ರುಜುವಾತು

I grew up in a village of the Sahyadri mountain region and went to a government common school. My father who was a self-taught man knew Sanskrit and English and read Gandhi"s Harijan translating it to Kannada to his village friends. I knew my Mahabharata and Ramayana not reading them but seeing Yakshagana performances and itinerant Harikatha narrators. I came from an orthodox family but read Shivaram Karanth borrowing the books from a village library which got all the publications of the adult literacy council of the Mysore State. I walked with my school mates some five kilometers everyday bare footed on a stony cart track wearing a shirt and short pants to the school. When I cam back home I had to change into my orthodox clothes hanging the shirt and pants on a nail on the wall. I have written recently that I became a writer in my language for I wore shirt and pants to my school for in my orthodox dhoti and upper garment I belonged to a narrow world of my caste. The school opened up my world for I sat there with all boys and girls who belonged to all castes in the village.