Eighty years of age, and still in the
company of the love of his life – Literature!!!
Well, that’s KC!
K. Chellapan! (Formerly Head,
Department of English, Bharathidasan University, Trichy)
And yes!!! Not everyday does a student get the
honour of being honoured by his own teacher, on his retirement day! And so what
a joyous moment it is, when a teacher’s teacher is there at the ripe old age of
80, to grace the function that honours his first PhD Ward Dr. N. Natarajan!
NN, as we all know him, is the Head,
Department of English, Pondicherry University. After forty meritorious years of
distinguished service, NN is putting in his papers this month.
And what a way to honour him!
Full credits to our beloved
friend and Professor Dr. T. Marx, Associate Professor of English, Pondicherry
University, who thought about such a wonderful idea, of hosting an International
Seminar to Dr. NN's honour!
Even when Dr. T. Marx gave his
introductory words, he had an immense pride that adorned his choked voice, when
he said that, ‘this is the first farewell seminar ever to be held in this
University, in honour of an eminent Professor! Dr. Natarajan was always a
teacher. He never accepted any administrative assignments nor was he into
administration as he was of the firm belief that his priorities were only to
his students, which was his ‘vocation’, he added!
The audience of more than five
hundred delegates, staff and students, was in rapt attention throughout the
morning session which saw Dr. K C enthrall the audience with his sonorous voice
with excerpts from the lengths and breadths and depths and heights of
literature!
Excerpts from Dr. KC’s pearls
Dr. KC, who has the unique claim to fame
for introducing Canadian Studies in South India, said that, Dr. NN was his
first PhD ward, and Dr. S. Armstrong was his last PhD ward in an astounding
list of 56 wards he has guided thus far.
“The fact that the Chief Minister of
Puducherry Dr. N. Rangasamy agreed to come for this programme, and has also agreed to
sponsor the lunch for the two days of the programme in honour of Natarajan
itself speaks highly of the eminence of NN,” he quipped.
"I used to say that, the Cauvery is
classical in Tiruchirappalli but Musical in Tiruvaiyaaru,
But now I say that, the waves are
aggressive and argumentative in Chennai
But creative and meditative in
Pondy!"
"Dr. NN is one of the most creative
and argumentative minds I’ve come across in my long career", he added.
"I remember Natarajan coming to me,
decades back, asking for a seat in the MPhil programme! After speaking to him
for ONE minute, I told him to do his PhD rightaway! And his was one of the best
PhDs ever!"
“I’m happy that a good student of
mine is a great teacher of yours!” in the same breadth, I am equally proud to
say, that Dr. S. Armstrong, my last PhD ward was one of my best students ever!”
Talking about the theme of the
Seminar titled, “Multicultural India: Inclusiveness and New Humanities, he said
that, Many cultures don’t accept other cultures out of fear – power’s fear of
powerlessness, civilisation’s fear of nature, men’s fear of women, etc."
"Multiculturalism in the West is
structural pluralism, while in India it is organic pluralism."
"In the ocean of humanity, some celebrate
the regional, while some others celebrate the national. But in a real
multicultural society, the regional and the national must coexist."
Quoting from the mighty lines of the
famed Tamil poet Subramania Bharathi (which I love lottts and lottts) he said,
சிந்து
நதியின்
மிசை
நிலவினிலே
கேரள
நாட்டிளம்
பெண்களுடனே
சுந்தர
தெலுங்கினில்
பாட்டிசைத்து
தோணிகளோட்டி
விளையாடி
வருவோம்
!!!
கங்கை
நதிப்
புரட்டு
கோதுமைப்
பண்டம்
காவிரி
வெற்றிலைக்கு
மாறு
கொள்வோம்
சிங்க
மராட்டியர்தம்
கவிதை
கொண்டு
சேரத்து
தந்தங்கள்
பரிசளிப்போம்
!!!
"Some of the greatest writings of
today do not come from the centre but from the margins. The New Humanities must
include these voices. I’ve never read a more moving novel than Beatrice
Culleton Mosionier’s In Search of April
Raintree. Even Bama’s Karukku
which chronicles the agonies and the sorrows, the joys and the frustrations of
the Dalit women in Tamil Nadu, is a masterpiece of sorts", he added.
"Rewritings must find a place in the
New Humanities. As such, it is not only constitutional protection alone, but
more than that, recognition, dignity and equality of humanity are more
important!", he signed off.
Sigma Ankrava, Professor, Faculty of
Humanities, Department of English Literature and Culture, Lativia, gave an
absorbing talk on the New Humanities in the Current scenario. She said that the
New Humanities should not revolve around Humanities alone. It should also
embrace the social sciences and the sciences too.
"I Come from Lativia, a place where
the Christian missionaries arrives only after the 16th century. That’s why we
have preserved much of our civilization and culture. Well, in a multicultural
fabric today, where every day you have thousands of refugees coming to Europe
from Syria, Africa etc. where they’re fighting the Islamic State, they come
from traditions very different from that of the Europeans, where egalitarianism
is unacceptable in principle. As such, there is an ever-present need to embrace
diversity", she added.
Dr. Bhaskaran, Professor, Gandhigram
University, gave the next plenary talk on Multiculturalism in the Indian Novel
in English.
Mr. Rufus, MCC gave the next plenary
talk of the morning session. [ha ha yes, this blogger ;-) ] He spoke on the
topic “Derridean Inclusiveness as Strategy: Envisioning A Poststructuralist
Stratagem for the New Humanities.”
The afternoon session had three
paper reading sessions. Two books and a journal were released on the occasion.
The cultural evening that followed
was surely one of the best we had ever witnessed in a longgg time. Two and a half hours of
non-stop folk dance, folk fusion, and two classical dance performances, that
had the 500 plus crowd amongst the audience in splits. The ecstasy was so much
that, around fifty of his students had a merry-go-round the huge auditorium,
and escorted the hero of the day Dr. Natarajan to the stage and danced along
with him for good ten minutes.
Thappattam and Periyamelam were
performed to much applause from the audience. Jayprakash, did a bharatanatyam
performance, and a girl from I MA did a fusion dance. The entire evening was sponsored by another affectionate colleague of NN, Dr. Clement Lourdes!
 |
| Dr. Natarajan on a song... |
When this blogger spoke with Dr. Clement Lourdes during lunch time, he came to know the multifaceted personality that is Dr. CL! Dr. Clement is a wonderful painter and his paintings adorn the houses of great stars in South India, from P. Susheela to Kamalhaasan. This blogger was also invited the same evening, by Dr. Clement to his house to see his wonderful display of mesmerising paintings! And that visit will form the subject matter of my next post ;-)
In short, the culturals was the
icing in the cake for the day’s proceedings.
To be contd…
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