(ಸಹಪಾಠಿ
ಮಿತ್ರರು ಕಂಡ ಬಾಗಲೋಡಿ ೫)
(ಬಾಗಲೋಡಿ
ದೇವರಾಯರ ಸ್ಮರಣ ಸಂಪುಟ - ‘ದೇವಸ್ಮರಣೆ’ ೨೦೦೩ರಲ್ಲಿ ಅತ್ರಿ ಬುಕ್ ಸೆಂಟರ್ ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿದ ಪುಸ್ತಕದ
ಯಥಾ ವಿದ್ಯುನ್ಮಾನ ಪ್ರತಿ ೨೦೧೭. ಸಂಪಾದಕ - ಜಿ.ಟಿ. ನಾರಾಯಣ ರಾವ್)
(ಭಾಗ ೧೦)
-
M. Panchappa
Bagalodi Deva Rao joined the
BA (Hons) course in English language and literature in the Madras Christian
College Tambaram (June 1944). A year earlier I had joined the same course. For
a few hours in a week we had common periods. As both of us had hailed from
Kannada-speaking areas - he from Mangalore and I from Bellary - our acquaintance
grew apace. KS Haridasa Bhat was also our contemporary Kannadiga.
The impression which I have
of the student Deva Rao is of a young intellectual with all the appropriate
attendant features of mental nonconformity and physical nonrobustness. The
latter was strengthened by one or two fingernails to which he had given full
freedom to reach out beyond even his own grasp. He was at the top of the class
all through.
In December 1948 I met him
at the Madras University Senate building where we were appearing for the
all-India services examination. When the results were out he got a high rank
and was admitted into the Indian Foreign Service. I joined the Indian Revenue
Service.
In 1959 three of us from the
Revenue Service had gone to the UK under the Colombo Plan. While returning we
made a short tour of Italy where Deva Rao was a counsellor Deva Rao is of a
fully conforming civil servant - rather a little more - a fully `protocol'ed
diplomat. Of course all the old friendly warmth was there and the eager
recalling of `Tambaram' days. But the outer garb was genuine `pin-striped
black.' That set me thinking. Did the young student-rebel reach his destination
in the conforming diplomat? (He rose higher still and retired as a full
ambassador.) I cannot help harbouring a half-twist that if he had somehow
`undone' the 1948-selection, he might have fulfilled himself and also the
expectation of friends of those days in more suitable and satisfying `fields.'
(ಮುಂದುವರಿಯಲಿದೆ)
Nice to be reading these narratives. I must congratulate you for providing lots of valuable, wholesome non-fiction across the generations.Great work! Allthe Best!
ReplyDeleteMay be right,, the respected authors experience.But often what I feel Is,,we want people to be as we expect them to be,.A kind of conformity expectation only, in another sense.
ReplyDeleteRg Sri Baglody , I have seen and read some
people expressing frustration about him being not like what they saw or expected him to be,
though not in the sense of a disaster or failure ,
May be he had his own reasons for the twists , turns and new ways
.