‘Entire Karnataka should implement Nudisiri’

The coastal districts’ patience and matrilineal system, which respects women, should be adopted by the Northern Karnataka districts and the coastal districts in turn needs to learn from North Karnataka how to take care of the aged parents without abandoning them in the old age homes, Alva’s Nudisiri president Mallika S Ghanti said on Sunday.

She was speaking during the valedictory of 15th edition of the three-day Alva’s Nudisiri at Ratnakaravarni Vedike in Santha Shishunala Sharifa hall, in Vidyagiri.

“Such literary conferences should facilitate exchange of good practices.”

Mallika said unlike people residing in coastal districts, people in north karnataka were impatient and ill-treated their women.

“In coastal districts, aged parents were forced to seek shelter in old age homes as their children with IT (information technology) and BT (biotechnology) jobs were working in far-off countries. In northern Karnataka, untouched by IT and BT culture, the aged parents stayed with their children and their grandchildren,” she stressed.

Impressed by the town’s communal amity, she said the communal harmony should not be destroyed.

Sharing her experiences from interacting with delegates and members of public, she said each activity during the three-day literary extravaganza revealed passion and a sense of fulfillment.

Mallika said she was unsure on how Alva’s Nudisiri Working President and Alva’s Education Foundation (AEF) Chairman Dr M Mohan Alva benefitted by organising the literary conference.

“But I am sure that people within and outside the hall had benefited immensely from this event. An autorickshaw driver dropping me at the venue of Nudisiri confessed that he will earn enough money for next three days which would generally take a month. This extra money will go for my educational expenses of children,” Mallika said quoting the autorickshaw driver.

A folk artiste said the money earned from participating in the literary event would feed his family for the next six months. “An art is sustained if the artiste survives,” she stressed and challenged other educational institutions, who had criticised Nudisiri as an advertisement to attract students from north Karnataka, to organise similar literary events and attract students from south Karnataka.

“In fact, the entire Karnataka should implement Nudisiri,” she added.

Sahitya Akademi awardee, poet, playwright and folklorist Chandrashekara Kambara regretted destroying childrens creativity by enrolling them in English medium schools. A student from an English medium school who learns a story by rote will narrate it to 10 different people in a similar manner.

“But a student from Kannada medium school will narrate the same story in different ways with creative additions and omissions,’’ he said.

Kambara was felicitated in recognition of his contributions to Kannada literature.

Prior to the valedictory programme, the guests arrived in a vibrant procession to the beats of pulsating drums.

Nudi Siri awards

Alva’s Nudisiri Working President Dr M Mohan Alva presented Nudisiri 2018 awards to 12 achievers — G D Joshi from Mumbai, Padmashri Awardee Bharathi Vishnuvardhan, L Bandenavaja Khalif Aldala, Narahalli Balasubrahmanya, Fr Prashanth Madtha, Aruva Koragappa Shetty, A V Narasimhamurthy, Arundhati Nag, K Ramananda Banari, Prof A V Navada, H M Raghavendra and Nataraja.

Highlights

Alva’s Nudisiri President Mallika S Ghanti donated one-day in her life to Dr M Mohan Alva and appealed to the audience to follow suit so that Dr Alva can continue to do the good work for more years to come.

After the presentation of Nudisiri awards, girl students from Alva’s college showered petals, performed ‘arati’ and applied tilak on the forehead of each recipient of Alva’s Nudisiri award.

When the students hesitated to apply tilak on Fr Madtha’s forehead, he smilingly leaned forward to help them apply the tilak. Moved by the Catholic priest’s secularist behaviour, the audience responded with a thunderous applause.