How often we offer temptations to little children to get them to do things we want them to do, which otherwise they would not. About 50-60 years ago, young T E Raghavan's father took him for a ride in the trams of those days, which he thoroughly enjoyed. He did not know that at the end of it, he was to be enrolled in a Sanskrit school. Not that it put him out. He went at it with a will and went on to qualify himself as a "Siromani" and "Vidhwan" in Sanskrit from the Madras University. Then, he decided to take up pedagogy and became a Praveen Pracharak from the Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha. This gained him entry into the renowned Hindu Higher Secondary School, from where he went on to Mangichand Bhandari Higher Secondary School, retiring years later as Assistant Head Master.

Raghavan was always attracted towards Kabir Das's works. His couplets (Doha in Hindi) were a great source of inspiration and Raghavan thought he should try his hand at translations. His proficiency in Sanskrit, Tamil and Hindi were a big help. Naaladiyar, Bharathiyar's Kannan Pattu and the Thirukkural were rendered from Tamil into Hindi. What marked these translations was that they were in the form of couplets or "dohas". He has also translated some Sanskrit works into Hindi. Vedanta Desikar s "Daya Sathakam, Bhoo Sthuthi, Kodha Sthuthi, Niyasadasakam, Kamasikashtakam, Sristhuthi and Adi Shankara's Bhaja  Govindam have all been translated into Hindi. Apart from these, he translated about 700 slokas of the Bhagavad Gita, which won him praise from Swami Chinmayananda.

Raghavan has also come out with a Hindi Poetical Dictionary, which explains various aspects of Hindi grammar like antonyms, changes in word patterns, all in the form of couplets. This facility with couplets earned for him the title of "Doha Samrat" from the great Tamil scholar Suddhananda Bharathi. His pioneering book "Learn Hindi in 30 days" has provided the inspiration and pattern for all the present daybooks of this genre. For his services in popularising Hindi in Tamil Nadu, Raghavan has been honored by the State Bank of India and the Tamil Nadu Hindi Academy. And to think that it all started with a tram ride!