Bangalore: The President of 77th Kannada Literacy Assembly now in Bangalore is a 98 year old, short, smiling man called G.Venkatasubbaiah, a lexicographer, also known as ‘Jeevy’ by his friends and fellow journalists.
Jeevi (GV) wrote many books but they were not novels, but only dictionaries. Only an expert in a language can produce such dictionaries. Dr. Samuel Johnson was a lexicographer, Dr. Shivarama Karanth also had hand in it. Many writers go through dictionaries before they write novels, stories, poems and other books in a language, to know more words and still more meanings. Kannada is a rich language.
Jeevi (GV) is old by age, but young at heart. His sharp criticism of corrupt politicians when they were present on the dais or in the front  rows on Friday when the 77th Sammelan was opened to hear him, did not make any rattling noises, as it was perhaps read out amidst noises of hungry delegates and visitors dry of throats, for the sake of water and tasty meals.
GV wanted Kannada everywhere in the state of Karnataka, but those who attended the Literacy Congress in their thousands demanded food and water banging on empty metal plates. Buddha was vindicated. In Mangalore during 66th Conference of the KSP, “The Hindu” English news copies were burnt, to emphasise the importance of Kannada dailies in a Kannada annual meet. But in several annual conferences after that, in Kanakapura, Udupi, Tumkur and other places, no loud noises or protests were heard about food and water, as in Bangalore only yesterday.
It is a shame on organizers that they collected huge sums of money in crores from the state govt, through the Reception Committee Chairman and Home Minister R. Ashoka, but did not provide meals and water to say, 20,000 excess visitors to the capital show. How can they hold a World Kannada Conference in a smaller city like Belgaum on the border and whom they will feed? Will hungry stomachs listen to sermons in Kannada, on the importance of Kannada language in a Kannada Nadu? Jeevi must have felt remorseful for his blistering attacks on rulers. Was he not hungry?