Mysuru: Marking the 182nd birth anniversary of ‘Dayasagara’ M. Venkatakrishnaiah (popularly known as Thathaiah), the prestigious ‘Sri M. Venkatakrishnaiah (Thathaiah) Award’ was conferred on Sanskrit Scholar Dr. H.V. Nagaraja Rao and ‘Thathaiah Sri Beneficiary Achiever Award-2026’ on Innosolve Consulting Services Private Limited Co-Founder and Managing Director B.V. Dinesh at a programme organised at The Anathalaya located on N.S. Road in city yesterday.
Speaking as the chief guest on the occasion, Bengaluru’s Adamya Chetana Foundation President Tejaswini Ananthkumar said that there is an old saying that ‘Home is the first school for children and mother is the first Guru.’ But now I want to give a minor twist to it by saying that ‘House is the first school and the kitchen is the first lesson for children.’ This is because, now a days, the kitchen in every household produces waste of about 2-3 kgs daily. The disposal of wastes has become a big problem in cities, she maintained.
Stating that her Adamya Chetana Foundation, which started its service with the supply of hot meals to 2,000 Government School children in Bengaluru, is now supplying meals to over 1.75 lakh children every day in places like Bengaluru, Kalaburagi, Hubballi-Dharwad in Karnataka and Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The food is prepared using bio-gas fuel instead of LPG, she said while observing that kitchens are the main sources of wastes (both dry and wet) in every household. It is high time that family members sit down and discuss about bringing down waste generation to almost nil, she added.
Former Additional Secretary to Government of India C.V. Gopinath, who is also the Anathalaya President, in his presidential speech, said that many alumni of the hostel have held high positions in Government over the years.
Stating that the hostel is being run by following the ideals of Thathaiah, he said that awardee Dr. Nagaraja Rao has announced that the cash prize of Rs. 25,000 be given to an educational institution. “I too would contribute Rs. 25,000 personally,” he said.
Noted industrialist of the city Dr. Jagannath Shenoy, in his address, emphasised on the need for establishing Anathalaya type hostel in every district of the State.
Pointing out that poor children get educated by staying in hostels like Anathalaya, he observed that there is a growing need for establishment of more hostels for girl students. The GSSS Group has set up an hostel that can accommodate 800 girls, However, more hostels are needed in keeping with the rising number of girl students from rural areas, he noted.
Tejaswini Ananthkumar, Dr.Jagannath Shenoy and C.V. Gopinath were felicitated on the occasion.
The Anathalaya Management Council Members B.A. Chitkala, Dr. S. Sriram, D. Srihari, H. Ashwathnarayan, Venkatesh Murthy, N.V. Dinesh, Dr. Karthik Udupa, Dr. Sathyanarayan, R. Manjunath, Srivatsa, B.S. Ravishankar, P.R. Ravikumar, V. Madhava Rao, S. Gururaj, Dr. N. Suresh, Nagamani Sampath, Dharmendra Kumar Mehta, Dr. G. Keshavamurthy and others were present.
Prize Winners of Essay & Debate Competitions
Following are the winners of the essay and debate competitions organised as part of the 182nd birth anniversary of M. Venkatakrishnaiah (Thathaiah):
Essay Contest: Manvi of Government High School, People’s Park, Nazarbad – 1st prize; M. Mahalakshmi of St. Mary’s High School – 2nd prize and K. Gautham of JSS High School, Lakshmipuram – 3rd prize.
Debate Contest: Medini Bhat of The Anathalaya – 1st prize; Bhuvana S. Hegde of Sanketi Student Hostel – 2nd prize and Y.P. Pranathi of The Anathalaya – 3rd prize.
This post was published on September 28, 2026 7:30 pm