CHENNAI: Veteran lexicographer and Tamil publisher, S Ramakrishnan (75), founder of Cre-A Publications, which brought out works of many eminent Tamil writers and translated works of famous authors from various countries for around 50 years, passed away early on Tuesday morning at a government hospital due to COVID-19 complications.
Born in a Telugu Brahmin family in Chennai on June 18, 1945, Ramakrishnan was attracted towards Tamil literature at a very young age. In the 1970s, Ramakrishnan and his friends published a literary journal called Ka Sa Da Tha Pa Ra. This journal is still considered a pioneering effort in carrying quality literary works. It also dealt with painting, drama etc.
In 1974, Ramakrishnan founded Cre-A Publications. Till then, the publication of Tamil books with modern designs was very rare. Ramakrishnan was the first to make significant efforts to bring out Tamil books on par with foreign publications.
Ramakrishnan's magnum opus is Cre-A's Tharkala Thamizh Agarathi (Cre-A's Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil (Tamil-Tamil-English). The first edition of this dictionary was published in 1992. After sincere efforts, he published the revised edition of this dictionary in 2008. He edited the dictionary with a team of linguistics and literary scholars.
On Friday, at the Multi Super Speciality Hospital on the Omandurar Government Estate where he was undergoing treatment, Ramakrishnan released the completely revised third edition of this dictionary even while he was undergoing treatment for COVID-19. A scholar who closely worked with him for many years said, "This is the first time a modern language dictionary has been revised at frequent intervals in Southeast Asia."
Well-known writer SV Rajadurai, who had been associated with Ramakrishnan for more than four decades, shared his reminiscences about the multi-faceted personality.
"Ramakrishnan was a non-believer and he was an iconoclast and he never believed in casteism, religion or God. Apart from publishing four of my books, during the Corona period, we both worked on the Tamil translation of the book Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, authored by Yanis Varoufakis, an economist who has served as Greece's Finance Minister and got it published in July.
"Through Cre-A, he published the works of well-known Tamil writers N Muthusamy, Ashokamitran, Poomani, G Nagarajan, Imayam, Sundara Ramasamy, Dilip Kumar, Mouni, etc. He unearthed the talents of outstanding translators like V Sriram, Dakshinamurthy, Krishnamurthy, Madana Kalyani, Sivaraman and many more. But for him, Tamil readers would not have come to know about European writer Franz Kafka, French writer Albert Camus and so many others," Rajadurai remembered.
Ramakrishnan was an uncompromising editor. "He always gave more importance to quality than quantity. Every year, he used to publish only three books. He used to say - If I bring three gems (books) in a year, it would be more than enough. He did not simply accept any manuscript just because it came from a well-known author or a translator. In the dictionary project also, he involved many Tamil, Sanskrit and English scholars, linguists, philologists," Rajadurai recalled.
"The sincerity he has shown in whatever task he undertook was amazing. For example, once we were engaged in finding a Tamil equivalent for the word 'conditioning'. He used to differ with people or even quarrel with them until he arrived at the right meaning. Every day, he used to pester me over this and share whatever he found. That is the amount of seriousness he had in his chosen task," Rajadurai said.
He spoke of how "Ramakrishnan always wanted to do many things. He had been a constant learner. During the past three-four months, we have been toying with the idea of bringing out a Tamil e-Journal to carry good literary works. He said it should not be a sensational tabloid but should contain articles about genuine subjects by sincere authors."
Ramakrishnan was well-versed in English too, Rajadurai said, and was a passionate lover of Hindustani, Carnatic and Western Classical music. "I was one of the beneficiaries of his knowledge. He introduced me to Hindustani and Western Classical music in 1972."
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, DMK president MK Stalin, PMK founder S Ramadoss, DK president K Veeramani, CPI State secretary R Mutharasan, VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran and MNM founder Kamal Haasan were among those who condoled the passing away of Ramakrishnan.
Kamal Haasan tweeted, "Cre-A Ramakrishnan, who has published many books, including the contemporary Tamil Dictionary, is an inseparable part of Tamil publishing industry. He will be remembered eternally as long as Tamil language exists."
S Ramakrishnan was cremated at the Besant Nagar crematorium.