Kamat's Letters as Biographies

Letter Written on January 17, 1995
First Published as Facebook Post on October 6, 2025
Page Last Updated: January 13, 2026

Who will understand my agony of throwing away thousands and thousands of letters between my parents when my mom died? Fans of my father already know this -- my dad was a fantastic letter writer. And because our family was distributed in many cities, he wrote lots of them -- this was at a time phones were not available. My father also wrote lots of letters to me. They are world class literature (my father had PhD from SUNY, he was a scientist, anthropologist, artist, paleontologist, entomologist, photographer, archeologist, historian, and a popular writer in Kannada language), and in fact some folks have accused him that he wrote these letters in the hope/knowledge that one day, they would be published. That accusation however is not true -- they are indeed personal letters and why I had to destroy them. After I destroyed them, my archivist friends regretted --"Vikas, after 200 years when all of us have died, they would have remained as an authentic source of history", they said. Anyway, wanted to share a sample of a letter. See how meticulous he is --the letters are numbered, dated, and full return-of-investment of the aerogram with small letters!

The letter itself is very beautiful -- shows as much my father's personality as the drama of the life of his friend (Keshav Telang of Mavinkurve Island). Also attaching the covers of some of his letters published as books -- "Preyasige Patragalu" (Letters to a Soulmate) -- is a very popular wedding gift item, and is always sold out.
- Vikas Kamat in a Facebook Post

See Also:

• Patra Parachi -- Kamat's Letters to son Vikas

• Kamat's Letters as timecapsules of India -- visit to Pattadakallu