Mysuru : As a tribute to city’s living legend Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa, who is one of India’s foremost Kannada litterateurs, a two-day ‘S. L. Bhyrappa Sahityotsava’ will be held at Kalamandira in Mysuru on Jan. 19 and 20, under the aegis of S. L. Bhyrappa Sahitya Pratishtana.

Addressing a press meet at Pathrakathara Bhavan here this morning, Prof. G. L. Shekar, Hon. Secretary of the Prathishtana, said that Dr. Chandrashekara Kambara, President, Sahitya Akademi and Jnanpith awardee, will inaugurate and deliver the inaugural address on Jan. 19.

Prof. Pradhan Gurudatta, author and linguist, will release the book, Chinthana-Manthana, a collection of interviews of Dr. S. L. Bhyrappa.

Eminent personalities including Shatavadhani Dr. R. Ganesh, author and poet, Shefali Vaidya, writer and columnist from Pune, P. Sheshadri, film director, Prof. M. Krishne Gowda, writer and humourist,  Gangavathi Pranesh, columnist and humourist and Dr. Nand Kishore Acharya, author from Bikaner, Rajasthan, will deliver lectures on topics related to Dr. Bhyrappa’s novels that are abound in Indian philosophy, culture and tradition during this two-day literary meet.

Besides Shefali Vaidya’s interview with Dr. Bhyrappa, his documentary will be screened. Pandit Nagaraja Rao Havaldar, well-known Hindustani classical vocalist, will render ragas of Mandra, authored by Dr. Bhyrappa and Kalagangotri-Bengaluru will stage Kannada play Mandra, directed by Dr. B.V. Rajaram, well-known theatre director. Also, an interaction with Dr. Bhyrappa will be held.

Since only 500 participants are allowed for lecture sessions, interested persons can register their names at: [email protected]. However, all are welcome for music and drama to be held on Jan. 19 evening.

In order to capture the brilliance of Dr. Bhyrappa’s thoughts and reflections, about 20 hours of HD video recording was done in June 2018 wherein well-known authors interviewed Dr. Bhyrappa on his works, philosophy, nationalism and nuances of literature. The content is made available to public in the form of a book titled Chinthana-Manthana.

Recipient of Saraswati Samman, Dr. Bhyrappa is widely regarded as one of India’s foremost living writers. His books have found their way to the curriculum of UG and PG programmes, and have been the research topic of over 20 Ph.D. dissertations across Indian Universities. He has penned 25 novels, besides his autobiography Bhitti, and five books on literary criticism and philosophy in a career spanning over five decades. His novel Avarana was sold out before it was released in 2007 and by now has seen 54 reprints. His recent book Uttarakanda has seen 20 reprints. Even at the age of 88, his clarity of thought and creativity are remarkable.

S.L. Bhyrappa Sahitya Pratishtana is a Trust registered to further the cause of intellectual advancement in the field of education, literature and art. The objectives of the Trust include translation of Dr. Bhyrappa’s literary works into global languages, promote art of writing through workshops especially among budding young writers, organise literary seminars and symposia, support libraries and museums and award scholarships to deserving students irrespective of caste, creed, race or religion.

Follow Star of Mysore on Instagram www.instagram.com/starofmysore