KiRa books released function

Times of India,today-14/1/2017; 

KiRa books released function 

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Telling tales of a drought-hit land

Abdullah Nurullah

Chennai:

Socrates never believed in the written word. The Greek philosopher held that the spoken word was alive and true but the written word was as good as dead. Sahitya Akademi winner and folklorist Ki Rajanarayanan went against the Socrates' `dictum', succesfully capturing life in the scorched, drought-stricken land around Kovilpatti, or `karisal kaadu'.

Five books penned by the 94-year-old writer, popular among fans as Ki Ra, were released at a function at the Chennai Book Fair on Friday .Addressing Ki Ra fans at the launch, poet Tamilachi Thangapandian said Ki Ra gave life to the written word. “He used literature as a tool to immortalise the life and times of the karisal kaadu and took it to future generations.“ She compared his works `Gopalla Gramam' and `Gopallapurathu Makkal' to `The Good Earth' (1931), the Noble prizewinning book by American writer Pearl S Buck.

K S Radhakrishnan, DMK member and advocate, who presided over the launch, and others invoked the long-pending demand for the `Jnanpith Award' to be given to the nonagenarian author. Radhakrishnan said, “We had high expectations that Ki Ra would be bestowed the honour this year. It has been 12 years since a Tamil writer won the award. Ki Ra barely went to school, but rose through hard work and learned literature on his own.“ Tamil writers Jayakanthan and P V Akilan are previous recipients of the award.

Senior Communist Party of India leader R Nallakannu recalled that Ki Ra's short story `Kadavu' (door) led to a political movement in the 1960s.“Ki Ra based the story on one of our struggles. After a farmer came under fire from revenue officials for deferring payments, we protested. The famer's house door was also seized. It was returned.“ The 92-year old leader said CPI candidate S Alagarsamy went on to contest and win five elections between 1967 and 1991based on the issue. Ki Ra retired as professor of folklore at Pondicherry central university in 2002 after serving for 12 years.