HUBBALLI: “Cheeti togori” (take tickets). Thus begins the day of Prakash Shivayogimath, a conductor attached to Hubballi division of NWKRTC. For the last 12 years, this conductor (known as Nirvahaka in Kannada) has not uttered a single English word on duty.His hard work of trying to speak in his mother tongue for over a decade has earned him a big name. His seniors call him, Kannada Kanda, Kannadada Kanmani and Kannada Conductor.
Be it any word that conductor uses in daily commute, they come in Kannada only from Shivayogimath. He says cheeti for tickets, nildana for bus stop, vahana for bus, vahana ghataka for bus depot. So much his love for Kannada, sometimes passengers get confused over his literal translations.
Born in Kavadimath village near Muddebihal of Vijayapura district, Shivayogimath joined Hubballi division in 2006. Since then he has continued his Kannada journey in the bus. He converses with passengers (prayanikaru) in pure Kannada and sometimes they look at him in awe. They ask him, are you from Mangaluru or Udupi? When he says he is from Vijayapura passengers are even surprised.
“I studied SSLC in Dharwad when my father came here and settled. When I joined the duty I started conversing in Kannada and made it a habit. Such habits cannot be forced upon you but has to come by your heart,” he says.Even at home he continues to talk in Kannada. For cellphone he uses a new word in urban Kannada lingo, Jangamavani. He is married to a primary school teacher and has two sons Rajashekar and Chennaveeresha. The family lives in Hubballi.
“The drivers who have worked with me have felt proud with my Kannada language. I always converse with students who stand near the doors in pure Kannada,” he adds. “I commute in the same bus twice a week. When I was new to this bus I did not understand words such as Nagara Palike Nildana (city corporation stop), but later I got to know that Shivayogimath speaks in pure Kannada,” said a passenger.