Profiles

After I entered high-school, I lived in the college hostel in Mysore. Belavadi Dasappa was the hostel warden. He was Ramadasappa’s friend. As per Ramadasappa’s request, Belavadi Dasappa always showed interest in my well-being. The routine was to go to his house every sunday. Dasappa had mandated me to read some English papers and magazines. For example, “Little Folks”, “Chums”, “Wide world magazine”, “Boy’s one paper”. These magazines specially targeted high school students. On Sundays when I was at Dasappa’s house, after serving me coffee and light snacks, he would ask:

Ramadasappa was my second teacher who taught me the English language. He was the first person to graduate with a BA degree from Mulbagal. I recall him coming there as the sub-registrar back in 1907. A sad incident occurred after 15-20 days of him assuming charge.  Ramadasappa was originally from Mysore. In those days, Mulbagal was a far-off place from Mysore. Hence, to help him get settled, his father Sanjeevayya and his family members accompanied him to Mulbagal.

It has been seventy years since I bade farewell to my schooling (1902). I've now analyzed my life through these seventy years and I have learned two lessons from it:

1) The planning of the lessons and the methods using which students were taught were good back in the past; there were no faults back then.

2) To get the most out of studying a topic, the manner in which the student understands must have consistency and should be devoid of loopholes.

 I believe that the above points are important to be understood in today’s context.

Perhaps, it was 1920-1921: The line of shops in New Taragupete in the east of Bangalore.  Among the warehouses that lay on the opposite side of the western compound of the Victoria Hospital, the third or the fourth shop belonged to D. Srinivasa Rao. He was the son of Dharmapravartaka Late D. Appu Rao. The Printing Press of ‘Navakarnataka & Co.’ was housed in the same building. The English newspaper ‘The Karnataka’ that I was running back then was being printed there. I reminisce that those were the last days of that newspaper.

Another Idea

My studies in Mysore spanned only seven-eight months. That year (1901) was quite unfortunate for my family. My grandfather had passed away in the year 1900 itself. After that in a short duration, my maternal grandmother, who used to take care of my family like a mother, also passed away. Her brothers, who were taking care of my family after that, also passed away in the next two years. All these unfortunate events worried me a lot. I lost interest in studies. I went back to my native for the holidays, never to come back to Mysore.

Financial Difficulties and Higher Studies

Visit to Oxford

When I was studying in the High School, Mr. Gopalakrishna Rao was one of the teachers. Though he did not teach me, I am grateful to him for certain reasons. As he was the warden of the hostel, we got to know each other quite closely.

ಕೃಷ್ಣಮೂರ್ತಿಗಳನ್ನು ನೆನೆದಾಗಲೆಲ್ಲ ನನಗೆ ಎದ್ದುತೋರುವುದು ಅವರ ಧರ್ಮಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆ. ಅರ್ಥ-ಕಾಮಗಳ ಕೋಲಾಹಲ ಸ್ವಲ್ಪವೂ ಇರದ ಈ ಧರ್ಮಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆಯು ನಿಶ್ಚಿತವಾಗಿ ಮೋಕ್ಷೈಕಗಾಮಿ. ಚಿಕ್ಕ ವಯಸ್ಸಿನಿಂದ ಅವರು ಆಚಾರ-ಪ್ರಾಯಶ್ಚಿತ್ತಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಮೈಗೂಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದ ಸತ್ತ್ವಾಭಿಮುಖತೆ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯಸಂಸ್ಕಾರದ ಮೂಲಕ ಮತ್ತಷ್ಟು ಪಾಕಗೊಂಡಿತೆನ್ನಬೇಕು. ಮುಂದೆ ಕಾನೂನನ್ನು ಓದುವಾಗ, ಉದ್ಯೋಗ ನಿರ್ವಹಿಸುವಾಗ ಧರ್ಮಕ್ಕಿರುವ ದಂಡ-ವ್ಯವಹಾರಗಳೆಂಬ ಮತ್ತೆರಡು ಪಾದಗಳನ್ನು ಹತ್ತಿರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣುವ ಅವಕಾಶವಾಯಿತು. ಹೀಗಾಗಿ ಅವರ ಜೀವನವಿಡೀ ನಾಲ್ಕು ಪಾದಗಳುಳ್ಳ ಧರ್ಮದ ಹಲವು ತೆರನಾದ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮತೆ-ಸಂದಿಗ್ಧತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಸಾವಧಾನವಾಗಿ ಗಮನಿಸಿ ಅನ್ವಯಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ಸಾಧನೆಯಾಯಿತು.