R.K. Narayan's family to be compensated

Family happy over move to declare house a heritage monument

R.K. Narayan's family has expressed happiness over the Karnataka government's decision to declare the late writer's house in Mysore a heritage monument, said Minister for Urban Development S. Suresh Kumar in a statement on Wednesday.

Narayan's granddaughter Bhuvaneswari Sreenivasamurthy and her husband K. Sreenivasamurthy called on the Minister in the Vidhana Soudha here.

“As they live in Chennai, they expressed their inability to maintain the house in Mysore,” the statement said.

Mr. Kumar said he assured the family that the government would offer them an alternative housing site in Mysore or compensate them monetarily, and a decision to this effect would be announced soon. The family and experts would be consulted when the building, to be named Malgudi, would be restored.

“The Minister was very cordial and promised that he would take all efforts to protect the legacy of my grandfather,” Ms. Sreenivasamurthy told The Hindu.

Full report here Hindu

R.K. Narayan's house to be restored

Karnataka government will first acquire the property for the work to start, says Law Minister

Saved from demolition by the Karnataka government's decision to declare it a heritage building, the house that belonged to noted writer R.K. Narayan in Yadavagiri, Mysore, will be restored “at the earliest,” Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs S. Suresh Kumar told The Hindu .

Some portions dismantled
The Kannada and Culture Department has been designated the nodal agency in charge of the restoration and maintenance of the house, he said. For the work to start, the government should first acquire the property, the Minister said. While the guidance value of the property is around Rs. 1 crore, the market value is around Rs. 3 crore to 4 crore, according to him. “In the next few days, the Minister for Kannada and Culture and I will take a decision on the matter.” The Minister said he was willing to meet any member of the late writer's family who wished to meet him.

It was on the intervention of the Commissioner of the Mysore City Corporation, K.S. Raykar, that the demolition of the two-storey house was stopped on September 5, but not before workers had already started dismantling the doors and windows, and a part of the roof.

Full report here Hindu

Mysore Univ to set up Narayan chair

As the pressure is mounting on the district administration and the government to restore renowned novelist R K Narayan’s house as a heritage monument to create a museum and the centre in memory of one of the greatest Indian writers in English, the Mysore University that organised a threeday conference to mark the centenary year of the writer is now keen to set up a chair on R K Narayan in the English department of the University.

Though, the previous vicechancellor J Shashidhar Prasad had shown interest to convert R K Narayan’s house into a literary centre if the government came forward to handover the property.

But, nothing much happened even after writing to the government.

The Mysore University that was the first varsity in the country to organise an international conference, was also the first to prescribe the works of Narayan in both under-graduate and postgraduate syllabus.
Dozens of students over the decades have worked and have done a research on the literary works and contributions of R K Narayan.

Full report here IBNLive

Malgudi Express likely

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that one of the trains running between Bangalore and Mysore be named Malgudi Express in commemoration of noted writer RK Narayan.

“This year marks the 10th anniversary of R K Narayan’s passing away, which also happens to be his 106th birth anniversary. Thus, it would be befitting that the great writer is honoured this year,” stated Krishna’s letter.

He added that the writer, who was credited with bringing Indian literature in English to the rest of the world and was hailed as India’s greatest English writer of the 20th century, and also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awards, would be befittingly honored by having a train named after his most famous piece of writing.

Narayan had created the enchanting fictional world of Malgudi through several novels and short stories, which captivated readers throughout the world.

“He (Narayan) had created the imaginary town of Malgudi between Mysore and Bangalore, where realistic characters in a typical Indian setting lived amid unpredictable events,” Krishna stated in his letter.

Further, in another letter to Union Minister for Railways Dinesh Trivedi, Krishna has made a similar request. Both Manmohan Singh and Trivedi have assured Krishna that they would look into the matter and take a decision soon.

Chetan Bhagat interacts with 'Sri Prakash School' students

Novelist Chetan Bhagat released Nature's Game, a compilation of poetry wrote by Sriteja Gottada, a student of Sri Prakash Synergy School in Peddapuram. Mr. Bhagat visited the school on Monday and interacted with the students.

To the questions posed by students, Mr. Bhagat said that he was inspired by writer R.K. Narayanan. He told the students that he had began writing short stories from fifth standard onwards and the targeted readers were students.

He advised them not to waste their time by browsing TV channels and focus on book reading. School director Vijay Prakash, proctor Suchita Singh, dean Smitha Joshi and others were present.

Full report here c2clive