The first step

I am an excited youngster of just 59 years old as I take baby steps into the world of blogosphere. This was never my cup of tea as I grew in a world where letter writing was considered an art. I had fine tuned it thanks to the opportunities I had in my formative years. Some of the great letter writers - obviously - were my close ones the best being my father C.D.Govinda Rao who not only wrote exceptionally informative and loving letters but they were instructive as well. This was perhaps very much expected as he was the first PhD in English literature from the good old University of Mysore.Leaving the safe heaven of the warm house hold at the young age of 21 years (1972) I had the privilege of corresponding with my father for 12 years till he passed away into an eternal silent world.

I knew the pleasure of writing and receiving letters ever since I was 9 years old because of my cousin C.R.Nagaraja Rao who had ventured out of the country in true search of knowledge and not for the love of dollars. He started by sending picture post cards with a few lines written at the back side from all most all the places he visited in the US of A as a research scientist and one of the earliest employee of NASA. The names of the places and the pictures of the monuments had been so well hidden in the deep recess of my mind that when I actually had the opportunity to see those places in the year of 2007 they all looked so familiar !! This is the magic of letter writing. Well to say thanks to my cousin Nagaraj then was not possible as he too had joined my father in 2001. I did tell my Vainee (sister in law) that my visit to her place in Virginia was like a pilgrimage for me and I meant it wholeheartedly.

Another person whose memory I cherish with respect to letter writing is my late uncle C.Ranganatha Rao more famously known as C.R.Rao in the circle of advertising to people who were active in this field some 5/6 decades earlier. His letters were mostly written to my father which my mother and all my siblings used to read in that order. It used to be more like a treatise on all things under the sun with special emphasis on Kannada literature and the writers .The brothers between them knew all most all the writers from close quarters right from Kuvempu to SL Bhyrappa who was an emerging author then.The so called path breaking writers like UR Ananthamurthy and Lankesh were my fathers students and friends of my uncle and this helped them to know the ideas and ideals of the author better. How I wish I had preserved those letters to-day. It would have been a master piece on the growth of Kannada literature in the decades 60s and 70s.

I think I will stop my stray thoughts for the time being as my son - a regular blogger - feels readers might just give a go by if the thoughts are too stretched. Will come back soon on letter writing and a lot more.