Ramakrishna Gampalahalli

I have taken more than forty-two hours to write this painful note. I did not have the right frame of mind to write. Even now episodes, conversations, disputes, jolly togetherness, visits together to different places any number of times, climbing the steps of vidhana soudha umpteen times together, ragging a few people occasionally jointly and so on crowd my mind as I continue to come to terms with the fact that my wonderful friend and disputant Professor G.K. Govinda Rao is no more with us. And it is more than six months ago that I had a conversation with him on the phone.

This stupid corona thing kept me away from his house for almost two years; else I should surely have paid a visit to his place to see him and Smt. Manjula quite a few times. When I was in Jayanagara 8th block this learned and amiable professor would turn up by 8.00 a.m. or so at my place quite frequently, especially when he was our President.

President of our Bangalore University College Teachers Association and also President of our Federation of university and college teachers’ associations. We also used to meet quite often when both of us happened to be members of the Academic Council of Bangalore University – both of us elected by our college and university teachers’ fraternity. Latterly, we met only during protest meetings and the like.

The loss is immeasurable. My father used to think that I had become a respectable person because someone like Govinda Rao visited our place frequently and joked with the kids at home. It was when he was our President that the State Federation hosted a grand all India conference of our All India Federation of university and college teachers. Old time activists of AIFUCTO in many other States outside Karnataka recall that conference with passion when we meet, if we meet at all.

Our first meeting was almost a year after I had joined the Basavanagudi National College in 1967 , or 1968 to be exact. He was then working in the college at Sagara. He was an old student of our college and longed to join the staff of the English Department of his old college. He wanted to know from a fresher like me what chances he had! I was no wiser than Adam and he knew that.

The head of our department who had been his teacher was all for having him with us but the then Principal of the college who also had been Govinda Rao’s teacher put his foot down and said an emphatic NO. As a student Govinda Rao had not been very ‘obedient and well behaved’ according to the Principal, for no other reason than that he freely asked questions on a hundred issues even as a student. But he found greener pastures elsewhere and made an enviable name for himself as a teacher and a friend of umpteen students.

I am legitimately proud of his successes. I don’t quite remember how many times he invited me to his college for interacting with his students and there used to be a formidable panel of scholars to intimidate novices like me in such meetings.

Many of our friends have described Govinda Rao more elegantly than I can and I endorse all that has been said about him – not said for formality’s sake as we all know. We crossed swords so wildly in some meetings that some people used to feel uncomfortable as we were on the verge of snapping our ties as they thought. To their surprise that never happened. We had a great coordination at the meetings of the academic council much to the annoyance of some senior professors and the Vice-Chancellor.

A certain head of a department in the university had once written an official letter to Govinda Rao saying that he doubted the credibility of the scholarship of Govinda Rao on Shakespeare! The two of us made him to apologise at the meeting for his audacity and misuse of his position as head of a department.

I need not add to what has been so well and correctly said by a number of our friends about the Professor as a public intellectual and as an activist. There was one academic issue on which we differed almost violently – the evaluation of the Bhagavadgita and its role in our history. He would start by saying , “I know GR will not agree but nevertheless it must be said that …” and he told what he wanted to, unmindful of what I might say subsequently.

His missiles to Visveswarananda Swami were classic and I usually had the benefit of reading them before the recepient had the advantage of feeling bitter after reading the long essays by our Govinda Rao. His meetings with the Swamiji in person must have been a delight but I never had the advantage of being a witness to the cool and yet fierce debates.

One occasion when I castigated him somewhat rudely was when he extended support in public to an IT boss who wanted to be member of parliament. I was not ever forgiven for my (according to him) apparently incorrect understanding.

The number of times that Govinda Rao castigated me on a variety of opinions is legion. I can and wish to go on but there is a limit to it. I have the sweetest memories of our companionship and I offer my humble salutations to him for having given me the chance to be close to him, work with him and quarrel with him. I know all about his prowess as a scholar, artist, speaker and so on but I shall not mention it here as it is a home truth that we are all aware of.

Govinda Rao’s Shakespeare has characterised Brutus as a real MAN in whom nature was harmoniously mixed. Shakespeare, poor man, did not know that he was characterising Professor Govinda Rao, an avid scholar. Thou shouldst be living at this hour, Govinda Rao, as Wordsworth told aboult Milton. Hats off to you for whatever you have done.