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Siddalingaiah’s memoir recalls student life shaped by books, poetry, hostel routines and public speaking—and by poverty that made even a debate outfit difficult to manage. In a 2021 excerpt from A Word With You, World: The Autobiography of a Poet, he describes discovering libraries, writing poems, speaking about Ambedkar and representing his school in debates. He also remembers borrowing a friend’s shorts and learning that his father had sold some of his school prizes. These are Siddalingaiah’s recollections in a selected excerpt, not independently verified scenes from his life.
Libraries opened a path to poetry
Siddalingaiah recalled that local Kannada and Tamil organizations had libraries he visited. He began reading poetry and fiction at a public library near Seshadripuram. A hostel student later gave him a book about Ambedkar. After reading it, Siddalingaiah said he read widely at the State Central Library in Cubbon Park and began writing poems.
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The excerpt also recounts an early source of encouragement. Dr. N.C. Biligirirangaiah, a lawyer and scholar, invited Siddalingaiah to read poems and paid him a rupee for each reading. Siddalingaiah described the payment as “royalty.”
Hostel life and public speaking brought Ambedkar into the story
In his account, student life extended beyond reading and writing. Siddalingaiah remembered hostel students marching in a large Dalit procession in Bengaluru. The excerpt gives the crowd as more than ten thousand; that is the memoir’s figure, not an independently confirmed count.
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He also recalled speaking about Ambedkar to students at other hostels and at public gatherings. The excerpt presents these talks alongside his participation in Dalit public events, making public speech part of the student experience he describes rather than simply a school accomplishment.
Debates brought recognition—and exposed hardship
Siddalingaiah remembered becoming a representative for his school at inter-high-school debates. As he put it in the excerpt, translated by S.R. Ramakrishna, “I started representing our school at inter-high school debates.”
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One debate also brought the material strain of his circumstances into view. His shorts were tattered, so he borrowed a friend’s pair. He recalled being given food before the debate and returning with a shield. At school debates, he won books as prizes; he later remembered his father selling some of his cups and books near Majestic cinema.
Together, the scenes place literary ambition and public recognition beside practical deprivation. That contrast is the texture of the excerpt’s student years, as Siddalingaiah remembered them.
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Which autobiography edition does the excerpt come from?
Scroll published the excerpt on June 13, 2021, two days after Siddalingaiah’s reported death in Bengaluru from COVID-related complications. Its publication credit identifies the text as drawn, with permission, from A Word With You, World: The Autobiography of a Poet, translated from Kannada by S.R. Ramakrishna and published by Navayana in 2013.
A separate review by Chandan Gowda discusses Ooru-Keri: An Autobiography, translated by S.R. Ramakrishna and published by Sahitya Akademi in 2003. The available sources do not establish how that edition relates to the 2013 Navayana title, so the titles and publishers should not be treated as interchangeable without further confirmation.
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Biographical context
The Karnataka Legislative Council’s former-member profile lists Siddalingaiah’s birth date as February 3, 1954, his M.A. and Ph.D., and his work as a professor at the Centre of Kannada Studies, Bangalore University. The profile records Council service from 1988 to 1994 and a second nomination for 1995 to 2001. This later career provides context for the writer and public figure, but the student episodes above come from the memoir excerpt.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read the memoir’s student scenes
Chandan Gowda’s review interprets the memoir’s humour as a way of exposing the absurdity of hierarchy and highlights the ethical significance of its treatment of memory and painful incidents. A university teaching unit places Ooru Keri in the context of Dalit autobiography, caste, poverty, memory and resistance. These are interpretive frames; the specific student-life details here are Siddalingaiah’s own recollections as published in the Scroll excerpt.
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Because the excerpt is selected, it offers a vivid window into particular episodes rather than a complete account of his student years or a basis for claims about every Dalit student’s experience.
Quick Recap
Sources
- Scroll’s authorized memoir excerpt and publication credit
- Chandan Gowda’s review of Ooru-Keri: An Autobiography
- Karnataka Legislative Council former-member profile
- University teaching material on Ooru Keri
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