From father to thalaivar: Kanimozhi
BY the time I was born, he had settled in politics. I had a more of a father-daughter relationship with him, since he had time for me. As I grew up, we developed a relationship based on our own wavelengths and such.
When I was in school, once in a while he used to ask me how much I had scored in exams. He was more concerned about what I was reading than how much I had scored. He used to keep inquiring as to what I was reading. If he had not heard of the writer or the book that I was reading, he would ask about that person; and if he thought that there was a particular writer that I had to be introduced to, he used to tell me. Sometimes, when I suggested books for him to read, he would come back after reading and share his thoughts about the book.
Dad knew that I wrote poems and that I did not publish them. I did not show him what I wrote. Once I had participated in an inter-college essay writing contest when I was in Ethiraj College. I got the first prize. Finally it was he who turned up to give away the prize. It was funny. Both of us started laughing on stage. I knew that he was coming but did not inform him that I had won the prize. He did not know either, until my name was announced.
He insisted that I write more. He used to get upset when he read a work of mine published somewhere without him reading it first. He wanted to be the first one to read it. He kept complaining that I was not sharing the poems with him but when my first book, Karuvarai Vasanai, was published, he kept inquiring about the progress of the book. He was the one who proofread it. After quite a few of us had literally pored through it, he still found mistakes. I do not remember how many, exactly, but he did find a few. It was a kind of standing joke: everybody would have gone through an article or an invite. We would think it was perfect. Once it went to him, he would spot a mistake that very second. All of us were resigned to it.
One more thing. Wherever I went, he kept track. He got tense if I took a night flight. Sometimes he would wait up until very late into the night to hear from me. Once he waited till 2 a.m. I had gone for a public
action and said: “Just two people are opposing Hindi— Ramasami Naicker [Periyar] and Pasumalai Bharathiyar [Navalar Somasundara Bharathi].” Pat came a sharp reply from A.T. Panneerselvam: “Yes, two are opposing Hindi. But you are the only one who is trying to bring Hindi. Hence, we can boldly say that the majority is opposed to your idea.” This reply became popular folklore and a new rallying point.
February 27, 1938. The first State-level anti-hindi conference was organised in Kancheepuram. Though Periyar, Navalar Bharathiyar and other major leaders
KANIMOZHI
meeting and was driving back home. After I entered politics, obviously, I was addressing meetings in the evenings in the districts. He would wait for me to reach home, regardless of where he was. His duty PSO used to keep calling me every few minutes to convey to him how far I was from home.
After becoming a member of the Rajya Sabha, I used to stay back in Chennai to complete all pending work in one shot, and take the flight back to Delhi as late as possible. He would keep asking me to take earlier flights, because he did not want me to take late-night flights. Once, after a particularly late flight to Delhi, he was on the phone soon after I landed and asked me why I was doing this. At one point, I, too, fought with him asking why he was doing this to me. This past year and a half has been different. Now I look back and think: who is going to call you with that kind of concern for you.
Once I had gone to Kodaikanal for a college excursion. We started late, and some in the group fell sick because of the winding roads and all, and it was very late by the time we reached. I got down and called him from a telephone booth. By the time we reached, there were three vehicles coming in search of us. When I reached Madurai and went to Hotel Pandiyan, there were people out in the lobby waiting for all of us to turn up.
took part in this conference, it has entered the portals of Tamil Nadu’s political history for a different reason. It was at this conference that Annadurai delivered his first major political oration. It was like instant stardom, as Annadurai became a household name overnight. His speech also gave a new political tool to the Dravidian Movement—creating a battery of political orators with a clear-cut mandate of mobilising people for their social, linguistic and political rights.
The State-wide churning did have its rumblings in Tiruvarur. Karunanidhi started organising school