Article on Lakshmanan's book release function

Lakshmanan who studied with us for 5 years died of haemophelia on Jan 7, 1997. His friends were shocked by the sudden death of this nice human being, who showed so much of love to every one he met.

His friends assembled few weeks after his death and resolved to do 2 things: First to publish the poems of Lakshmanan in a book form, which was his unfulfilled desire. The other to have his book release function along with a poem competition to be conducted across Tamil Nadu. We also decided to fund these 2 activities by way of collecting money from his friends and wellwishers.

In Chennai friends like Amudhan, Bala, Prem, Nithi, Prabhu and many others collected money. In Trichy this was done by Raj, Sathish and others while in Tanjore friends like Suresh and Sheela collected money.

Simultaneously we started collecting Lakshmanan's poems. Most of the poems were written in piece of papers, on the backside of bus tickets, etc. After collecting all the available poems, we compiled cleaner version of all the poems and circulated it to 10 people who have good taste in Tamil literature. They selected poems which they liked. With these information, I met Mr. Balusamy alias Bharathi Puthiran who was the Professor in Madras Christian College. He was known to us through Senthil Kumar who worked as reporter in "Vikatan" with Lakshmanan. Bharathi Puthiran conducted a "Kavi Arangam" every week On Friday evening in Madras Christian College. Lakshmanan and myself have participated in this on few occasions. Lakshmanan had very high regards for Bharathi Puthiran.

Those days, after office hours, I will go daily to Bharathi Puthiran's house. Bharathi Puthiran spent about 3 to 4 hours daily for 3 continuos weeks on these poems, reading it again and again, re-writing, editing, etc. I had hesitation in editing the poems of a deceased poet, but consoled myself saying that Lakshmanan had such a high regard for Bharathi Puthiran and would have accepted this had he been alive.

Everyday Bharathi Puthiran will buy some Non vegetarian for dinner since I was a guest. I was embarassed so much that the task of compiling Lakshmanan's poems itself was a big help and why was he stressing his family also for me. Without hearing to my murmurings on this, Bharathi Puthiran will take me in his bicycle every day night around 10.30 to drop at Tambaram Railway station. I used to return home with a very tender feeling thinking that people like Bharathi Puthiran also live in this world.

Lakshmanan had written a poem about his guilty feeling on returning late to home every day. Bharathi Puthiran named this poem as "Veedu thirumbal" and also gave the same title to the book. I think "Veedu thirumbal" in Tamil also refers to a life after death; in a way it was an apt title. We, friends were doing a thing which made Lakshmanan to live through his writing after his death.

Apart from Bharathi Puthiran, there were many others who helped for this cause. Prem printed the book in his press and took lot of pain in proof reading, cover sheet, etc. We got exceptional review for the book from Writer Sujatha and Poet Kalyanji. We got the cover sheet drawing by Painter Athimoolam and Lakshmanan' face drawing from Painter Visvam. All these four were really stalwarts in their fields and we were so fortunate to get their contribution for the book. (Of these four, Sujatha & Athimoolam passed away recently).

Mr. Kavitha Barathi who was the Assistant Director of Bharathi Raja then, selected the best three poems in the Poem competition conducted by us across Tamil Nadu.
All the literary people that we associated for this cause were so simple and willing to help immediately; in fact none of them collected any money from us. Even when we asked, they refused saying that they don’t want to be paid for this noble cause.

The function was held 6 months after Lakshmanan's demise at a hall near Madras High Court. The hall was filled with the friends of Lakshmanan who had come from all over Tamil Nadu. Lakshmanan's parents and relatives had also come.

The first copy of the book was released by Writer Prabanjan and was received by Advocate Arulmozhi. Lakshmanan's friends spoke recollecting the qualities of him and many incidents involving him. Prabanjan, Bharathi Puthiran, Viswam, Advocate Senthil Nathan ,Arulmozhi and many others spoke in an emotional manner.

Many copies of the books were sold even before the function was completed. Writer Sujatha had written about this function and quoted some of Lakshmanan's poem in the Tamil book "Kungumam". Vikatan book also published a long poem of him for 2 pages and mentioned about our effort in an article. Even today there are people whom I meet recollect poems from this book.

1988-93 Trichy law college batch has done many useful things in life, but this book release function should be one of the best.

I feel anyone who has a flair for writing shall publish a book in his lifetime. This is one of the way to live even after death.

We still conduct an oratorical competition and a singing competition every year in the month of June/ July on the eve of Lakshmanan's birthday in a Blind school in Adyar.

Another June month has come and preparations are on for another function. Lakshmanan still live after death through our actions………………...