''Karvalo'' is a novel written by

Poornachandra Tejaswi Kuppali Puttappa Poornachandra Tejaswi (8 September 1938 – 5 April 2007) was a prominent Indian writer and novelist in Kannada. He also worked as a photographer, publisher, painter, naturalist, and environmentalist. He made a great impress ...

,Rajan, P. K. (1989). ''The Growth of the novel in India, 1950-1980.'' New Delhi:Abhinav Publications. p. 118. a

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

writer whose works include novels,

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

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poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. Online webpage of ''The Hindu.'' Retrieved 2007-07-12. Tejaswi won the "most creative novel of the year" for ''Karvalo'' in 1980 from the Sahitya Akademi.

Plot

In ''Karvalo'', the protagonist is a well-educated farmer, who is also the narrator of the same story. In spite of his great interest in rural lifestyle, his unsuccessful agricultural work makes him consider ending his life as a farmer to move to the city. During this time he meets Karvalo, a middle aged scientist in search of a rare lizard. Their first few meetings were made to discuss the agricultural difficulties. A character named Mandanna, a local cowboy who is considered as a good-for-nothing fellow by the villagers and his friends, is very close to Karvalo. Karvalo tells the protagonist that Mandanna is his student in a way. The farmer wonders why Mandanna and Karvalo become close and what the scientist finds so special in the local cowboy. As the story progresses, the farmer understands that the scientist finds that Mandanna possesses special skills of a Naturalist, such as ''observational skills'' to identify creatures. Karvalo often goes into the deep Jungle with Mandanna and this gets the small town talking about their relationship. One day Karvalo reveals that the endangered flying Lizard Mandanna had seen, '' Draco dussumieri'' is an

agamid Agamidae is a family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, they may be sister to the ...

"flying" lizard capable of gliding from tree to tree found in the Western Ghats and a relative of ''Draco blanfordii'' of China (SW

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Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

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. Karvalo is interested in finding the lizard, previously thought to have been extinct. The journey of these characters, the protagonist, Manadanna, a camera man and cook along with Karvalo to find the elusive lizard is the story of this novel.Karvalo's expedition cited in the Novel The series of discussions and revelations during the expedition gives a philosophical touch to the story, particularly the search for the truth of life.

References

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Bibliography

* Barts, M. & Wilms, T. 2003 Die Agamen der Welt. Draco 4 (14): 4-23 * Blanford, W.T. 1878 Notes on some Reptilia from the Himalayas and Burma. J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal (2) xlvii: 125-131 * Boulenger, G.A. 1885 Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. Geckonidae, Eublepharidae, Uroplatidae, Pygopodidae, Agamidae. London: 450 pp. * McGuire, Jimmy A. & Heang, Kiew Bong 2001 Phylogenetic systematics of Southeast Asian flying lizards (Iguania: Agamidae: Draco) as inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 72: 203-229 Kannada novels