Dharwad to celebrate GS Amur’s birth centenary

Dharwad: The birth centenary of renowned litterateur Prof GS Amur will be celebrated at Srujana Auditorium in Dharwad on Thursday, May 8.Writer Lakshmisha Tholpadi will inaugurate the programme organsed jointly by the GB Joshi Memorial Trust, Dr GS Amur birth centenary celebration committee and Dr Annajirao Shirur Auditorium Trust, at 9.30am. Shashi Amur will be the guest. At 11am, former president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Manu Baligar and writer Jayant Kaikini will release two books on Amur. This will be followed by an interactive session on Amur's work, in which Prof Ganesh Devy and Manjunath Hiremath will participate. In the second session commencing from 1pm, writers Geeta Vasant, Shridhar Balagar and Shyamsundar Bidarkundi will speak on ‘Amur and literary criticism'.Family members of Prof GS Amur- Hrishikesh, Sphoorthi Umarji, Shyam, Shailaja, Anupama, Jayant, Vrunda, Harsh Dambal, Jayant Pujar, Vijaya Guttal and Srinivas Wadappi will speak on the connection with Amur in the third session beginning at 3.30pm.Writer Jayant Kaikini will deliver the valedictory speech at 5.30pm.Amur, a pioneer of modern criticismBorn on May 8, 1925 at Bommanahalli in Hanagal taluk of now Haveri district Gururaj Shyamachar Amur began his career as English professor at the prestigious Karnatak College in Dharwad and later had a long career in various universities of Karnataka and Maharashtra. He obtained his MA degree in English from the Bombay University and his PhD in English from Karnatak University for his thesis ‘The Concept of Comedy'. After his MA, Amur worked as a professor of English at Karnatak University in Dharwad and Marathwada University in Aurangabad. He had settled in Dharwad after his retirement. Though Amur served as the professor of English and wrote in English, his love for Kannada was immense and he has penned several books in Kannada also. Known as a dispassionate, objective critic, he never identified with any camp or literary movement.Known for dedication and academic discipline in writing, Amur has the credit of editing of 12 comprehensive volumes of Sriranga's literary works. He has also written extensively on works of Bendre, RK Narayan and Raja Rao.He has penned several books both in English and Kannada languages and translated books in Kannada, Marathi and Sanskrit into English. Amur was the recipient of Pampa, Rajyotsava, Kendra Sahitya Akademi and other prestigious awards. He passed away on Sept 28, 2020.