The last journey of poet and littérateur and lyricist C. Narayana Reddy, popular as CiNaRe, began from his daughter’s home in Kondapur and after a while at the Andhra Saraswath Parishat on Tilak Road in Abids, ended at Mahaprasthanam in Jubilee Hills, with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and some of his Cabinet colleagues in attendance.
The funeral was held with full State honours as the police presented a gun salute and Telugu lovers by the hundreds who were present, shed tears expressing their grief at the passing away of a man who virtually breathed and lived Telugu till his last moment. All the arrangements were facilitated by the Department of Culture.
The funeral pyre was lit by Chaitanya, son of CiNaRe’s eldest daughter Ganga. The other three daughters of CiNaRe are Yamuna, Saraswati and Krishnaveni, after the rivers, a fact that several people present recalled was indicative of the poet and lyricist’s immense love for the country and Nature.
Prominent among those present were Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari, Ministers Nayini Narsimha Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, A. Indrakaran Reddy, G. Jagadheeshwar Reddy, Mayor Bonthu Rammohan and Director-Culture Mamidi Harikrishna, apart from at least a couple of thousands of people comprising writers and literature enthusiasts from across the 31 districts of Telangana and those from the twin cities.
The entire area around Filmnagar and its surroundings sported flexis put up by the Culture Department that had verses from CiNaRe’s poems and popular songs, inscribed on them. The Chief Minister himself took matters into his hands and was seen at Mahaprasthanam, managing the funeral proceedings, directing people.
What people found interesting was the presence of the Chief Minister himself for almost two hours and his involvement in the proceedings.
After the last rites were over, he ensured that food was made available at a nearby convention centre for all those who had come. Working overnight, the Department of Culture put up flexis, also starting from the Andhra Saraswath Parishat, which CiNaRe headed, in Tilak Road of Abids, all the way up to Mahaprasthanam.