Poornachandra Tejaswi: some tributes

Here are some tributes to the Kannada novelist Poornachandra Tejaswi who passed away recently. I loved his novel Karvalo a lot; he is a nature writer and wildlife photographer too.

1. Deepa Ganesh translates (from Kannada, I presume) the tribute of Muralidhara Khajane:

   His works assume the air of detective writing because of their exploratory nature. This feature, inspired by the adventures of modern science, rendered him the hero of young readers. But what saved him from becoming a writer of detective thrillers is his seeking for the mystic. There are few writers who have achieved what Tejaswi could: he was able to cater to two categories of readers – those who looked for entertainment in literature as well as to those for whom it was a serious intellectual pursuit.

   Tejaswi was majorly drawn towards modern science and technology. Along with the dog and the bee, you find that a jeep, a scooter and a water pump becoming characters in his writings. He had great respect for the achievements and adventures of European scientists. Remember that the protagonist of his novel “Carvalho” was a scientist with a Eurpoean mind: a modern, humanist thinker. Writing about the river Nile, he reveals great reverence for Livingstone who became a martyr, while on his mission. But unlike other greens who are anti-modernity, anti-development and anti-technology, and strongly advocate the traditional way of life, Tejaswi was unique. Though he moved faraway from the din and bustle of city life, he was a worshipper of modernity and technology.

2. Deepa Ganesh also profiles Tejaswi as described by his publisher and friend Raghavendra: This was exactly the way Tejaswi mastered the computer. He got it through a friend in the US, way back in 1986. Tejaswi sat with the 286 machine, night and day, till he had cracked it. “His constant research and experimentation made him an authentic voice for Kannada software.”
3. Krupakar and Senani, two wildlife enthusiasts and photogrpahers pay their tributes to Tejaswi: Tejaswi was an authority on the birds of Malnad. He would wait for hours and hours for the right picture. Andthere was never any monotony in them.

   What to us was truly surprising was that he could capture expressions in those birds. According to us, nobody in India has been able to achieve what he has been able to. So much so that, if you talk to them about “expressions” in a bird, they may even scoff at you. He was a photographer of international standards and his pictures were as diverse as his persona.

   In 1968, he did a photo essay for Tushara, titled “Megha Malhara”. We still think it is one of the finest essays on natural history in the country. He had taken pictures of coffee plantation workers walking home n the incessant rain with areca covers pulled over their heads. They were so shrouded that it was hard to tell one from the other.

4. U R Ananthamurthy (in Kannada): In course of time,  whatever book I asked him to read, he read, and used to say “Sir, Maha Jor” — without any embarrassment.