CHENNAI: “Throw a stone in Kovilpatti and it may land on the head of a writer,” goes a popular saying. The writer who set this culture in motion Ki Rajanarayanan, popularly known as Ki Ra, died in Puducherry on Monday night. The Sahitya Akademi awardee was 98.
While modern Tamil literature has taken up various shapes and forms post independence, Ki Ra’s entry into the literary world marked the germination of several writers from Karisal Seemai – land of black soil -- sprawling between Madurai, Tirunelveli and Rameswaram. He did pioneering work in bringing Karisal literature to mainstream.
Speak to any Karisal writer and they fondly call him Naina, a Telugu-Tamil word used to address father, or as Bheeshmar, a paternal and wise figure character in Mahabharatham. Some writers mentored by Ki Ra, including, Poomani, Melanmai Ponnusamy and Cho Dharman, went on to win the Sahitya Akademi award themselves. Popular Tamil writer Konangi said that over two dozen writers were brought handheld into the Karisal Seemai’s literary landscape by Ki Ra.
“His home was my only library for a very long time,” says Cho Dharman, speaking to Express. He said that every time his contemporaries or he visited Ki Ra, they would be sent back with a handful of books. “We were a group of 15-20 educated but unemployed youngsters who had no mentors to tell us what to do next,” said Dharman. Whenever, one of them published anything, a letter from Ki Ra would follow, he said, adding that even when they don’t write they would get a letter saying, “I haven’t read any of your work in a while. ‘Ezhuthungo Ezhuthungo’ (please write, please write).”
Marieswaran or ‘Maries’, a popular book layout artist who was a dear friend of the deceased writer said that Ki Ra, in addition to being a literary guide to many, was a man of strong morals. “One day we witnessed an accident on the road and the man at fault blamed the victim. Ki Ra intervened and called his bluff,” he said. He was always getting youngsters on board literary projects, Maries added. “One day after college, when I went to see Ki Ra, he said that he was collecting words; words which were ‘vattaravazhaku (dialectical style) in Karisal Tamil. He wanted us to help him index these words to publish a Karisal Dictionary -- Karisal Kaatu Sollagarathi,” he said.
Ki Ra’s first novel ‘Gopallagramam’ is still revered as a great novel even though it was not acknowledged by critics at first. TS Saravanan, deputy director (translation), TN Textbook And Educational Services Corporation, said that in 1982, Ki Ra published Dialectical Dictionary, making it one of the first academic works to be published in this branch of literature.
One of Ki Ra’s last works to be published was “Along with the Sun”, English translation of an anthology of short stories, hand-picked and edited by Ki Ra. It was published by the Corporation and HarperCollins. Mini Krishnan, the coordinating editor of the book said when Ki Ra received the book, he had said, “They are all my friends. Like my children.” Mini added, “He may not have won all the awards he deserved, but he truly lived Along with the Sun.”