The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : This stall is a big draw at the meet

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Sunday, Feb 06, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

This stall is a big draw at the meet

Bageshree S.

Venkatesh has displayed newspaper clippings on earlier sammelans

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Laudatory:M.A. Venkatesh showing visitors his unique collection at his stall at the Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelan at the National College Grounds in Bangalore.

Bangalore: This year's Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelan president G. Venkatasubbaiah left the Chief Minister squirming in his seat by speaking loudly and clearly about how corruption has become Karnataka's defining feature.

What was the main theme of the address of D. Javare Gowda, the man who presided over the event 40 years ago in Bangalore?

If this is a question that piques your curiosity, visit Stall No. 10 at the sammelan's book sale venue at the National College Grounds, and check out M.A. Venkatesh's collection of old newspaper clippings.

Active association

The stall has on display newspapers painstaking collected for nearly 50 years by 69-year-old Mr. Venkatesh, who retired from the public sector BEL as Quality Control Manager and has always been actively associated with the Kannada Sahitya Parishat.

The most interesting among the collection are old reports of sammelan presidents over the years, which reflect the changing concerns of language and culture as much as they reflect the common threads that run through them.

For instance, the need to provide primacy to Kannada in administration and education is common to the presidential addresses of Dr. Javare Gowda and Prof. Venkatasubbaiah. But the sense of great despair over corruption in polity is unique to the latter.

The thrust in Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar's presidential speech at the sammelan in 1982 at Sirsi on the importance of Dalit literature in Kannada is interesting. Besides those displayed, Mr. Venkatesh says that he has hundreds of clippings on about 118 personalities related to themes ranging from literature to religion. “For example, I have 600 clippings on Shivaram Karanth and 400 on Kuvempu,” he says.

Mr. Venkatesh's stall is a big draw at the sammelan, with hordes of people looking wonder-eyed at the yellow and frail pages of newspapers in fonts and layouts so vastly different from what we see today.

The amiable gentleman, whose mother tongue is, incidentally Tamil, says that he is willing to share his collection with anyone interested in photo-copying them. The Jayanagar III Block resident can be reached on 080-22447322.

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