Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Between You & Me

SOME MEETINGS are fortuitous. And they become memorable.

Last month, I happened to see a one-and-a-half hour documentary made by the AP. Tourism Corporation. I liked it. My friend, Anjaneya Reddy, Chairman of the corporation, told me that its maker was a 92-year old man called P. R. Ramachandra Rao. We met a week later. The man is a prodigy. He looked 30 years younger. There was no frailty in his voice. He had done MA in some half a dozen subjects, including Economics, English, and Arts. Debarred from sitting for ICS for his family's political background, he became a lecturer in Machilipatnam. D.F.Karaka lured him into journalism and he launched the Education supplement of the Times of India. As a journalist, he met most of the political glitterati of India of those days. He has recorded his encounters in crisp English in a book. `First person singular'. It does some work for his autobiography also. His mother died at childbirth and his father was ostracized for remarrying a widow. Rao was taken away from him and was brought up by his grandfather, `in a bleak house without the rippling laughter of other children and the bouncing adolescence of girls reaching to maidenhood.'

His grandfather, a lawyer, persuaded young Ramachandra to return to his family profession. He then embarked on a successful practice and became a constitutional lawyer of eminence. But his heart was in art and writing. And so came out books on `Modern Indian Painting', `The art of Nagarjunikonda', `Contemporary Indian Art', `Bhuvaneswara' and `Andhra Sculpture.' When the `vedic antiquities' by Jouveau - Dubreuil was reprinted in 1976, Rao wrote an introduction to it. He took all the photographs for his books himself which makes him an outstanding photographer.

He has lectured at 79 major universities of the world on Law and Art. At the Oxford University, his audience included Dr. Radhakrishnan, who was surprised that an Indian could come to Oxford without his knowing about him. He has won international acclaim as an art critic. His book on Nagarjunikonda won the President's award and has now been reprinted by the Government of AP.

Incidentally, he has produced all his books himself. Another unusual and daring enterprise! Now he has turned to doing documentaries to disseminate the cultural heritage of India through the visual medium. One is on the river Krishna and there are six hours of other subjects. That is versatility. As Buckminster Fuller says, man was created to be versatile, insects for specialisation. The specialist makes a poor company because he knows nothing outside his field. A versatile person reveals new vistas and integral relationships in different categories of knowledge. Knowledge -- philosophy as it was originally called -- is a unified whole. We, in acknowledgement of own limitations, have established specialisations. That is why you earn a PhD - doctor of philosophy - irrespective of the subject of your research. Now there is a move again to integrate them through inter- disciplinary approach.

I was surprised that a man like PR Rao has not been acknowledged for his outstanding contribution. If people can get Padma and other awards by merely waiting upon VVIPSs, those who stand tall should also be counted sometimes. Disbursers of patronage should sometimes look up.

However, the `young man', still on the move, is worth meeting -- for sheer inspiration, for finding that there are no limits to achievement.

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OF LATE, power supply has become very erratic. It goes off at least three-four times a day -- be it even for five minutes. These cuts have no relation with the notices published daily warning specified areas about the cuts. They occur at all odd times of the day and night. The reply for the complaint number is generally `maintenance work is going on.' Higher functionaries who could shed some light on this are generally out in meetings, mostly `with the Chief Minister.' It seems to me that they switch off power before going to meetings -- and don't remember to put it on after return. Choutala, Chief Minister of Haryana, was here last month. I hope he has not taken away some power from here. Also, the uninterrupted power supply promised from July for the rural areas would not be at our cost. Teased by these repeated cuts, I keep my cool with the serenity prayer. `Oh Lord, give me the serenity to change things which I can, to accept those that I can't, and to understand the difference.' Is there any better survival kit in India?

* * *

`She had a Supreme Court figure - no appeal.'

Narendra Luther

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