Karnataka: 'Belakaayitu Bagalkote' will be made into books

BAGALKOT: 'Belakaayitu Bagalkote' is a Facebook page involving netizens of Bagalkot district, residing across the world. As offline activities were thrown out of gear from March 2020, this page was started by Prakash Khade, a Kannada lecturer and it turned into a platform to share information about the district.
Khade told TOI that he came up with the idea of a lecture series of high achievers, hailing from the district, and presented by various professionals like scientists, engineers, doctors, sportsmen, writers, artists, and others.

"This idea was given by writer Rajashekhar Mathapati and guided by another writer BR Polispatil. We chose achievers who have already passed away. When we requested various professionals to present the lecture, many of them were unaware about Facebook. We even trained them on how to use Facebook and sensitised them to make good use of social media," he said.
Throwing light on hurdles, Khade said photos of achievers like Sulikeri Yamanavva, a parijat artist, are still unavailable. "The list of achievers includes folklore artists, saints, philosophers, musicians, politicians, mathematicians, drama actors, agriculturists, seers from older Vijayapura district, from which Bagalkot was carved out. As the series was started from July 3, 2020, many successors, relatives and followers, living across the world, of such great souls started calling us and appreciated our efforts," he shared.
He said the lectures were scheduled every Sunday and Thursday morning. "Apart from this, we took up a special series on freedom fighters in August and September last year. We also telecast articles on agriculture, business, education and other sectors of the district when Bagalkot district celebrated the 25th year of its inception as a district. As of now, we have 143 lectures on Facebook and planning to bring them out in three books - one is on achievers, the second is on freedom fighters and the third one is on articles about the district's achievements in various sectors," he said. Around 4,500 netizens watched the lectures on FB Live.