Ranganatha SR

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will engage forty students from fifth, sixth and seventh grades of the Government Higher Primary School, Kudregundi in Chikkamagalur district with one of Kuvempu’s epic novels, Malegalalli Madumagalu. Ranganatha SR is the Coordinator for this project.

Ranganatha SR is an Assistant Teacher from Sakharayapatna in Kadur taluk in Chikkamagalur district. He has kept himself updated of regional writings and regularly writes in many popular Kannada periodicals. Given his experience he is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

When walking through the monsoon landscape of the Malenadu region, one can see a place that is continually changing and transformation. The shifts are in practices, people as well as material lives. In this landscape there is wetness everywhere all the time. Malegalalli Madumagalu, a novel set in this region in monsoon, is noted for its vivid descriptions of landscape, people, their relationships, and their trials and tribulations in their provincial lives. The novel is a tangled mesh of three love stories that brings in concerns of caste and gender, and thus hieracrchies, as well as describing the landscapes with its forest, ghats, swamp, field, tank, bund, hill, stream, river, village, and temple.

The richness of the text can be seen in the following excerpt (translated into English from the original in Kannada by Deepta Sateesh) from the first chapter of the novel, where the protagonist, Nayiguthi, is walking through the landscape:

“Though he had to pass through Lakkundha that was not his destination. Lakkundha was just three or four miles from Simbhavi. So, he needn’t have shown such anxiety if he had to go there. Even if it was dark, even if he had to wade through the thick forests of Seethur Hill, Guthi needn’t really worry. He was really a tough man!

Even as Guthi started climbing the Seethur Hill it became dark and the black skies made it darker. The fireflies could be seen dancing. The drone of the cicadas was shattering his ears. Even though it was just the beginning of monsoon, since this was the thick forest and heavy rain country, these areas were full of leeches. Guthi would stop in his strides from time to time, pluck the leeches, put the same hand into his pocket to take out betel nut, betel leaves and tobacco and put them into his mouth and resume walking; and his short legs took brisk strides in the narrow path in that dense forest on the Seethur Hill”.

The project with engage students in a process of exploring selected references in the novel to the landscapes around Kudregundi, Seethur, Nagaramakki, Simbhavi, Kamalapura, Kuppali, Abbigundi and Lakkundha by interpreting it through reading, field visits and meeting elders. Apart from making drawings of places, the students will attempt to document the narratives of people they will interview.

Since the novel Malegalalli Madumagalu offers a glimpse into the feudal life in this region during the late 1800s when multiple colonial interventions were introduced into the local landscape that include ideas of religion, technology, and law and order; coffee; the bicycle; the postal system; the Mangalore tile and the clock; just to name a few, the project will help students and peer teachers to expand their understanding of the ecosphere around them.

Keeping in mind the context, environment and the potential of the school, the project will attempt to engage children and teachers to other novels, poems and short stories of Kuvempu. Aided by a series of workshops and field trips, the project will culminate in a publication with writings from the children.

The outcome of this project will be a publication with the writings of the children. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, the publication and video documentation of the entire project.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education programme in the manner in which it attempts to connect students to literary works that explore the environment they inhabit, in order to inspire their creative writing.  

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.