by H.P. Naveen Kumar
During the days when newspaper sellers are rarely recognised, here is an aging M.R. Subramanya, popularly called by his admirers as ‘Paper Subbanna,’ who is dedicated to journalism in his own kind by selling newspapers for the past five decades in the heritage city, thus justifying the title given to him.
Born in Mysore, Subbanna, who passed SSLC from Dalvoy School in city, took to distribution of newspapers and has been rendering a yeomen service to the field of journalism for the past 50 years.
His tryst with print: After unsuccessfully launching ‘Chitralaya,’ a tabloid devoted to film industry in Bangalore in 1963, Subbanna is now busy distributing newspapers, periodicals and books related to competitive examinations in all languages.
Later, lured by film journalism, Subbanna established an institution named Film Premier Association along with his friends and served as a reporter, critic, publisher and launched many programmes for the development of journalism.
After the collapse of the Lansdowne building, Subbanna now runs a shop opposite Merchants’ Co-operative Bank on Jaganmohan Palace road in city selling newspapers of all languages including Rajasthani, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, etc.
Subbanna as a Publisher: After failing to achieve the desired results through his tabloid, Subbanna published many novels under the banner of ‘Sahitya Gangotri’ and created awareness on reading Kannada books and also achieved the distinction of publishing ‘Jenugudu’ scripted by celebrated Tamil writer Shantha through which he became a household name after being recognised by the Union Government.
Joined Kannada Chaluvali: Subbanna plunged into Kannada Chaluvali in his fight for propagation of Kannada and played a major role in the agitation against dubbing of Kannada films into other languages in the company of A.N. Krishna Rao, M. Rama Murthy, T.R. Subba Rao, Beechi, Sheshagiri Rao, Veerakesari, Seetharama Shastry among others.
Felicitations: Besides being felicitated for his contributions to Kannada language, Subbanna was honoured by the Dasara Exhibition Committee in 1992, Ambarish Award in 1995 by Ambarish Fans’ Association and also honoured in 2006 by a group of litterateurs from K.R. Nagar Taluk.
Paper Subbanna, who lost all his earnings after trying his luck in the film industry, is still well-known for his generosity towards visitors who come in search of him.
“I am happy with my profession and I am contented in life. The advent of TV has led a steep fall in newspaper readership which is regrettable but reading a newspaper over a cup of tea is itself a different and a wholesome experience,” says Subbanna.
Let us hope that the Government will take note of the contributions of Subbanna to the field of journalism and reward him appropriately.
After the demise of his wife Kamalamma six years ago, Subbanna is being looked after by daughter M.S. Nagashree and son M.S. Nagendra.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / June 15th, 2014