125th birthday of Tamil writer Kalki Krshnamurthy was celebrated by Kalki Krishnamurthy Memorial Trust at TN Rajatathnam auditorium, Adyar, Chennai.
V Kamakoti, Director, IIT, Madras who was the chief guest for the function gave away Kalki memorial award to Nadhswaram artists Desur Brothers viz., Vidwan Desur S Shanmugasundaram and Desur S Sethuraman and released the documentary film on writer Kalki produced by Kalki group.
Mr Kamakoti, in his address, touched upon the long association of his family with T Sadhasivam, M S Subbulakshmi and Kalki’s families. He recalled how eagerly he would read Paramacharya’s “Arul vakku” published regularly in Kalki magazine during his younger days. He paid rich tributes to Kalki saying that writer Kalki was ahead of his times and his writings spoke about gender balance, women education etc., which are very relevant even today. He also shared some of the initiatives of IIT, Madras to address such social issues and pointed out that democratising opportunities will go a long way in this regard.
Desur brothers who are the asthana vidwans of Kancheepuram Sri Kamakshi Temple in their acceptance speech expressed their thanks for the award and dedicated the same to their parents and gurus.
Managing trustee Seetha Ravi compered the programme and S Chandra mouli welcomed the gathering. Gawri Natarajan rendered a song penned by writer Kalki as the prayer song.