S.L.Bhyrappa was born in Santeshivara, a small backward and conservative village in pre-independence India. His family lived in utter poverty. At the young age of eight, he saw both his elder brother and sister die of plague within an hour of each other. A few years later his mother passed away, and his father offered no support to the family. At the age of 14 years, he carried his younger brother’s corpse on his shoulder and cremated it. Thus, alone in the world, he held various part-time jobs, selling incense sticks, writing accounts in a small shop, working as a waiter and as an usher in a cinema. Yet, despite these efforts, he could not support himself financially and therefore decided to travel to Bombay to seek his fortune. He could not, however, afford to buy a ticket, but undeterred he decided to walk there by following the railway line and asking for alms in villages. On the way there, he met a travelling drama company and worked with them for some time. Bombay was not quite overflowing with opportunity as he had expected and so he worked as a waiter, as a cook in a mess and decided to learn the trade of a horse carriage driver. All these activities proved equally unrewarding and thus he became the disciple of a wandering spiritual mendicant, somehow making his way back to his home state. On return to Karnataka, he continued his schooling. His experiences made him inwardly reflective and, with this urge, he decided to study the subject of philosophy. Some friends advised him that philosophy bakes no bread, to which he replied (penniless) - If philosophy bakes no bread, then I shall open a bakery and bake my own bread, but I shall study philosophy. After graduating, sunum cum laude of his university and finishing his Masters degree, he researched his PhD on Truth and Beauty. He worked as a Lecturer in Hubli and in Sardar Patel University in Gujurat and as a Reader in Delhi. In 1971 he requested a transfer to his home state and worked in Mysore, first as a Reader and then for ten years as a Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1991. Dr Bhyrappa is an active participant in literary associations, having been an executive board member of the Karnataka Literary Academy, the Indian Institute of Letters and the Bharatiya Gnanapita Committee. On an international level, he has represented India at several writers’ conferences in North America, Europe, Japan and China. He was the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, which he tenured at the University of London, and he also received a Ford Foundation Fellowship to study the cultural problems of Indian immigrants in the United States.Dr Bhyrappa is an avid listener of both Indian and Western classical music and has a passion for art and sculpture. He has trekked in the Alps, the Rockies, Andes and in Fujiama, but his greatest passion was, and remains, the Himalayas.

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