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Restless poet
S. DIWAKAR
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B.C. Ramachandra Sharma's poetry was path-breaking.
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PHOTO: KPN
B.C. Ramachandra Sharma, 1925 - 2005.
RENOWNED Kannada poet B.C. Ramachandra Sharma breathed his last in the early hours of April 18 in Bangalore. One of the most original, fascinating, and influential figures in Kannada literature, Sharma was much acclaimed for his path-breaking poetry. In the1950s, he, along with Gopalakrishna Adiga, ushered in the Navya (Modern) movement. His oeuvre includes eight collections of poems, four collections of short stories, four plays and two books of non-fiction.
In both form and content, Sharma self-consciously broke taboos and conventions in his work, with reference to morality, sex, religion and poetic tradition. His was an immense authority of utterance, yet everything he said preserved the fresh spontaneity of discovery. He explored the realities of urban Indian life with a critical intelligence and a Faulknerian restlessness unmatched by any of his contemporaries. And his lucid and richly textured narratives allowed the readers the epiphanies that his characters themselves were denied.
As a psychologist and educationist, Sharma had lived in Ethiopia, England and Zambia before returning to India in 1982. He received Central Sahitya Akademi award (1988) for his collection of poems, Saptapadi. Sharma will also be remembered for his excellent translations into English of some of the finest Kannada writers like Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Kuvempu, Yashawant Chittal and Poornachandra Tejasvi.
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