BASAVANGUDI: Basavangudi: Readers gathered in hundreds to meet novelist S L Bhyrappa, whose space saga, Yaana, continues to fly off the shelves.
Yaana is a novel that explores what happens to social values when humans venture out into outer space. The 82-year-old novelist interacted with his admiring audience at an event organised by Priyadarshana Samskruthika Vedike and Bhyrappa Abhimani Balaga.
Over 400 people had gathered at RV Teachers’ College to listen to him on Sunday. City Express brings you some transcripts from the interaction:
Manned mission to Mars
The journey described in Yaana may become a reality in 100 years. Scientists have shared their views with me. But they have to develop a new technology for this. One day, earth may be destroyed because of the surging seas, and humans may have to go in search of other planets. Today, space science has developed to a great extent. Many people in information technology have read Yaana. When I went to America for the Kannada Sammelana, many people discussed about space science with me. A writer and a scientist both work with their imagination. A scientist starts from a hypothesis and proves it after many tests. But a writer writes and he does not have to prove anything like a scientist. But both work with the imagination.
Fiction and reality
The characters in Yaana are fictional. They have nothing to do those who went on space missions (he was referring to Kalpana Chawla and Sunitha Williams).
Activist resistance
Some women’s organisations are raising a hue and cry over a character’s wish that she wants to be raped. They should look at who is saying it and when. Things in a novel should not be taken literally. Activists do not understand literature because they just see it only from their point of view. They never see it in a broader view. This is what happened when Union Minister Sadhwi Jyoti made a statement using the word ‘haraamzade’. Look at her background. It is common in the villages to say this. She won in an election and was made minister and later spoke in her language and all hell broke loose. Parliament was stalled for days, though she offered an apology. If you want to find fault, you will find it in everything. That’s all.
How Yaana was born
I wanted to write this novel long ago, when Russia launched the first satellite Sputnik. Later, the theme occurred to me when man came back
from the moon. When I visited America, I saw a space museum. Yaana took shape when I was invited to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) as Visiting Professor. There, Prof Raghunandan, who had read my works and admired me, explained their research to me. I also read up a lot about space science, and later visited ISRO and wrote this novel. My friend Ramaswamy, who was a botany professor, also helped me.
One should know something about our culture, religion to understand Yaana. If you understand the concepts of Prakruti and Purusha (the male and female principles), you can understand what happens between Uttara and Sudarshan in the novel.
Babus and religion
When I started writing Yaana, I had an outline. As I progressed, my thoughts added the details. In one episode, project head Dr Venkat goes to Tirupati, offers a silver replica of the space ship and prays for the mission’s success. Then a hue and cry is raised about this. But who makes this noise? The accounts people! And this is how the characters grow in a complex way, and situations unfold.
Pure scienceToday, I feel the focus on pure science is fading. More than technology, young people should study science.