"Alphabet Devil" Ravi Belagere bids adieu

Ravi Belagere who breathed his last early in the morning today was a multifaceted personality beyond the purview of Journalism. His contributions oscillated from Poetry, Short Stories, Novels, Translations, Publications and a host of periodicals. In fact, he rightly deserved the title "Alphabet Devil".

Born in Ballari, then Bellary, hitherto in the then Mysuru state in 1958 he fondly used make fun of the climate in his home district by remarking: There are only two seasons in Ballari. If one is Summer the remaining one is Scorching Summer!

Looking back at his "Colourful Innings" in multiple ways of sudden decisions, daredevil ventures, connections with mining goons, underworld dons, Sandalwood film industry, Sadhus and peculiar living beings of that kind, astounding accomplishments, setbacks all make way for a thriller on the celluloid screen.

Way back in 1983, he was a colleague in Munjane Kannada Morning Newspaper with veteran legendary scribe SV Jayasheela Rao as the Editor in Bengaluru. The launch was set on 15 August and we all had reported to duties from 01 August itself. Then he was working as a lecturer in a private women's college of Ballari.

But as the launch day approached, he suddenly vanished from the scene and returned back to Ballari to continue with his teaching profession. The second time he became a colleague in Kannada Prabha of The Indian Express group of publications during the early nineties

But here too it was a short-lived enthusiasm. He went on a tour of the Himalayas and returned to join the Karmaveer weekly magazine to pen his experiences in the form of a series.

A decade later, we again got in touch after he was roped in to continue the Crime Diary daily crime series for Eenadu Kannada TV channel, as the earlier person in charge had shifted to a rival entertainment channel.

For he being preoccupied with many an assignment and commitment whatsoever, the crew in the crime section always remained on tenterhooks. The episodes were edited in the last minute in the News Desk while the three segments were transmitted live with the help of an Outdoor Broadcast(OB) van umpteen number of times!

It looked professionally, he believed in doing things as and when they cropped up rather than gearing up for the requirements. It was no better in his personal life as well. He married his own teacher and publicly proclaimed: Yes I have two wives, three children with first wife and one son with the second wife...I also own properties worth 550 crores...

In the early Nineties, "Lankesh Patrike", the epoch-making tabloid edited and published by well-known writer, poet, dramatist P Lankesh was slowly on the wane on account of his ill health and generations of new readers feeling obsessed with the same rhetoric for more than a decade.

It was at such a juncture Ravi thought of plunging into the Kannada tabloid world waiting for a vacuum to be filled up with the right alternative. His "Hai Bengaluru" was a runaway hit forcing the main rival "Lankesh Patrike" to crumble down over a period of time. With the demise of P Lankesh, Hai Bengaluru had literally no competitor, thus paving the way to settle down comfortably.

But all such success was no instant for he toiled a lot in achieving the same. He himself has admitted in his memoirs in the form of a series

about the hardships, he underwent during the turmoil period of his career and life in Bengaluru.

The number of days he had to starve were countless and from the number of people he had to borrow money were endless. For also having no shelter of his own, he spent months together during nights, sleeping, sitting on a chair in the Two-Wheeler parking lot of the KSRTC Bus Stand.

Perhaps all such worst possible harrowing time transformed into an elixir for his writings. He started writing and cherished it in his own amicable style unheard of so far in Kannada literature.

There was no subject he left untouched. Apart from bringing out his own tabloid printed in Black and White, he continued to remain a regular contributor to some daily newspapers. He penned more than seventy books with a variety of subjects.

Film journalist Udaya Marikkini once described: Ravi is the only journalist to have attained the status on par with any other popular Kannada film hero among youngsters.

Such used to be his popularity whenever he took part in any public functions. Hunasavadi Rajan, Group Editor of Lok Shikshan Trust publishing Samayukta Karnataka among other publications aptly describes his personality: Ravi believed enjoying every moment of his life and ensured such magical moments are not lost discussing in a run of the mill matters.

No doubt he loved, enjoyed and experienced every bit of life the way he felt it right and more than required. It's no public secret and he himself reiterated it to his close friends and associates of his overdoing of things.

Probably vices were also an integral part of his unique personality ingrained with an abundance of a variety of talents all put together in an unassuming fashion! When the whole media was reporting about the scams let loose by the mining mafia of Ballari brothers, he acknowledged and lauded the "noble gesture" of G Janardhan Reddy handing him over a revolver for his personal security!

According to his own claims, he never kept an idea on his misadventures with women. At the same time, he went into hiding when it was revealed that he had hatched a plot to eliminate his own colleague suspecting infidelity with his second wife.

In a nutshell, to conclude, Ravi remained a mystery to many of his own contemporaries when it came to writing and choosing a way for living. He might have scribbled tons of papers to express his mind on the day to day ongoings, politics, crime, social life, film songs, films, music, philosophy and whatnot.

He triumphed success like no other scribe would have ever dreamt of. But despite achieving whatever he also had never imagined of, it looks he never tuned himself to the nuances of a healthy life to lead. Perhaps had he thought of, we wouldn't have seen his exit so soon?

-Manohar Yadavatti