It was a great opportunity in 1990 April, for me to meet one of the greatest scholars of our time, when I had an opportunity to interact with Dr BNK Sharma when I was working with newly formed Dvaita Vedanta Sudies & REserach Foundation, based in a single room at RR Choultry, near Bangalore Medical college. , I had heard, but not personally interacted earlier. He had retired from his Professorship at Ruparel College, Mumbai, devoting himself fully for research and writing. He was given a separate room at Vyasaraja Matha, Basavanagudi. The task before him was getting 2 of his books translated to Kannada. I was fortunate to take up the task of translating some portion of his Engish book on HIstory of Dvaita school.
My relative Sri VB Murty was assisting him. I was introduced to the great Professor by Prof KT Pandurangi and VB Murthy. Clad in simple white shirt and dhoti, speaking Coimbatore's Kannada, he was jovial yet much attentive to his work on hand. he would ask the translator to read out to him twice to ascertain the quality. He never wasted a minute in doing work and getting work done either. . I was fortunate to translate about 50 pages of his Magnum Opus HDVL , it was a wonderful experience to work with a renowned scholar worldwide, unfortunately ignored by traditional scholars for reasons best known to them!
I could even meet him at his house in Raja street, Coimbatore after sometime. my dream of showing my Synopsis on Vaishnava TEmple Architecture. Those were days of no camera/ whatsap or social media to record all that. But my memory is filled with useful moments I spent with this magnanimous professor of all times!
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