S.Sivapathasundaram
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Thamizhosai’s Siva
S.Sivapathasundaram was so full of interaction and knowledge exchanges when he was with his students in and out of class!.
Siva was the right man to take radio broadcasting at the Bhavan. After doing his Law degree in Colombo and editing Eezha Kesari, a Tamil journal with a scholarly touch, he joined Radio Ceylon’s Tamil Service. In 1947, the BBC was seeking his services to strengthen its Tamil programming. In London, he started Thamizhosai, which soon became BBC’s hit Tamil programme. After three years in London, he returned to Ceylon where he became a much sought after freelance writer and radio programmer. But by the mid-1950s, the Tamil problem was hotting up in the Island and Sivapathsundaram decided to move to India with his wife and three children. Settling in Madurai, he become an Indian citizen and began to concentrate on his writing and taking a greater interest in Tamil studies. But there was always the call of radio. He was particularly good at live commentary and answered AIR’s call for this many a time, including agreeing to do the commentaries during the final journeys of Annadurai and Kamaraj.
He moved to Madras around 1980 but by then he was well-known in Tamil literary circles for work on different levels. His first book was a travelogue that came out in 1947, Manickkavasagar Adichuvattil (‘In the footsteps of Manikkavasagar’). Then came a book in Tamil on The Art of Broadcasting; Rajaji in his Foreword to it suggested that it would have been better named Radio Vadiyar. In 1960, he was following in the footsteps of Buddha and in 1978, in those of Sekkizhar in two other well-received travelogues. But from the mid-1970s his greater focus was working with ‘Chitti’ Sundarajan on two books that are classic surveys of Tamil writing. These magnum opuses looked at 100 years of the Tamil novel (1977) and the history and development of the Tamil short story (1989). Today, they are the foundations for any research in either field.
With two of his children settled in London, he decided to spend his last years with them and moved from Madras. He had by then lost in tragic circumstances in Madras a third child, Prasannavardani, a favourite pupil of Rukmini Devi. In October 1975, she had figured as the Bharatanatyam dancer in the Postal Department’s stamp series on traditional Indian dances. After her death, Sivapadhasundaram slowed down and in his last ten years, when he lived in London, he spent more time in reading than writing.
