Remebering Dr Prabhushankara

Dr Prabhushankara, along with many greats of the Kannada literary world. Prabhushankara is to the between Prof U R Ananamurthy and my father, J R Lakshmana Rao

(Photographed at the funeral of the poet laureate, Pu Ti Na)

Dr Prabhushankara, a great Kannada scholar passed away recently. He was the director of the Kuvempu Kannada Adhyayana Samsthe (Institute of Kannada Studies) and Prasaaraanaga (Publications Division) of the University of Mysore. He was a writer of note, acclaimed translator and scholar

What follows may be an odd way of remembering a man who passed away recently - by recalling his jokes and his sense of humour and spreading a little laughter. I am sure, if he could see this happen, he would approve.

Dr Prabhushankara was a frequent visitor to our home as he was a close friend of my father. He almost always walked in with, “Lakshmana raayrE... “, addressing my father, as a prelude to recounting a joke or a real incident with great humour, wit and turn of phrase and make us all laugh. He himself laughed heartily which was always a pleasure to watch.

One of the earliest jokes of his that I remember is this. He had a long association with the Ramakrishna Math. And to the best of my knowledge, he was a firm believer in god. I say this because he did not wear his religion or belief on his sleeve. But these should form the background to what follows.

"Lakshmana raayre, I have proof that God understands English but, not very well", he said one day and continued. “When we were young we prayed every day with the words ‘give us this day our daily bread’. He granted our wish. But, it is bread for breakfast, daily!”

My father once went to the Ramakrishna Ashram for lunch with Dr Prabhushankara. The lunch was sumptuous and rich, with expensive ingredients - ghee, milk, saffron, almonds, cashew nuts and so on. After lunch, my father pulled his leg - "the Ramakrishna Mission preaches high thinking and simple living. Look at that lunch! Do you call that simple living?" He was unfazed. He retorted, "I can't help it if you misinterpret that statement. We do exactly what we preach. High thinking and SIMPLE living" - the latter half was said with an intonation and a wave of the hand that meant "just living it up".

Such irreverent humour is to be cherished especially now when the slightest (imaginary or otherwise) light-hearted or derogatory reference to matters religious or spiritual has the potential to become a Weapon of Mass Distraction. The politics of hurt sentiments.

Khushwant Singh, the iconoclastic author, among other things, was invited by the University of Mysore for a talk. Dr Prabhushankara went to Bangalore to receive him and bring him to Mysore. In the preamble to his talk, Khushwant Singh said something like this: "I had a wonderful drive from Bangalore. The greenery on either side of the road was exhilarating. I had the delightful company of Dr Prabhushankara who told me several Sardarji jokes that even I had not heard before". This can give you an idea of how much he loved humour.

Dr Prabhushankara once expounded on a theory of the origin of the universe. “In the beginning, there was Tamizh. God saw this and thought, “here is such a rich and beautiful language but, no one to speak it. So, he created the earth and put people on it so that there would be someone to speak it.” This was his way of poking fun at the justifiable pride the Tamizhs have about their language.

There was a Kannada drama being staged at the Maharaja's College Centenary Hall. Dr Prabhushankara was seated in the front row. The screen parted and the stage lights grew brighter as the hall lights dimmed. One stage could be seen a street with the front of a house. The name board of the house was visible. It read "Jnaana Villa". Read in Kannada, as a single word, this means no knowledge or a nincompoop. The intention of the playwright was to make fun of the middle class’ fancy for English - with such absurd consequences. Dr Prabhushankara's voice could be heard clearly, "Hey! This looks like the logo of the university".

His wit and wisdom, large-heartedness, and critical, fearless scholarship will be missed dearly.

Two incidents - Nehru and M Visvesvaraya

The papers ordering the construction of the Hirakud dam came to Nehru, for his signature. Though he was convinced that it was to be done, he had some doubts. He needed some assurance that things were in order.

He requested Visvesvaraya to take a look and see that everything was OK. Visvesvaraya said that seeing the files was not enough. He wanted to personally check some important aspects of the surveying and the land at the site itself. He was already in his nineties. In spite of it, Visvesvaraya travelled all the way to Sambalpur. He asked some of the concerned engineers to stay at the inspection bungalow where he was staying so that they can go through some of the important aspects of the plan.

The engineers were in a quandary. Their official grade made them ineligible to stay at the inspection bungalow. This meant that the review would have to be done the next day and he had to extend his stay in Sambalpur. Visvesvaraya was not interested in extending his stay. He insisted that he wanted to return to Bangalore, by the very next available train, if the engineers could not stay in the inspection bungalow.

The engineers had to get approval from the headquarters by telegram. Late into the night, Visvesvaraya grilled the engineers about the plans. Early next morning he was ready in full suit and Mysore pETa (turban) to go to the proposed dam site, twenty kilometres away.

He spent the whole day at the site and eventually approved the plans.

Around the time the Hirakud dam was being finished (Incidentally, it was finished ahead of schedule) Nehru's cabinet of ministers decided that Visvesvaraya should be honoured with Bharata Ratna. Aware of the strictness in all matters and bluntness of Visvesvaraya, the ministers were reluctant to write to him and request him to accept the honour.

Nehru himself decided to write and he did.

Visvesvaraya wrote back saying that he was ready to accept the award if it did not restrict his freedom to criticise Nehru's government's policies or actions in the future if the need arose!

Only after Nehru wrote back saying that this was precisely why he was being honoured did he agree to accept the award.