BANGALORE: Meet M S Suresh Kumar from Sahakaranagar who is ever ready to extend his cooperation to promote Kannada. Kumar, a civil contractor, has been striving for the promotion of Kannada in his own little way. Kumar had embarked on a journey to promote Kannada in and around Sahakaranagar by launching a unique programme — Namagondu Kare Nimagondu Kannada Naamapalaka — in 2006.
“I had supplied Kannada name boards to 800 houses free of cost. My intention was to ensure that there were name boards in Kannada. Later people from faraway areas started requesting me to supply them with Kannada name boards in their areas too. Due to the paucity of time, I used to request them to come to Sahakaranagar to collect the name boards,’’ said Kumar.
It was his good nature that made him spend money on the construction of a bus shelter for the benefit of commuters and also spread awareness about Kannada language. The construction of the bus shelter was not a cakewalk for him. With a few residents objecting, the completion of the bus shelter was delayed by a few months.
“After realising my intention to not only help commuters but also create awareness about Kannada among the people, the same people, who opposed the construction, supported me. It took me months to gather information about poets, writers and places in Karnataka,’’ explained Kumar.
The bus shelter has information about poets, writers, historical places, pilgrim centres and waterfalls in Karnataka. It has also names of Jnanapeeth awardees from Kuvempu to U R Ananthamurthy. It has a provision for non-Kannadigas to read Kannada with the help of the English alphabet.
“I want to enable non-Kannadigas to read Kannada with the help of the English alphabet. It will help them to read the name boards of buses without any hassle. All this happened with the active support of my friend Dr Sriram Bhat,’’ recalls Kumar.
He had also contributed a lot to the environment by planting more than 1,000 saplings on a road from Kodigehalli to Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK) Bridge. He has also provided bird feeding points at five locations to stop birds from going faraway to quench their thirst and encourage migratory birds to come to this area.
In recognition of his contribution, organisations such as Pampapathy Parisara (Davangere), Vishwamanava Kuvempu International from Singapore and Seventh World Globaman from Dubai felicitated him.
Now, he wants to make a provision to play music at the bus shelter between 8 am to 8 pm. “I have already discussed this with Lahari Velu. If everything goes as per plan, the commuters can listen to light music, folk, devotional and old Kannada film songs through the year,’’ he added.
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