The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : A grand memorial for Aa Na Kru soon

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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
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A grand memorial for Aa Na Kru soon

Special Correspondent

The house where he lived does not have sufficient space to be made a memorial, says official

‘Aa Na Kru was not a mere populist writer’
‘He was responsible for encouraging reading habit’

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

NOSTALGIA: Lexicographer G. Venkatasubbaiah, writers Baragur Ramachandrappa and G.S. Shivarudrappa, Aa Na Kru Pratishtana president Hanrnahalli Ramaswamy and Secretary to the Department of Kannada and Culture I.M. Vittalamurthy at the photo exhibition at the Aa Na Kru centenary celebrations in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: The Government will build a befitting memorial to the popular writer and a pioneer of Kannada movement, the late Arakalgud Narasinga Rao Krishna Rao (popularly known Aa. Na. Kru.), Secretary to the Department of Kannada and Culture I.M. Vittalamurthy has said.

He was speaking at the inaugural of the late Aa. Na. Kru‘s birth centenary organised by the Department of Kannada and Culture here on Tuesday.

There was a proposal to convert the late writer’s residence in Bangalore into a memorial hall. Owing to space constraints and other reasons, it was decided to build a memorial on a spacious site. The Government would consider the vacant site on the K.R. Road adjacent to the Gayana Samaja, recommended by the Aa. Na. Kru Pratishtana, he said.

Explaining the importance of life and achievements of Aa. Na. Kru in the light of increasing Kannada consciousness on several fronts, Mr. Vittalamurthy said the writer was a role model for the development of Kannada with a broad-based outlook. The Government would publish complete works of the writer with an affordable price tag, he said.

The former Minister and chairman of the pratishtana, Haranahalli Ramaswamy, said Aa. Na. Kru was responsible for influencing and inculcating reading habits of Kannada books among his generation.

The Government should make it clear whether it would build a befitting memorial to him or it would allow the pratishtana to build it.

Asserting that a section of literary critics had denied justice to the works of Aa. Na. Kru. And branded him as a populist writer, writer Baragur Ramachandrappa said that such an attitude was wrong. It was true that some works of the writer when measured from literary yardsticks were not sound. But the conscience keepers of Kannada literature should know many of his works were outstanding and relevant.

Quoting from the preface of his first novel Jeevana Yaatre published in 1934; Prof. Ramachandrappa said the preface was relevant even today as it had held Hinduism, Islam and Christianity on an equal plane both from mundane and metaphysical perspectives. It had emphasised the notion of “Brahtru Bhava” would hold the key for the universal order and peace. In the context of his contribution to Kannada literature, his works should be re-evaluated. Those who had cultivated a kind of intellectual aversion towards populist art forms such as literature, play and cinema betraying logic and reasoning should know that being populist was not cheap and vulgar, he said. Explaining the importance of Aa. Na. Kru in the development of Kannada literature, writer G.S. Shivarudrappa said the late writer’s works deserved fresh interpretations.

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