BENGALURU NO KNOWLEDGE CITY, SAYS RAMACHANDRA GUHA Historian Ramachandra Guha has lashed out at big IT companies for not opening libraries in Bengaluru. "I feel insulted every time someone calls Bengaluru the knowledge city. The sad truth is there are hardly any libraries for people to read and gain knowledge. These IT czars who made fortunes never thought of setting up public libraries," he said at the inauguration of Bangalore Book Festival on Monday. "Knowledge is contained in books, not in coding. There is a great cultural deficiency in this city which is filled up by book stores," he said. Expressing his dislike for e-reading devices such as Kindle, he said, "Reading a book on Kindle is like an insult to the book." The event also saw Kannada litterateur Chandrashekhara Kambara disapproving of writers returning their Sahitya Akademi awards. He said their actions were unwarranted. "Their anger must be directed towards the government, not the Akademi, which has no role to play whatsoever. It's sad," he said. When asked about the murder of thinker M M Kalburgi, Kambara said the police must be given time to carry out the investigation. "Let the investigation and search for the killers progress. I am saddened by the murder." But English author Anita Nair supported the returning of awards. "I feel more and more writers should express themselves about the growing extremism and fundamentalism, both of which are not good. Even the masses must get involved," she said. Kambara criticised the government for coming in the way of the book festival. "The festival must be an annual affair. The government must encourage such events. Instead, the opposite is happening," he added. The festival wasn't held for two years as the government denied it permission. This year too, its duration has been reduced to a week from 10 days. REFLINK: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/507412/bengaluru-no-knowledge-city-says.... Best Regards, Raghvendra R The information contained in this electronic message and in any attachments to this message is confidential, legally privileged and intended only for use by the person or entity to which this electronic message is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, and have received this message in error, please notify the sender and system manager by return email and delete the message and its attachments and also you are hereby notified that any distribution, copying, review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this electronic transmission or the information contained in it is strictly prohibited. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and may not represent those of the Company or bind the Company. Any commitments made over e-mail are not financially binding on the company unless accompanied or followed by a valid purchase order. This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Mail Scanner, and is believed to be clean. The Company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. www.jubl.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.