THAT FRIENDLY FACE: IMPERISHABLE MEMORIES
S.
NARAYANASWAMY, M. L. C.
Ramakotiswara
Rau is a person who belonged to two generations. He was among the earliest of
our stout-hearted and sturdy patriots who preferred to fade out of the
limelight, once freedom’s battle had been won–with unexpected abruptness,
thanks to a Labour Government in the
Ramakoti, as we all affectionately
called him, belonged to that small, demure and erudite band of zealots, who
threw up their careers, despite the fulness of
academic preparations that had preceded the choice of careers. They knew
nothing of political gate-crashing, they did not live in a world of slogans as
a substitute for scholarship; they did not rattle their sabres;
they asked for no special preferment to political office and they did not throw
their credentials on a 70 m. m. screen and ask to be canonized. I knew a dozen
such fine men. Most of them have been gathered to the blossom-filled lap of the
Almighty. A few are luckily still in our midst, mitigating by their very
presence, the anguish of soul one feels, when
confronted by the bizarre parade of political mountebanks and chauvinists, who
ask us to believe they possess the competence and the unselfishness needed to
build up the country out of the rubble heap that
My
earliest recollection of Ramakoti is not his
association with the Triveni any more than my recollection of late Khasa Subba Rau is, because of
his association with Swarajya. Ramakoti was to me the hero of the Andhra Jateeya Kalasala–with Machilipatnam as home town. Indeed many of us in the Tamil
country knew Masula or Bandar–as my Andhra friends
call that seaport town–only through Ramakoti’s
association and the institution he built up there. I vividly recollect going
round some forty years ago for “Deepavali
Collection.” for this institution. Ramakoti as the essence of culture,
remarkable restraint and unobtrusiveness.
His immaculate Khadi apparel and the Angavastram draped around this shoulder,
went with his unfailing smile and these gave him, in my eyes, the appearance of
a Greek God. He was the very picture of stability–as
all men of character are. I saw him in advanced years–his
face showed that little of the great spirit was
quenched.
Most
people at any rate, in later years, knew Ramakoti as
the Editor of Triveni–that elegant periodical to which the community of
men-of-letters was proud to contribute articles. Ramakoti
believed that the exterior of his journal should attract readers to its
interior–or contents. We all talk a lot of cant about the exterior being
immaterial, if the interior is immaculate. The importance of spruceness in appearance appealed to Ramakoti
and I am happy it did. The man, who is particular about elegance or purity,
should and can convince others of his preferences first only by outward
manifestation of his predilections. Triveni was always elegantly
wrapped, was printed on fine paper and contained weighty and interesting
articles. Ramakoti would not suffer a let-down on
standards of production. I know he had his portfolio of financial problems, his
tribulations with the poignant sorrows of periodical journalism.
He
attracted an excellent panel of writers for his journal and what appeared in Triveni
was educative and rewarding. In a world of tabloid journalism, when men in
a hurry want something they can imbibe on the electric train, the bus or the personal
transport, the Triveni refused to compromise with the needs of the more
thoughtful, those who seek to understand a subject in depth and that minority
of people who are prepared to “come apart and rest a while”.
Ramakoti once told me
his view on pricing of periodicals. This showed his deep understanding of the
psychology of the average reader in India–namely,
he (the reader) likes to read many periodicals he has not the means to
subscribe for, but all the same he will set little value on what he gets for
little or nothing. It was not that Ramakoti was able
to cover his costs in publication–but that pricing was important as reflecting
the value the editor set upon his journal. This, I believe, is an important
thing to remember in a world, in which we have leaflets and folders dumped on
us–which, we throw without even a glance,
into the waste paper basket Ramakoti
was a discerning editor and scholar of the early twentieth century vintage. He
could sift the good from the mediocre quickly. The panel of editorial advisers
he constituted and the shifting of the office of publication to
Age
takes its toll of mental and physical capabilities and in advanced years, it
was in the fitness of things that the burden of continuing this fine journal
that symbolized the synthesis of three cultures in its title, should fall on Ramakoti’s nephew, Narasimha Rao.
The passing of Ramakoti removed the guiding hand, the
discerning mind and mellowed fervour of the
Founder-Editor. Narasimha Rao brings a very important
quality to his precious legacy–a consciousness of the
rich tradition built by Ramakotiswara Rau to the conduct of Triveni. I
hope and trust that he will be able to fill the panel of his contributors as
and when age or infirmity created a gap therein. This writer does not believe
that there is a dearth of scholars, felicitous writers or thinkers in the new
generation. Indeed I see many brilliant young men and women of incisive mind
and fine capacity for lucid writing, ort whom the present editor can draw.
Indeed nothing would please late Ramakotiswara Rau, than that triple stream
which Triveni stands for, is enriched by new waters that look currently
churned up but will become pellucid as it flows down the banks of public
understanding.
Ramakotiswara
Rau has left an ever-green memory–without
being a trumpeter by inclination or training. Such men are the salt of the
earth.