Art of the provincial

Reading Girish Karnad's memoirs earlier this year, i was struck by the cultural vitality of his hometown of Dharwad - a small town in north Karnataka, whose schools and colleges gave the young Karnad enough self-confidence to go to Bombay, win a Rhodes scholarship, sail to Oxford, and return to India to become one of this country's best playwrights and essayists. Karnad is not Dharwad's only famous son; the town was also home to the poet D R Bhendre, whose face is painted on walls throughout Bangalore.

Read Full Story>>