India, Oct. 26 -- Few people defy time and influence lives with such conviction and clarity that they become a moral compass for generations to come. Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa was one such life. His passing at ninety-four is not merely a literary loss but a moment of remembrance of a thinker who stood unbent when conformity was rewarded, who wrote of truth when truth had few friends.

A LIFE OF ADVERSITYBhyrappa's story began far from the clamour of literary salons or intellectual circles. Born in 1931 in the quiet village of Santeshivara in Karnataka's Hassan district, he tasted loss before he learnt language. The plague claimed his mother and brother; his father, erratic and indifferent, offered little refuge. Education became b...