Kuppali Puttappa Poornachandra Tejaswi was a prominent Kannada Novelist & Short Story Writer. He also worked as a photographer, publisher, painter, naturalist, and environmentalist. He made a great impression in the Navya (New) period of Kannada literature and inaugurated the Bandaaya Saahitya genre of protest literature with his short-story collection Abachoorina Post Offisu. He is the son of noted Kannada poet ‘Rashtrakavi’ Kuvempu.
At early stages of his writing career, Tejaswi wrote poems but later concentrated on short stories, novels and essays. His distinctive style of writing is credited with heralding a new era in Kannada literature.
Tejaswi had written in almost all forms of literature including poems, short stories, novels, travel literature, plays and science fiction. Nature and incidents related to nature enjoy major roles in most of his works. One of the most popular writers in Kannada, Tejaswi’s works have continued to remain popular, going into multiple prints and often topping reader’s charts. Karvalo is one such novel where the author participates in an adventure of discovering a flying lizard in the dense forests of Western Ghats.
Tejaswi has translated a number of English books to Kannada enriching the depth of Kannada literature. His famous translations include the series on Kenneth Anderson’s hunting expeditions and Henri Charrière’s Papillon.
Tejaswi wrote his first novel, Kaadu Mattu Kraurya, when he was a 24-year-old in 1962. The novel is expected to be in print for the first time towards the end of 2012. He had initially planned to name this work Nalini but later decided to go by its present title. Tejaswi was inspired to write the novel after visiting his wife Rajeshwari’s maternal home in the forested Malnad region of Karnataka. The novel, whose manuscript was prepared by Rajeshwari, is the story of Linga, a migrant bonded labourer from north Karnataka who moves to a remote Malnad village where he struggles to cope with his new life and surroundings
