The Chinese language class of Prof Tan Yun Shan at Santiniketan. V.Isvarmurti (top right hand corner) was attending a 3 year diploma in Chinese language. Prof Tan Yun Shan was a contemporary of Generalassiamo Chiang Kei Shaik and Mao Tse Thung. Prof Tan established the Cheena Bhavan in the year 1921 and was a…
The political obligations of literature
Let me state at the very beginning that for me literature and arts are intrinsically tied up with politics. There is no literature existing in a vacuum. Literature occupies a public space that very few of the current crops of writers seem to acknowledge. More so with the new crop of the expatriate Indian writers…
Education? The competitive pressures, not silly principles!
Yes, that makes for elite education in Delhi! Our School Curriculum must be raised to international standards. Reading India’s English language papers, we mean at least some of the widely read ones by the elite, could be quite disheartening! Delhi society, the very core of the power wielders, seems very brutal and ruthless when it…
Ranganadananda: I made him to speak at Oxford
Swami Rangandananda, till now the president of the Ramakrishna Mission had passed away recently. Born in the Kerala village of Trikkur, near Thrissur in 1908,the swami had very impressive life, starting as a humble young boy to reach the top and emerge as a scholar, speaker and philosopher.Why I write about himhere is that I…
Rural India is still a holy cow!
Rural India is still a holy cow! There is no unemployment in the villages! Rural realities no one speaks out! We live in the village. We are engaged in farming. Is this enough to convey the truths about Indian villages as they are evolving today? It seems rural India is a holy cow! Yes, when…
Economists don’t promote economic growth!
Political, historical and technological factors. International scenario. These only help or hinder the economic progress of a nation. We need a more openly-debated economic policy too! Now, policy is drawn up by faceless bureaucrats and pro-establishment experts. There is no feedback from the grass roots. The minds of the people are not freed. They are…
Kavithaigal : Enadhu Ulakam, Enadhu Ulakiyal, Enadhu Unmaigal
(V. Isvarmurti (Vadamalai Media P.Ltd., Pichanur, Coimbatore 641 105. – 2004) Page 310 Rs. 200) Readers exposed to the political pulpit of Tamil Nadu in the last century might drop Kavithaigal into the Dravidian slot with electrical ease, once they open the volume and read the epigraph! Tamil : My Askesis Tamil is my god…
Meet K.K.S. Murthy : The celebrated antiquarian bookseller
Mr.K.K.S. Murthy who runs his merchandise from an obscure lane off the busy Brigade Road. I had bought so many books from Select,in fact, I now regularly buy from Murthy from Encyclopaedia Brittannica to Will Durant”s History of the Civilization volumes to any topics you can imagine. I buy books for their value besides my…