CHIKKAMAGALARU: Late Kannada litterateur Poornachandra Tejaswi's wife Rajeshwari Tejaswi passed away in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Rajeshwari (84) had been suffering from low blood count and fever for the last few days and hence, was admitted to a private hospital in Bengaluru. She died of a heart attack at 6:20 am on Tuesday morning.
Rajesh as she is fondly called by Tejaswi was born to a middle class family in 1937 at Kalasipalya in Bengaluru. She was pursuing a BA degree in the same college in Mysuru where Poornachandra Tejaswi was studying. The acquaintance turned to deep friendship.
Tejaswi and Rajeshwari did MA in Kannada and MA in Philosophy from Mysuru University. Even after Rajeswari's return to Bengaluru, love transpired through letters. Six years later, they got into wedlock at the Chitrakoota estate near Gonibeedu in Mudigere taluk in 1966 which was solemnised by Kuvempu through Mantra Mangalya. It was an intercaste marriage.
She played a key role in Tejaswi shaping into a writer with difference. It was in Chitrakoota house which lacked electricity Tejaswi wrote his magnum opus novel 'Carvallo' in the kerosene light for a period of 10 years.
Later, the family shifted to Niruttara estate near Mudigere. The couple was made for each other. They have two daughters Susmita and Eeshanya. Both are engineers and settled in Bengaluru.
Rajeswari continued the literary legacy of Tejaswi by participating in sessions in the Tejaswi Foundation at Kottigehara. She has authored two books - 'Nanna Tejaswai' and 'Namma Manege Bandaru Gandhiji'. Now the estate and the house Niruttara have become orphaned without their patrons.