CHENNAI: The sound of MS Subbulakshmi’s voice resonated throughout the conference hall at Gandhi Nagar Club in Adyar. “This was written by my grandfather, Kalki Krishnamurthy and sung by MS Subbulakshmi,” said Seetha Ravi. The Rotary Club Thiruvanmiyur chapter had organised a session on Kalki and Poetry on Tuesday. Ramaswamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy, born in 1899, was a popular Tamil author, poet and ref o r m i s t d u r i n g t h e independence struggle. “He aligned with the Indian National Congress when Mahatma Gandhi had called for the Non- Cooperation movement,” she said. He wrote under the pen name Kalki, and was known by the name ever since. “Kalki is the last avatar of Vishnu. He is supposed to walk the earth and deliver us from evil on doomsday,” she added. Growing up, Ravi said she found strength in her grandfather.
“He was a true reformist and contributed his entire life to Tamil literature,” she said. His work was criticised for lacking the mention of the social strata during those times, “But, he did mention subtly, about the various customs each caste adopted during the period,” Ravi added. From 120 short stories written by Kalki, Raja read out an excerpt from Otrai Roja. “The story is about an Indian man and a Sri Lankan woman who had failed their exams and planned to commit suicide together,” she said. The satirical piece highlighted the flaws in the education system. Krishnamurthy wrote on a variety of subjects. Apart from his short stories, he wrote 10 television dramas, five novels and three historical romances. He was also a journalist and wrote many editorial and political pieces, along with over a hundred film and music reviews during his lifetime. Quoting English poet William Wordsworth, Ravi said, “Poetry is a spontaneous expression of emotions in tranquillity.
Being a journalist, Kalki was anything but tranquil. Yet, his poems conveyed a deep sense of peace.” Krishnamurthy established a Tamil magazine called Kalki in 1941. Years later, Ravi joined as an assistant. Following her grandfather’s footsteps, she later retired as the MD of the magazine. An author herself, Ravi has written many political opinion pieces and short stories, including the Trinity Syama Sastri, Muthuswamy Dikshitar and Tyagaraja. “My grandfather wrote Tamil songs like Poonguyil in popular Hindi tunes. The song Alai Oyaado was inspired by a question asked by a child at a tea shop, about the rise and fall of waves. Kalki, who was with DK Pattammal’s brother, Nagarajan at the time, wrote a song based off a Hindi tune playing on the radio at the shop. Even though he lived for only 55 years, he wrote what someone would have written in a 100 years,” she said.