CHENNAI: Civil servants Ilangovan, DGM, Southern Railways, and his partner Geeta, media and communications officer, Press Information Bureau in Chennai, believe that government service is not just an eight-hour job. A fascination for new initiatives has driven this bureaucrat couple to direct gritty documentaries, publish award-winning news articles and support NGOs.
Ilangovan, born to a homeopathy doctor couple in Mamsapuram village in southern Tamil Nadu, was an outstanding student journalist. His many investigative stories on female infanticide earned him ‘outstanding student journalist award’ in 1987 from Junior Vikatan. “My parents were Periyarists and it was also inculcated into me. I wanted to bring all the social problems to the fore,” says Ilangovan. Despite topping his class in BSc Zoology from Thyagaraja College Madurai, his success as a student journalist encouraged him to join the same magazine (Junior Vikatan) as a full-time reporter.
After a brief stint as a reporter, Ilangovan joined MA Journalism in PSG College, Coimbatore, in 1988. After completing MPhil in journalism from Madurai Kamaraj University, Ilangovan became the editor of Kochi Spices Board’s in-house journal, Spice India in 1992. He shifted to PSG College as a lecturer before clearing the UPSC exam in 1995. “I got the Indian Information Service but could not join it,” he explains. Again in 1999, he sat for the exam and got the Indian Railway Accounts Service.
Geeta, who hails from Tiruppur, graduated in nutrition science from PSG College, Coimbatore. It was here she met Ilangovan. “We met in Chinthanai Mandram (Thinkers’ Forum) and became friends. After five years, we decided to live together,” she smiles. “Despite strong resistance from my family, I joined MA journalism in Madurai Kamaraj University. Journalism was not a great profession then,” she observes.
Geeta applied for the Indian Information Service exam conducted by the UPSC for journalism postgraduates. “In 1998, I got through the exam with an all India ranking of No 2,” she says. The couple believes that so many useful deeds can be done as civil servants.
Geeta’s article on women panchayat leaders published in Aval Vikatan, a Tamil magazine won the Sarojini Naidu Award and `2 lakh cash prize for best reporting of women in panchayati raj (from Hunger Project-India) in 2005.
The couple has directed three award-winning documentaries. Little Space (2007) on mentally-ill children was screened at the International Children Festival in Hyderabad and a special award from SCARF, Chennai. Aaraaya Theerppu (2008) (Judgement without Trial) was on the Kal ottar community (a caste) in Madurai who are often and arbitrarily accused of stealing. Agrinaigal (2010) is based on transgenders’ struggle to find dignified jobs.
The couple supports Sudar, a Madurai-based NGO that ensures education for girls who come out of government orphanages. Till now, more than 38 girls have joined colleges.
Ilangovan also founded Mamsainet, an Internet café with two computers in his native village. Geeta started Koodu, a women readers’ forum in Madurai in 2006. “It’s a platform for women to discuss issues like feminism,” says Geetha. The forum’s activities include Ezhuthuppattarai (Writers’ Workshop) that trains thinkers to effectively write down their thoughts. She also hosts ‘World this Week’ in Doordarshan.
— dennis@expressbuzz.com