Some stars shine on forever

Shilpa P

“Life is a cycle and Dr Rajkumar had received DLit from University of Mysore in 1976 when Puneeth was a nine-month old baby and Dr Rajkumar was 47, the same age as he would have been had he been around,” said Raghavendra Rajkumar on the occasion of the late actor Puneet Rajkumar being awarded an honorary doctrate. Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar received the Honoris Causa (D Lit), which was conferred by the University of Mysuru on her late husband and Sandalwood star posthumously at the 102nd convocation of University of Mysore (UoM), Mysuru. The honour was conferred on him for his contribution to the film industry and for social service.

On the occasion, it was announced that Ashwini has conveyed her decision to UoM, to institute two gold medals -- one in the name of Smt Parvathamma Rajkumar for the student who tops in Business Administration, and the other in the name of Puneeth Rajkumar for the topper in fine arts. These newly instituted awards will be presented at the next convocation.

“Puneeth always said that one should just do their work and service sincerely — awards and honours will follow. And it is been proved now. We are happy to receive this honour in the UoM Crawford Hall, which is an abode of Goddess Saraswathi. This leaves a heavy responsibility on family to continue the services to humanity,” said Raghavendra Rajkumar.

Almost all the family members including Puneeth Rajkumar’s daughter Vanditha, Raghavendra’s wife Mangala and son Yuva, Appu’s sister Lakshmi and her husband Govindraju, sister Poornima and her daughter Dhanya Ramkumar were present on the occasion. Honoris Causa (D lit) was also conferred on eminent folklore artist M Mahadevaswamy for his contribution in the field of music and folk art. Also Honoris Causa (DSc) was conferred on former director general of DRDO Padma Vibhushan, Dr Vasudev Kalkunte Aatre.

Governor of Karnataka and Chancellor of UoM, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, who presided over the convocation said: “Our country has a strong democracy, and we are celebrating 75 years of our independence, our freedom. We need to further strengthen it by becoming more and more Aathmanirbhar by making the best of many programmes in this regard by both Centre and State, and also by using our knowledge in a right way.” Director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Bengaluru, Dr S C Sharma delivered the convocation address. “The exemplary essence of heritage, ideology and culture of this land are combined in the New Education Policy 2020. It connects the deep roots propelled by modern science and technology, by reviving the knowledge traditions. The main motto of the National Education Policy is to impart training and experience to the progeny of the land, the value based education to enable them to attain a true sense of human character, acquire intellectual balance from the background of culture,” said he.

UoM Vice chancellor Prof G Hemanth Kumar, Registrar, R Shivappa, Registrar (evaluation) Prof A P Grana Prakash and others participated in the Convocation.