E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: On 20 January 1961, in his inaugural address after taking over as the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Forty-seven years later, one of the ‘stalwart’ leaders of our disunited states has turned this statement on its head and seemed to ask, “Ask not what I have done the State; ask what the State has done for me!”
Now let’s see who are all the people who have made our State proud. And who are all the people the State is proud of.
We have to go back to the early days. There was Krishna Devaraya, was the greatest king ever who ruled Vijayanagara, much bigger than the present Karnataka; the architect of Bangalore Kempe Gowda; the Tiger of Mysore Tipu Sultan; the builders of modern Mysore, the Wodeyars. All of them fit in the category described by Kennedy.
What about Purandaradasa, born as Sheenappa, the founder of Carnatic music?
If we go back even further, the literary greats Ranna, Pampa, and Kumara Vyasa, the German author Kittel who compiled the first Kannada dictionary. Along the way came Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Da Ra Bendre, D.V. Gundappa, T.P. Kailasam, U.R. Anantha Murthy and Girish Karnad with their contribution to literature.
No doubt we would have missed several names as we span centuries. Sorry. No disrespect meant to anybody. Put it down to plain ignorance on the part of yours truly. Or just a playful memory.
Can we forget the Karanths—Shivarama, B.V., and Ullas? The R.K. brothers—Narayan and Laxman, famous with their pen and brush. Then there was the father of the bomb, Raja Ramanna.
Surely they too must have been proud of their birth in Karnataka too?
What about Raj Kumar who sang Huttidare Kannada naadalli hutta beku, and Kuvempu who sang Elladaru iru. Enthadaru iru. Endendigu nee Kannadavagi iru’? D.S. Kirkee who wrote Hacchevu Kannadada Deepa? You don’t get truer sons of soil than these. Did they bother how much credit they got for their efforts? Did they carp in public?
What about AaNaKru, ThaRaSu, Thriveni and S.L. Bhyrappa?
May be some of them were not born in Karnataka at all and yet did the State proud. We don’t even know where they were born, but proud they did of the State.
Who can forget the architect of Karnataka, Sir M.Visveswaraya, Veene Seshanna, Bidaram Krishnappa, Diwan Madhav Rao and Sir Mirza Ismail? Did they ever feel their efforts have not been appreciated enough?
Why only men? What about Rani Kittor Chennamma, Sanchi Honnamma and Salumarada Thimmakka? And Shanta Rangaswamy and Soundarya, whom we lost so tragically.
M.N. Srinivas, Kengal Hanumanthiah, Dr. H.Narasimhaiah, Ramakrishna Hegde, Devaraj Urs, S. Nijalingappa all made the State proud in their own ways, and indeed the State was thankful of their deed.
What about the musicians, T. Chowdiah, Mallikarjuna Mansoor, Gangubai Hanagal, Bhimsen Joshi and now R.K. Srikantan, whose melodies lifted souls of generation of listeners. Were they not happy doing what they did?
How can we forget Erapalli Prasanna, Gundappa Viswanath, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar, Javagal Srinath, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Syed Kirmani? What to say of Prakash Padukone and even Pankaj Advani? And the greats of hockey Deshmuthu, Peter and Rajagopal who played for India ?
Did they ever regret why they were born in this State?
In fact generations of citizens, unknown and unsung, have toiled over centuries to make the State what it is today without cribbing for recognition and acknowledgement for their efforts.
Nobody seemed to have regretted that they were born in our State—call it Vijayanagara, Mysore or Karnataka. In fact they were proud, honest and kept their promises and wished to be born here again and here alone.
Only a few seem to be ashamed to have born in Karnataka, only a few wish not to have been born in Karnataka, and only a few carp that the State has not appreciated their “efforts”.
Few? Come to think of it. It’s actually, only one!
Abraham Lincoln, nearly 150 years ago, in his famous Gettysburg address, said: “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Sadly, at least for some, at least for one, the running of Government has come to mean ‘of the family, by the family, for the family.’ All this in the name of service to the people!
Touche
On the other hand the reference to DG and family in the end soured the writeup a little :)
And wondering if Devaraj Urs should have been mentioned…
ant??
Whatever has nature’s most industrious, dedicated and hardworking creature ever done to be compared to Deve Gowda??!!!
Beautiful! What a positive, profound, little piece. I feel good reading it. E.R. Ramachandran avarige dhanyavada mathu namaskara.
Its a futile effort to expect great things from a small man. People like that will regret having been born anywhere in this world. Instead let us wish people like that wish to end their lives in regret of having born here! That would be a good enough wish for betterment of this land and its proud children.
Devraj Urs???!
Anyways, Deve Gowda and sons are the most disgusting people in the Indian politics. A disgrace for our state. In today’s Republic day function, one should have seen Deve Gowda sitting next to Sonia Gandhi with a towel wrapped over his head as if there was some mourning…totally disgusting.
Dev(r)e Gowdarige Karnatakada devasthaanagaLalli nambike kaDimeyaaytu. Avarige TN DevasthaanagaLalli nambike hechchttide, haagaagi indirectly telling that he should have been born there. Naalage kulava aruhitu is the famous saying. For some people wisdom dawns at a very late age. At least on this occasion we have remembered so many really greats of our state, indirectly we salute them.
Devegowda has unfortunately become a favorite punch bag of any “self proclaimed” intellectual today. Especially the Internet “Media” is always ready to nail him whether he is talking, walking or even sleeping. Well Mr. Ramachandran, I have a few observations from your mountain out of mole hill article. You talk about Kennedy said, whilst I remind you that “The nation which forgets it’s heroes will itself be forgotten”. Before you misinterpret his statement and proceed with his crucification, I would like to stress upon what he truly intended. He said that “the day he left PM office, many people in karnataka rejoiced (in fact celebrated)” which saddened him and due to which he felt that he didn’t belong to Karnataka.
He didnt say that he is ashamed to have born in Karnataka, only a few carp minority of the state thinks that he is the most corrupt individual on this planet (when they have discriminated upon their brethren for guess what … 1000 years).
ERR
A very good post!
Dodda Gowda let me remind you that a majority of Kannadigas think Dirty Devegowda is the most corrupt politician in the World. In fact, I would like to designate Dity Devegowda as the Komodo Dragon of Indian politics!!
Anonymous Coward, Devaraj Urs was the true architect of a egalitarian state in Karnataka. There were a few excesses in his method I concede. But truly a great man!
Yella Kallru! Except Visveswarayya. Can anyone of these fools even be compared to that great man?
Or do we simply get the leaders we deserve?
Every modern politician looks like a goonda – except SM Krishna, who looks like a crook with a great tailor.
Theoretically, it would be impossible for a state with a population the size of ours to produce many notables. Nothing very surprising about the list.
I meant “not to produce.”
Adappa varse!!!!
For every one of the great names mentioned there, there are a hundred Deve Gowdas, Bangarappas, Revannas and Kumaraswamies in Karnataka.
DG and company should not be compared to ant. Leach may be a better comparison.
Most of the people share DG’s regrets; we wish he was never born at all anwhere in the world. That would reduce a lot of evil in the world.
I an add to Dodi Buddi’s comments; Devaraj Urs stremlined the corruption in the government and removed the shame out of it.
Just a reminder; most of the great people that were mentioned in this article were never elected.It is too much to ask from the elected representatives