by Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History & Archaeology, University of Mysore
A decade ago some of us were visiting houses of friends in Mysore to collect funds for the construction of a building for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mysore, under the leadership of Dr. Mathoor Krishnamurthy. K.B.Ganapathy was providing wide publicity by publishing the names of donors in his prestigious Star of Mysore and Mysooru Mithra. This enthused the donors. Dr. Mathoor had such a charming personality that he would speak in such a manner that people would not say ‘no’ and contribute donations for the Vidya Bhavan building.
The Mysore people are generally philanthropic and encouraged cultural activities to happen and the result is that we have an imposing building on the Hunsur Road and I do not think that there is anybody who has not seen this building. Thus Mysoreans and others have helped us to establish Vidya Bhavan which runs a school with 1500 students, an MBA (PGDM) College of Management, a school of Fine Arts, conducts monthly music programmes, discourses etc. All this has been possible because of the generous donations of the people of Mysore to whom we are grateful.
At that time, a lady called me on phone and said ‘I would like to contribute rupees three lakhs to Vidya Bhavan. Will it be possible for you to visit my house in Yadavagiri?’ She mentioned the road and said, ‘ask for Kogod House and anybody will show you.’ I jumped with joy. She was none other than Smt. Vinuthamma, a charming lady with a pleasant disposition. Before I could talk to her, she insisted on myself taking breakfast first. Before inviting me she must have told her plan to donate some money to her friends and relatives and the news spread. Many persons either visited her or talked to her on phone. Some others sent some feelers. All of them had an idea of getting an image of God or Goddess be made and consecrated in a temple so that she will get the religious merit (punya).
As she is an Iyengar lady, many offered the suggestion of making sculptures of either Alwars or Sri Ramanujacharya from her donation. But Vinuthamma had a different idea because the donor was her daughter Smt. Indira Belur and the latter had insisted that the money should be used to establish a library.
A highly laudable idea indeed! After hearing this many persons who had shown interest in taking donation suddenly vanished. However, some of them murmured. What is the use of a library? There are many libraries in Mysore and there are not enough readers in them. Most importantly, we have not heard of a crazy idea like this before and she will not get religious merit (punya) by this gift. But, Indira Belur was firm and her mother Vinuthamma was equally firm.
At that time, I had the good fortune of meeting Vinuthamma. When she offered the donation, I immediately accepted it and said a library will be established in Indira Belur’s name: absolutely no problem. She was taken aback by my acceptance and she repeated her library condition over and again. She also cautioned that I should not go back on my words. I re-affirmed and assured her that ‘as per the desire of your late daughter and your own wish to fulfil her desire, I will establish a library in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mysore and it will be inaugurated by a VIP, most probably our Governor, Dr. T. N. Chaturvedi.’
Before proceeding further, I would like to introduce Indira Belur. After graduating from Mysore University, she did her MBA specialising in marketing. She moved to Madras and became a management consultant and took assignments all over India. In the meantime, she became a consultant to State Bank of India, Bombay. She conducted many programmes in marketing management. Subsequently, she worked with a Japanese company and exported prawns to Japanese market. Subsequently, she became the General Manager for Trans Global Air, U.K. in-charge of South India. I saw this visiting card preserved by Vinuthamma as a memento of her dear daughter. When everything seemed well settled and she was at the top of her career, she became a victim of cancer and passed away in 1998. When she was in the BM Hospital, she celebrated her 50th birthday at the hospital itself. That is how she distinguished herself as a member of the illustrious Kogod Family.She had decided to donate her eyes.
As soon as I received the donation amount, I placed it before the Kendra Committee and apprised it of the details. N. Ramanuja, who was a relative of Vinuthamma, applauded the idea and insisted that the donation should be used for establishing a library in Mysore Vidya Bhavan. As soon as the building was completed, a place was identified for the library and a black granite name plate ‘Indira Belur Memorial Library’ was fixed on the wall. It was inaugurated by Sri Dhiru Mehta, the then Director General of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai in the presence of Dr. T. N. Chaturvedi. This photograph adorns the drawing room of Vinuthamma’s residence and she proudly shows this to her visitors. Though the loss of a daughter before her own mother is unwelcome, Vinuthamma is proud of the achievements of her daughter and her final decision to establish a library.
This library is just ten feet from my chambers and I daily pass through the library and automatically my eyes go up and look at the name plate ‘Indira Belur Memorial Library.’ Incidentally, library is not just a place where books are stacked, but it is a repository of knowledge. Ancient India was famous for libraries and the Chinese have described the libraries of Nalanda. Chinese scholars used to visit this library for consulting original books (manuscripts) on Buddhism and allied subjects. In the modern period many good libraries have come up. I had the good fortune of visiting British Museum Library in London and Weidner Library (Harvard) which contain excellent and valuable collections. National Library at Calcutta is also a good library. I am a proud owner of a small library which has good books on ancient history and archaeology which I have been using all these days. Maintaining a library is a difficult job because books require daily cleaning and periodical check-up. But a personal library has its own pleasure and advantage.
But, I did not get any clue for the passion and love for library by Indira Belur. Perhaps she understood the secret that library is the source of knowledge and one has to go to that source. Though gifting a library is uncommon, it is welcome and Vinuthamma should take pride in that gesture of her daughter Indira Belur. I would like to say to Indira Belur ‘wherever you are, we remember you with pride and gratitude’ that is the best tribute according to our tradition.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / May 31st, 2014