By S. Narendra

The demise of Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa (SLB) at 94 brings back fond memories of our family interactions with the Kannada literary magician, when we were  in Mysuru.

This was during 1980s. Dr. Bhyrappa used to visit our home ‘Deepti’ in Gangothri HUDCO Layout in Mysuru, at  least once in a fortnight while on his return from Regional College of Education (RCE) where he was teaching Logic and Philosophy.

He used to love the ‘strong’ coffee which my mother Sharada Rao used to prepare and serve at intermittent intervals and discuss or share what’s going on in his mind with my late father Prof. H.G. Suryanarayana Rao, an English Professor and Editor, Prasaranga, University of Mysore. 

As children, we were very fortunate and blessed not only to see the literary giant in flesh and blood regularly but also witnessed the ‘other side  of the maverick.’

He used to visit us after 6 pm on his yellow coloured Chetak scooter and announce his arrival by his scooter horn. The reason for horn was to seek assistance to take charge of his scooter since he had problem in parking the vehicle as he was suffering from spondylitis and used to wear the neck collar. We used to do this errand happily and welcome him in.

Dr. SLB was a great connoisseur of Hindustani music. Suddenly he used to request us to play music of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Parween Sultana, flute of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, tabla of Zakir Hussain, master Ravishankar’s sitar, etc., and listen intensely with closed eyes. None should disturb while listening to the music. I was deputed by my parents to sit outside the house to prevent anybody from entering  and ringing the calling bell during their ‘music listening session’! SLB used to get angry if anyone interrupted him while listening to music or even while he is seriously narrating a story which he narrated with much intensity.

Every visit of Dr. SLB had a purpose and some unique experience which he used to share. On one such visit, he announced that he wanted to initiate a ‘chewing experiment’ at a few homes of his intimate friends. The experiment was — every morsel of food intake should be chewed 30 times before swallowing! He used to review the progress and the positive results of  this ‘chewing experiment’ by enquiring about any improvement  in our digestion.

Though SLB looked  stern and serious to outsiders, he was kind and humane. My father passed away in 1985 and I was pursuing research in Economics at Manasagangothri, Mysuru. He continued to visit our home even after the demise of my father, enquire about our welfare and review the status of m   Ph.D periodically.

He always used to remark ‘never become a last paragraph Ph.D awardee’ meaning evaluators awarding certain Ph.D degrees with a remark in the last paragraph that the ‘doctoral degree’ is awarded to the ‘scholar’ for spending 3-5 years on research work and not for any significant path-breaking findings. He also would often delicately ask if I needed any  financial assistance.

Dr. SLB always believed in ‘original research’ work and extensively researched for his own work. This took him to far off places. If he was not visiting our home or become incommunicado, it only meant that he was into research or writing a novel either sitting in Uttarakhand or in some remote place in the Himalayas or village in some part of India or in some friend’s home (Banu Mushtaq home was one such instance) and this period of absence could last months!

Writing of a novel was ‘tapas’ to Dr. SLB. Every word used by the ‘Sahitya Rishi’ in his novels was weighed and flowed from his deep research and first-hand experience of whatever he was writing about.

Dr. SLB lives eternally with his immortal literary novels. Branded as a ‘rightist writer’ and an agnostic, he never lobbied for recognition, awards   or positions.

Posthumously at least Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa, who is a literary phenomenon, deserves Jnanpith award and   Bharat Ratna.

By honouring Dr. SLB,  the literary body and the Central Government will be honouring themselves.

[The writer is a former GM of GRUH Finance and currently resides at Padmanabhanagar in Bengaluru.]