CHENNAI: As we live in days, where news of inflation keeps knocking us down almost every day, the review of the book written by former Tamil Nadu chief minister C N Annadurai, while he served his prison term for opposing the Congress government for inflation, at the Tamil Sangamam sounds like a paradox with a funny timing.
Tamil Sangamam, the literary platform of Chennai Sangamam, on Sunday had a review session on the ‘Tamil Letter literature’, as a part of their effort to recognise this genre of literature.
Kaithi yen 6342 (Prisioner number 6342) is a book with a collection of letters written by Annadurai, to his cadre, propagating his Dravidian ideals, while he served his prison term at the Central jail in 1950s.
Thirunavukarasu reviewed the letters written by Anna between 1940s and 1967 for his magazine, Dravida Naadu. Trichy Shiva reviewed Kalaignar’s letters to the cadre.
Poet Ilaya Bharathi, organiser of Tamil Sangamam said: “letters had always been a medium to communicate, ideas, ideals and observations. Tamil literature has a fair share of such letters, so we thought it was fitting to review so as to gain more insight into this genre of literature.”
The first letter written in Tamil literature was by Madavi to Kovalan, was an interesting bit to add.