bengaluru when mattur nandakumara joined a high school in the city as a sanskrit teacher 45 years ago he did not have high expectations of himself i just wanted to be a good teacher he recalls however for the last two days this humble teacher has turned out to be quite a newsmaker for having been conferred with an honorary member of the order of the british empire mbe titlenandakumara has been identified as one of the united kingdoms top 100 most influential asians in his role as an ambassador for indias art culture and philosophy but i am a kannadiga and a proud indian he saidking charles iii approved 70yearold nandakumaras name for this years honorary british awards given to foreign nationals nandakumara who is the current executive director of bharatiya vidya bhavan in london will receive the honour for his services to teaching performance and accessibility of indian classical arts in the uk read an announcement from the united kingdoms foreign commonwealth and development office on fridayhe spoke to stoi while travelling from his home village mattur to bengaluru on saturday night mattur is indias first sanskritspeaking village located in shivamogga district he said i had never dreamt of being named for such a big award when i came searching for a job to bengaluru in 1975 this award is in recognition of bharatiya vidya bhavans london works and contributions to the growth of indian culture and artsnandakumaras journey from bengaluru to london is quite interestinghaving completed his masters in sanskrit from university of mysore he joined the erstwhile raghavendra high school in malleswaram in 1975searching for a job was a big challenge back then with a degree in sanskrit and the responsibility to run my family i joined the school as a teacher i did not even get a salary for nearly eight months he saidmy uncle mathoor krishnamurthy then suggested i come to london for my phd and also help him with the bhavans work i readily agreed nandakumara added he joined the school of oriental and african studies in the university of londonsince writing a thesis was a different game i had to improve my english proficiency by learning from a french woman called jeanine miller who worked at british museum after classes i would teach sanskrit to students at the bhavan he saidin the year 1995 nandakumara took charge as the executive director there and the bhavan too grew as the largest institute of indian culture in the uk