BANGALORE: The hundredth birth anniversary of the renowned Kannada laureate—‘Beechi’ was celebrated with grandeur along with the release of two of his novels, at the Indian Institute of World Culture (IIWC), Basavanagudi. In a recently held book launch his close associates—BS Keshava Rao, Narasimha Murthy, YV Gundu Rao and grandson Ullas Rayasam acquainted the crowd with his personal and professional life. Muru Hennu Aidu Jade and Kaamanna follow the same pattern of boundless wit and humour that Beechi’s novels are famous for. Since his writings and life was filled with laughter, so was the festive occasion. After a humorous and innovative invocation hymn, sung by Ramnath the audience was eagerly waiting to hear the first-hand account of the life and times of the skilled writer. Narasimha Murthy, popularly known as ‘Master Hirannaiah’, well-known theatre artist and a television writer, remembered the adventurous author and their memorable days spent together, he said, “His memories bring tears to my eyes.” Being a childhood ‘buddy’, he knew Beechi in and out; but, was still astounded with his farcical sense of perception about the world. While the Master moved the audience to tears, BS Keshava Rao, began whimsically, much the same way as he had remembered Beechi’s speech, back in 1968. He believes that it is most difficult to make a person laugh, but much easier to make the person cry. Because, the ability to write facetiously comes with one’s perception and not with education. He gave an insider’s view on how Beechi started writing in the language that he despised for the first half of his life — Kannada. According to BS Keshava Rao, “No academician has contributed to the culture and society of Karnataka as much as a non-academician.” This, he said, with reference to Beechi.Ullas Rayasam, grandson of Beechi, was four- years-old when he first sat on his grand father’s lap. He enjoyed the special bond of love that existed between them. Lastly, YV Gundu Rao, representative of IIWC, shared some amusing quotes of the great writer. One of them — ‘Beechi has not named his children, he has sentenced them’ — struck a second round of appreciation from the crowd. He finds world-binding philosophy in these jocular lines by Beechi and seems to follow them regularly. He said that most of what Beechi said, has much ‘practical application’ to one’s day to day happenings. Rayasam Bheemasena Rao, preferred to write under his pen name ‘Beechi’ (spelt bilingually) and has 63 works attributed to this title. Most of these are novels that evoke laughter, the rest are articles and dramas. Being a humorist and a script writer, and sometimes a humorist script writer, Beechi’s source of inspiration came from the Kannada novel - Sandhyaraga, written by AN Krishna Rao. His level of wit and aphorism is one that needs no introduction. ‘Ankita Pustaka’, host of the Book Launch, is a book store in Basavanagudi that takes great pride in recognising the great author.
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