This photograph was taken in 1984 when the renowned Kannada poet, Prof KS Nisar Ahmed, was the president of Karnataka Sahitya Academy. A felicitation function had been arranged for Masthi Venkatesha Iyengar, the Kannada writer who had bagged the prestigious ‘Jnanapeetha Award’ for that year.
It was a memorable function in which many prominent writers had participated. After the function, some of the close friends of Nisar Ahmed, including myself, gathered to congratulate him on arranging the function in a fitting manner. It was then that this photograph was taken.
Nisar Ahmed had started writing poetry in Kannada when he was studying MSc in Geology at the Central College in the fifties. His poetry had caught the attention of his teacher and Kannada scholar GP Rajarathnam. He happened to read and correct his poetry and got it printed in the magazine of the Kannada Sangha of Central College. Later, poetry became his forte and he brought out one poetry collection after another.
He wrote prose too and translated two of Shakespeare’s plays. But he is recognised as a poet mainly as he has been writing poetry through all the literary movements of Kannada.Though his mother tongue is not Kannada, he has been writing in Kannada only.
Nisar Ahmed had also told the literary critics that he does not need any concession just because his mother tongue is not Kannada. He is also known as ‘Nithyostava Poet because his lyrics appeared in the first cassette of modern Kannada poetry under the same title. Since then, Nisar Ahmed has been a household name as one of the most popular among contemporary Kannada poets.
He was the president of the Karnataka Sahitya Academy between 1984 and 1987 and launched several programmes to take literature to the common people. In order to encourage young writers, many workshops were organised and lectures by eminent writers were arranged. He also organised a literary programme in every district and taluk head quarters and involved the local writers and the people in creating awareness about the current literary trends. He started the English edition of the Academy’s quarterly journal ‘Aniketana’.
It was devoted to the English translation of Kannada literary pieces. Thus, it enabled the non-Kannada readers also to get an understanding of Kannada literature through translations. I remember that he had organised a seminar as the president of the Academy in Kanakapura of Bangalore Rural District in 1986 on the last quarter century of modern Kannada poetry in which stalwarts of Kannada literary world including Prof M Gopala Krishna Adiga, Prof LS Seshagiri Rao, Dr Ramachandra Sharma, Dr Kamala Hampana had participated.
In the evening, there was a poets’ meet under the chairmanship of poet Dr Pu Thi Narasimhachar. It is worth mentioning that the seminar was attended by the people of Kanakapura in large numbers and actively participated in the interaction with the speakers of the seminar.
This photograph assumes importance for another reason. Two writers of yesteryears, namely the late Prof VM Inamdar and Prof Venugopala Soraba, are present in it.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / by Prof. M S Raghunath / DHNS – April 06th, 2015