of URA’s novels. Since I had not reviewed URA's books before, I was a bit hesitant. However, I did not want to loose this great opportunity to discover if I had any ability in critically evaluating the work of a writer whose name is frequently mentioned as the next Nobel winner from India. Along with this, the power of Mr. Aithal's suggestion is such that I could not gather myself to say no to him.

At this point, I should tell you some things about Mr. Aithal who now lives in Southern California, in retirement, after serving as a scientist in the field of Bio-Chemistry in various universities across US. He is in his late 60s and by his own assessment, has lost complete vision in one of his eyes. In addition, the other eye only has about 25 to 30% of vision remaining. I have seen him use a huge magnifying glass to read printed text with his one eye. Now a normal human being would have been fully justified in not exerting himself with any activity that strains the eye. However, Mr. Aithal is fully active in his literary pursuits. He has founded a publishing establishment called `Sahityanjali.' Through Sahityanjali and in cooperation with Abhinava Publishers of Bangalore he has so far published seven books and intends publishing four more this year.

This noble task involves constant reading of the current and past works in literature, writing about literature, scouting for prospective writers to contribute articles to the books, evaluating their articles, helping them in improving the quality of their articles. Apart from one needs to take care of the logistics of getting the books printed, having it released in a book release function and making sure the book reaches the authors who contributed articles to the work. Mr. Aithal and his team have had tremendous success in achieving their objectives. Their passion and love for literature is worth emulating.

Therefore, you will now understand what I mean when I tell you that the power of Mr. Aithal’s suggestion is such that I could not gather myself to say no to someone who is working against such odds. Well I am happy I said yes. Even though I have no illusions about the quality of my review, I am happy I did it.

Mr. Aithal himself reflects on his passion thus. “The job I am doing now gives enormous satisfaction to me. Besides it keeps my retired life engaged without which I would probably go 'bananas.' So there is a selfish motive in selecting my work.”

Strangely enough, MS Word flags the word Abinava's as a typo and guess what is the suggested alternative – ‘bananas’. Try it for yourself. But let me not digress.

Coming back to the subject at hand, the book was released in Bangalore on Dec 21st 2009 which is also URA’s 77^th birthday. Later on Feb 3^rd 2010 it was re-released at mELige, URA's birthplace. At this function the `pustaka parichaya' or the formal introduction of the book was made.

I was pleasantly surprised when Mr. N. Ravikumar of Abhinava Publishers in Bangalore kindly had two copies delivered to my home in California.

Please click here to read my article from the book ‘ananta mukhada murthy". It is a review of URA's novel Bharatipura. Thanks to Mr. Aithal for giving me permission to put it in my blog. For my non-Kannadiga friends, I am sorry I do not have the review in Kannada. But please check on the web if the novel is available in English. It is great story of an idealist youth Jagannatha who returns to India from England to rebel against the social injustice such a approachability and casteism.