A memorable meet

Nature camps for journos are not new and replete with all of us. But the recent one,couple of months back,was something special as it was organised at the birth place of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu. Presence of Poornachandra Tejaswi son of Kuvempu at the inaugural session was an added surprise. But not knowing his presence at the venue, we all started talking about him and how his presence would have made the difference. During our conversation, Tejaswi was sitting just behind us in his usual dress of blue jeans and cotton shirt. But the debate over his works did not let us concentrate on him.

Issues ranging from environment to globalisation in his celebrated novels, saving of western ghat forest, his experiments in agriculture, photography and recent exhibition of his photos in Bangalore were part of our high pitched discussion. Few of us started remembering the interesting incidents that were mentioned in his biography about his father and associate with the place to make it more meaningful. During the entire course of conversation, Tejaswi was a silent listener without interrupting the talk until one of us turned back to pick up a camera which slid behind our seats and much to the amusement it was Tejaswi who picked up the cover and handed over.
Suddenly we regretted our gaffe and introduced ourselves that we are all working in print and electronic media. He acknowledged our wishes in his usual way and said, "Nimgala sahavasa alla maraya, yententa ghatangatigalella iddiro," later it was our turn to get astonished. Later he obliged our requests and answered some of the questions. But today, it is just unbelievable that the same man has left all of us.