S.L. Bhyrappa Sahityotsava – 2019

Mysuru: Renowned Humorist Gangavathi Pranesh, through his wit and humour-laced speech, delighted the audience on the second day of the two-day S.L. Bhyrappa Sahityotsava-2019 organised by S.L. Bhyrappa Sahitya Pratishtana at Kalamandira here this morning.

Beginning his speech by recalling his admiration for Saraswati Samman awardee Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa since his (Pranesh) childhood days, Pranesh said that while Dr. Bhyrappa advocated his views seriously on societal issues, Beechi, a pioneer of humourism that he was, used to highlight the issues in a humouristic and sarcastic manner.

Regretting that a littérateur of the stature of Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa is yet to get an invite for Dasara inauguration, Gangavathi Pranesh said that he had heard many personalities saying that Dr. Bhyrappa has not been granted the status that he truly deserved.

Pointing out that Dr. Bhyrappa’s popularity has been reflected in the translation of many of his literary works into global languages, the noted humorist said that the Saraswati Samman awardee is rightly and widely regarded as one of India’s foremost living writers.

Coming back to humor mode, Pranesh said that just like people rush to take selfies with celebrities, one person took a selfie with him during a programme recently. But the person who took the selfie was booked by the Police in connection with a criminal case, when the Police summoned him (Pranesh) to the Police Station to make a statement. He then thought that it was time to ask the Prime Minister to make Aadhaar-linking mandatory for individuals to take selfies with celebrities and personalities, he said, which sent the audience to laughter.

In another  remark, Pranesh said, it was not advisable to make cinemas based on popular novels as such cinemas are bound to fail in theatres.

“Art cinemas are often telecast on DD-1 Channels only on Sundays. As I went in search of what was the reason behind this, I found that Art cinemas are most of the times sponsored by a headache relief  balm and I thought that the balm brings some relief to viewers who get bored viewing art cinemas,” he said, which again sent the audience into peels of laughter.

Recalling an incident when he took part in the ‘Weekend with Ramesh’ programme telecast in a Kannada channel, Pranesh said that he got a chance to advice the people through jokes against glorifying themselves while belittling others.