Anuradha Ananthamurthy, daughter of writer U.R. Ananthamurthy, expressed anguish over hate mail the family still receives even weeks after the death of her father. Some of these letters are from Dakshina Kannada, she said.
“Such attacks are not new to my father. Earlier, the attacks were on his thoughts, now it is different,” she said, adding, “These attacks are affecting us.” Ms. Anuradha, a pathologist, and mother, Esther, were here on Thursday to take part in an interaction programme organised by the English Association and the Kannada Sangha of the University College, as part of a two-day programme on the writer.
Ms. Anuradha said her father was perturbed by comments made in bad taste in the last “three to four months. I could hear him murmur about such comments while he was in the hospital”. Though the writer felt sad, he had learnt to face them well. “But I am too small before him. Such comments affect me.”
There was a barrage of comments following her father’s demise. Ms. Anuradha said her mother continued to get letters with personal comments. Some of these letters were written in the names of popular public personalities from this region, she said.
She recalled the attack on Mr. Ananthamurthy in Mysore following his comments on Kannada thespian Rajkumar. Her father was also under attack during the Gokak agitation.
Despite criticism, he had continued to speak his mind.
Ms. Esther, who did not wish to answer questions initially, relented later and spoke of how her husband’s death was a great loss to her as she no longer had a companion with whom “I have grown. I married him when I was his student”. She said it was not a burden for her to manage the family when Mr. Ananthamurthy received friends and students as guests at their home. “But during his last days, I felt I could not do much for him.”
