“En Gurunathar Bharathiar”

Reading is addictive

The busy schedule and everyday routine makes my must read books list lengthy day by day. At leisure when time permits I’m puzzled not knowing which one of  these books would be top priority to read. One fine day a post by Narayanan Swaminathan made my job easier by helping me choose the book I should read first. The post lead me to the hunt to find that particular book. I just gave a buzz to my father and he said he would give it to me. He gave it to me but with a condition to read it at a stretch.

And the book is: “En Gurunathar Bharathiar”

The book took me to a different planet. It covers a sishya’s take on his Guru, covering various episodes and incidents from the life of Mahakavi, particularly during his stay at Pondichery. Bharathi’s love and affection, his admiration for novelty, the detailed information on the birth of various songs. The very important episode is that, the one on the upanayanam ceremony of Sri Kanakalingam, the author by Bharathi himself. Bharathi’s interaction with youngsters and how he revered the local deities. The author mentions that Pondichery is “ Bharathiaral  padal petra sthalam”, its like how vaishnavaites and saivaites call padal petra sthalam(The place worshiped / sung by Bharathi). The very famous Desa Muthu mari was for the local deity.

Shri Ra. Kanakalingam has extensively covered his experience with Bharathi as a sishya, a follower, a bakth from Pondichery till Bharathi’s death. I was completely awestruck when I read the book. I felt very much attached while holding this book. Now I turned out to see the publishers and year of publishing. This book was published by Nava Bharathi Prasuralayam, Tirunelveli and the surprise is my grandfather Sri TS Kuzhaikathan was with Nava Bharathi and worked to bring out this publication.