After multiple books on the subject, author PT Bopanna has penned yet another paperback on Kodagu, this time chronicling his journey of documenting the region. Having written his first book on Kodagu in 2006, Bopanna soon realised there was no stopping him. But what is prompting this 69-year-old to relentlessly preserve information related to the place?
The author, who is also a journalist, has been reporting on the region for nearly four decades now and realised he had access to a huge repository of knowledge on the place. “There wasn’t much documentation on Kodagu after the British left. So I started making websites and videos that spoke about the culture there, its food, jewellery, news related to it and more,” says Bopanna, whose latest book is a 76-page book called My Coorg Chronicles.
The journey began in 2005, when this self-described atheist and rationalist read a daily astrology prediction that said starting a website would do him good. This gave birth to a website on Kodagu that put together information on the place and eventually grew into multiple websites, social media groups and books. “Today, I have about 20,000 members across different Facebook groups on Kodagu food, news, jewellery and more,” says Bopanna. Attempts to stray away from the topic of Kodagu led to a book on coffee (grown widely in the region), which also won a Gourmand Award.
The biggest challenge the sexagenarian faced was adapting to new mediums. Calling himself a “technologically-challenged” person, he recalls how getting used to video was initially difficult. Now used to it, he hopes to influence more and more youngsters to show an interest in Kodagu culture. Speaking of changes that he seen over years, he rues how the joint family system is no longer prevalent, while the agrarian community seems to be getting diluted too. “The younger generation needs to be more aware,” he says.