Kalki remembered
Rich tributes were paid to Kalki Krishnamurthy on the occasion of his birth anniversary at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mylapore on September 9. The function was organised by the Kalki Krishnamurthy Memorial Trust.
The auditorium was packed to capacity, and the atmosphere one of nostalgia. It was yet another occasion to recall the all-round contribution made by Kalki not just as an editor of a magazine that reflected the best of Tamil literature but also to the fields of arts and culture, the cause of Tamil, nationalism and to the cause of freedom and empowerment of the people by the process of informing and educating them on various socio-economic and national issues.
The chief guest was Vyjyantimala Bali, noted danseuse and former MP. She recalled the services of Kalki as an editor and in particular the ease and felicity with which he could convey the essentials of performances in the field of fine arts through his enlightening reviews.
She presented the Kalki awards to young and talented performers in the Carnatic music field -- vocalist Gayatri Venkataraghavan and ghatam artiste S
Karthick.
The programme began with a welcome address by Kalki's son, Rajendran. Trustees of the Kalki Krishnamurthy Memorial Trust, Lakshmi Natarajan and Anandi Ramachandran read out the citations. The awardees replied suitably to the felicitation.
Kalki editor Sita Ravi proposed a vote of thanks. She said the Trust would continue its efforts to encourage young artistes and provide educational assistance to poor students. In the current year, Rs 2.11 lakh was disbursed to needy students.
The speeches were followed by a Carnatic music concert by Gayatri Venkataraghavan, accompanied by S Varadarajan (violin), Manoj Siva (mridangam) and S Karthick
(ghatam).
The Trust has so far presented Kalki awards to Vijay Siva, Rajkumar Bharati, Lalgudi G J R Krishnan, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi, Sanjay Subramanian, R K Sriramkumar, Jayanthi, Mala Chandrasekhar, Arun Prakash, T M Krishna, Bombay Jayasree and B S Purushotham.
