There are two culturally enriching organisations in our city that came into existence in the past three years. One is the Mysore Book Clubs - 2015 under the auspices of the Mysore Literary Forum Charitable Trust (MLFCT), promoted by that ever-active Shubha Sanjay Urs, skilled in the art of making friends, the President. More or less during the same period, another organisation related to books and literature known as ‘Mysore Literary Association’ (MLA) took birth under the Presidentship of its promoter Prof. K.C. Belliappa, an english teacher. He was the former Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi Central University at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. While ‘MLA’ conducted a Literary Festival once in a year, so also the MLFCT. In other times, both these organisations engage themselves in literature-related activities like poetry and novel reading by authors or launching new books by the authors both well-known and less-known. It was only a few days back on Sunday August 12, 2018, the second Mysore Literary Festival of ‘MLA’ was held at the Senate Bhavan which Sarod Maestro Pandit Rajiv Taranath had inaugurated. Among others, Pavan K. Varma, the former diplomat, now a politician and a well-known author, was a Star Speaker. He had rendered a lucid exposition of Adi Shankaracharya about whom he had written a book of the same title. Therefore, it was a sort of double blessings or to use a slang ‘double dhamaka’ for Mysureans when the MLFCT organised a book release at the Wind Chimes in Nazarbad, where Karan Thapar, the well-known TV presenter and author was the Superstar. His latest book ‘Devil’s Advocate - The Untold Story’ was launched and then he was engaged in a conversation with another VIP from Karnataka Prof. M.V. Rajeev Gowda, a Congress MP. The book was launched by Raian Irani, industrialist and the inheritor of the legacy of the legendary Jawa Motorcycle. When Shubha told me that Karan Thapar was coming to Mysuru to launch his book and Prof. Rajeev Gowda would engage him in a conversation, I was both delighted and excited no end. There are two reasons for that. One, seeing Karan would be like seeing a mirror image of my own late brother Dr. K.B. Subbaiah with so much likeness to my brother’s facial features; even that restrained smile. Another reason for my interest is the time of his visit. It was just 22 days after I wrote my column ‘Abracadabra’ titled "'
