Prof. CDN: A Personal Reminiscence

Abstract

Special Issue of Dialogue to commemorate the Centenary Year of my father Professor C.D. Narasimhaiah, fondly known as CDN to his vast circle of friends, students, colleagues and admirers. Dr. Hajela could not have chosen a more befitting way of honouring Prof. CDN's memory than by inviting a host of distinguished scholars (some of them his own students) to write about him, about his achievements as a scholar/teacher if not discuss his contribution towards creating a healthy, vibrant critical climate in the country. After all Prof. CDN strongly believed in the concept of samvada, "dialogue" which was most imperative in creating "a current of fresh and living ideas" so as to keep one's intellectual stimulus alive. In fact, it was with this view of fostering a spirit of collaboration among like-minded people, notably intellectuals, that Dhvanyaloka, his dream child was born. Such was his profound concern for the life of the mind, he would often keep invoking Macaulay's "imperishable empire of ideas" with admiration. Small wonder if he looked upon his Research Centre and the Journal he founded in 1952, The Literary Criterion as his two eyes.