Chennai: It was an evening of letters at a famous book store in Adyar recently. There were four segments to the event that was led by poet / author Sundar Rajan.
The India Poetry Circle (IPC), a WhatsApp group of 75 poets, of which he is an active member, arranged for a poetry contest for schoolchildren.
Twenty two students from classes 8 to 12 participated and were all given participation certificates. The winners were given prizes.
IPC had also come out with a collection of 15 poems, titled Confluence 2, that was penned by 36 poets belonging to the group. The chief guest was K Sri Lata, a professor from IIT Madras, and the guest of honour, actor and copywriter N Ramanathan.
The third event of the evening was the launch of books of 10 writers – consisting of poetry, shor
t stories and others.
One of the 10 books released was a collection of eight short stories, titled A Womens Corner by Dr Usha Sridhar.
Journalist / writer N Meera Raghavendra Rao, who received the first copy of the book, said the author brought alive the different characters in their true colours and it is possible only for a woman to understand the mind of another woman.
The Tamil and Malayalam translation of Sundar Rajan’s book, Eternal Art, titled Nithya Kalai and Anaswara Kala respectively, was also released. (Sundar Rajan is an auditor by profession.)
An audio of Nithya Kalai, titled Sundara Kadhaigal, covering all 14 stories, was also launched through Kalpakkam Community Radio Station (KCRS) 90.8 MHz.
For KCRS this is a CSR activity. They identify local talent who aspire to be radio jockeys. After voice-testing, the locals are trained by KCRS and given the opportunity to read out the stories in Tamil. This will be broadcast at 1 pm every Saturday.