He may have received a number of awards, but when it came to the Jnanpith, he was unprepared and even disbelieving. A faulty phone meant he could not be reached by the awards committee and it was left to his son, Raju Kambara, to convey the news to him. But Chandrashekar Kambara remained sceptical, responding with: “Don’t believe what people tell you. They are probably pulling your leg. How can I get the Jnanpith, check again.”

But he had to believe it when television channels made the announcement. The modesty however, did not leave him. As always he attributes a lot of his success to the breaks he got early on in his life courtesy people like Krishnamurthy Puranik, a writer and teacher in Gokak, who conducted Sunday classes on literature to help bright students further their interest in literature.

The young Kambara, who could not afford the school fee and had no place to stay in Gokak was overjoyed when Puranik decided to teach him for free. “My eyes become misty when I think of such people,” he says, also recalling his debt to Siddaramaswami of Savalgi mutt, who gave him admission to college.

Often pitted against well-known playwright, Girish Karnad, Kambara works from two tables in his room - one for writing a play and the other for writing a poem. A friend once commented jocularly, that he probably sat on the floor when writing a novel. “He would stare for hours into space when writing and not notice anyone around," recalls his daughter -in- law, an English lecturer in a college. Karnad himself once acknowledged at a public function: "I keep one eye on what I am doing and with the other eye I keep a watch on what Kambara is upto, " as people found similarities between the plays the two men wrote.

Karnad's Nagamandala was based on a folk story compiled by AK Ramanujan and Kambara's Siri Sampige, written earier, had a similar theme. The competition was healthy and people loved them both. For 74-year-old Kambara his roots obviously matter a great deal."My mother would sing tripadi and my aunt had a poem for all occasions. All the mythological and folk characters would come alive when my aunt sang. I grew up savouring and imbibing these poems," he says.