That society which fails to honour its distinguished sons is culturally a failed society.
Mysore is a city which was the capital of Mysore Kingdom, one of the very few vast kingdoms of our country and ruled by good kings and the last two, namely Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV and Jayachamaraja Wadiyar were philosopher - kings of the Plato's ideal. Not surprisingly, Swami Vivekananda admired the King (Maharaja) and called him Raja Rishi, while he was here for a few days. Likewise, Mahatma Gandhi described Mysore as Rama Rajya.
The Maharaja's themselves were great patrons of art, music and literature, which enabled us to have great achievers in these fields with names that we remember with awe and veneration. For example: Bidaram Krishnappa, Pitilu Chowdaiah, Mysore Vasudevacharya, Veene Seshanna, Veene Venkatagiriappa, Muthiah Bhagavathar and others like Veene Doreswamy Iyengar, flute Deshikachar and Devendrappa in the field of music. N. S. Subbu Krishna, S. N. Swamy, Keshavaiah of the Mysore School of Painting, Subrahmanya Raju known for murals and Rama Narasaiah in the field of painting. B. M. Srikantaiah, V. Seetharamaiah, D. V. Gundappa, Masti Venkatesh Iyengar and K. V. Puttappa in the field of literature.
Many of these masters, stalwarts and creative geniuses have been honoured by grateful members of our society, with financial help either from the MCC, government or private organisations, with some form of memorial — it could be naming of a road, an important circle, a public building, music hall, opera house or with a life size statue, a bust or a museum.
R. K. Narayan, a world renowned english novelist and writer, who was at the threshold of getting Nobel Prize for literature with TIME magazine soft - selling his name in one of its issues, died on May 13, 2001, a good 10 years ago and we the citizens of Mysore have found no time, nor wherewithal to ensure that a befitting memorial is set up to remember this great son of our city. It was only a North Indian Governor of Karnataka T. N. Chaturvedi who thought of converting Narayan's house into a museum to honour the memory of this great writer who was the first Indian to write novels in english to prove to the english - speaking world that even a person whose mother tongue is not english could write in that language as well as an English man.
The house which is under demolition now, is big enough and the land area 120' x 80' on which it stands is good enough for a museum. The museum could put on display all the books by R. K. Narayan, his heirlooms, samples of manuscripts (MSS), photographs of VIPs with whom he had interacted or whom he had met, his pen and other paraphernalia used for writing. Also the desk, chair he had used, the rooms he had occupied, the MSS he had dumped in a wooden box that he showed me, so on and so forth. If there is a will, there is a way.
The authorities have enough money, only they lack concern. They are not self - starters. They are kick - starters. So it is the civil society (like the one led by Anna Hazare recently) that should kick - start the authorities to do to the society what it should — in our case, buy the house of R. K. Narayan from his heirs and convert it into a museum with a bronze burst adorning the front lawn.
Compromising on modesty, I claim to have known R. K. Narayan personally, having visited this house a number of times and received his hospitality of coffee and uppittu. I have written about it all in this column on the day he passed away. I also knew some of the snobs who claimed to be close to him and basked in the reflected glory of knowing him. I also know some in the English Department of Manasagangotri showing great interest in his works and in inviting him for talks. I learn that the legendry English Professor C. D. Narasimhaiah (CDN), was so impressed by Narayan's writing in english, he was instrumental in making some of Narayan's books as text for the graduate classes of the Mysore University. A first for India, I am told.
That then is the greatness of R. K. Narayan. He created all his masterpieces in Mysore, except for a few like The Guide which he wrote in America. Therefore, it is right, just and proper we the citizens of Mysore must fight to save the house for ourselves, posterity and the world at large as a museum. It will surely make a must tourist destination for those who have interest in English literature.
Prof. K. C. Belliappa, former Vice - Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University, a former Head of the English Department at Manasagangotri and a resident of Mysore city, has aptly opined that "R.K. Narayan's house should be seen as a slice of heritage and not as a piece of real estate." Well said Professor. Unfortunately, many do not think so.
By the way, I wonder why Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy, who was teaching English in Manasagangotri for many years and known to put his finger in every pie of public cause, has been keeping silent all these 10 years since R. K. Narayan's death on the issue of a befitting memorial for him. Being a great protagonist of Kannada (yes, Jnanpith award!) does he think countenancing a memorial for an English writer may not go well with his ideology or disciples?
