When I met Dr U R Ananthamurthy..

Dr. U R Ananthamurthy prominent Kannada writer and thinker

When I went to Bangalore in July 2011 I had the great pleasure of meeting the eminent Kannada literary figure and a great thinker - Dr. U R Ananthamurthy (URA).

Having read his works such as Samskara,  Bharathipura, Avasthe and many of his short stories and essays, I had become an ardent fan of his and so naturally wanted to meet him.  More over the fact that he had experienced being an NRI student like me had developed in me, his thoughts and writings appealed to me. His stories were drawn from personalities and life around us in and outside of Karnataka and also had the benefit of his exposure to western thoughts and culture. When I read ‘Clip Joint’ I was fascinated by the conundrums of a foreign student in UK. Earlier to that I had written a story inspired by Dr. B R Lakshmana Rao’s poem ‘Gopi mattu Gandalina” (Gopi and Gandalina). Later I learnt that this poem itself was inspired by Clip Joint. So one of my stories had been influenced by Dr. Ananthamurthy without me knowing about it.

As soon as I reached Bengaluru I called URA and expressed an interest in meeting him. I had not seen him before and he did not know me. But a friend of mine is his relative and he had given an email introduction. URA readily agreed to meet me and suggested a time when I should go to his home in Bengaluru. On that day I telephoned him but he told me he was in Mysore as a member of a VC selection committee. So he asked me to call the next day. When I called the next day he had gone to attend a book release ceremony of Kaushik Basu, the noted Indian economist.  But the next time I spoke to him over phone he was ready to  meet me and gave me his address and detailed directions. I reached his home at 4.00 PM.

When I went in I was welcomed by his assistant. He asked me to wait since URA was taking a shower. I sat in the veranda, where, against the walls, there were a series of shelves which contained hundreds of books. The book shelves were cataloged. In a few minutes URA came out looking fresh and greeted me with a smile and took me with him. We went and sat inside in the living room. I was still a bit nervous.

I introduced myself and mentioned that I had seen and heard his speech when he came to US in 1998. We talked about this and that and before I knew we were conversing freely.

I asked him about the mining scandal involving the ministers in Karnataka government, which was raging at that time. The Reddy brothers had become very rich by selling large quantities of iron ore to foreign countries notably China. He said "I have always been telling that we should never export minerals to foreign countries. That is like selling our own land."   URA said we should sell value added goods not raw iron ore. He said with pride "There is one thing I am very proud of. I stopped the mining of iron ore in Kuduremukh."  He then explained how he appealed to the chief minister S M Krishna to not renew the lease and succeeded in that effort in 2002.

Author with Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy

Then we talked about the current state of India. As a visitor I had witnessed changes of a large magnitude in Bengaluru.  I asked him what he thought of the new found wealth of some Indians and what was his opinion on the many malls that have sprung up in Bengaluru.  He put it very well when he said "It is good that many people can afford a good living. But I think we should not celebrate this new found ability for consumerism".  He said that the malls and shopping complexes are affecting the individually run small stores. I told him that I too felt the same and seeing the malls and the crowds in them, made me very depressed. How ever when I went to the malls I saw a lot of people employed by the stores allowing them to earn a living. I also mentioned that we now see a lot of employment opportunities in food catering, transportation and other such services. He responded by saying "We should think of what would have happened to these people if there were no such employment opportunities. They would have been entrepreneurs themselves. Now by giving them this way out, we are killing their confidence and entrepreneurial spirit. Apart from that, if you go to the mall it is very impersonal. On the other hand I have a relationship with the guy in the local stores. When I go there, he says Rs 10 for a vegetable and I ask him to make it a rupee less and we argue about it and finally do a transaction. I need that social interaction. This kind of social interaction is being lost with the arrival of the mall culture."

At that time URA was in the news for making the statement "Byrappa's works are  rahugrastha (Jinxed)  kritis. Kasarvaalli rids the works of the jinx and makes his movies." I was not sure if I should bring it up since I was meeting him for the first time. But until then he was so nice and cordial that I felt comfortable asking him what he thinks about this issue. He laughed and said very cheerfully "I just said that a work should not have preplanned point of view. The writer should be willing to let his characters lead the way. That is what these people (press) are talking about".


Before I knew we had spent a little more than two hours chatting. I was amazed at his friendly and easy going demeanor and interactions. I thanked him for spending time with me. I asked if I could take pictures. He readily agreed and I took some pictures in my small point and shoot digital camera. When I showed it to him on the camera, he called his wife and exclaimed “ Did you see this small camera. It takes really good pictures”.

Then he went in and came out with two of his books. At the same time he asked “Do you take sugar with tea” for which I said yes. As he autographed the books he said “If it does not burden you I would like to give you these books.” (I am not sure if he was referring to the weight limit for flight travel). He gave me signed copies of two of his books.

Then as we continued talking his wife Mrs. Esther brought in 3 cups of tea and we all continued to talk as we drank the tea. Even Mrs. Esther was very hospitable. She spoke to me and inquired about what I do and life in general. When I mentioned that I am involved in Kannada dramas URA said a few encouraging words. When I mentioned that I had taken courses in theater in US and performed parts of Girish Karnad's Tuglak in English during that course he seemed genuinely happy. He called out to his wife and told “Did you hear this. He is involved in a lot of activities” and urged me to continue with it.

Mrs. Esther and Dr. U. R. Ananthamurthy

It was around 6.15 in the evening and time for me to take leave. When I left I was very happy for having met him. I felt good that I had overcome my trepidation about meeting a celebrated and high profile personality like Dr. U. R. Ananthamurthy.  It turned out to be a very memorable experience.

(Foot Note: I met Dr. U R Ananthamurthy almost an year back. I am writing this from memory. So I might have paraphrased some of Dr. URA's comments. We talked mostly in Kannada and so I had to also translate some of our conversation to English)