In 1995, during my visit to Houston, I went with Bala Thayalan by car to this temple. It's being built as a replica  of Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple.  Sthapathis from Tamil nadu were there working on the construction. I also met a priest from Andhra Pradesh there.

I can't forget this visit.

A.Muthulingam -

My favourite short story writer.  When I was a teenager, I read his 2nd prize

winning short story  "ANULA" in the "Elaththu Sirukathai Competition" organised by Kalki and since then I'm his great fan. "Acca" is one of the best short story collection in Tamil in my judgement. 

When I met him in Canada, I told  Mr.Muthulingam about my fancy for  his short stories and quoted what Sujatha has said about judging a good short story.

"Subamangala" Komal Swaminathan

I met Komal Swaminathan with Thevarajah (South Asian Books) and we all went together to see "Nomiyanu Minussu" at Savoy theatre and I functioned as a Sinhala- Tamil translator to Komal.  He was told by Thevarajah, about the incident happened to me and it was mentioned in the article about his SriLankan visit in "Subamangala". He has met Sivadasan in  Batticaloa and seen a portion of "Vaadai Katru" and requested from me a copy.

I promised to send one. But......

Bhanumathi

My favorite actress of all the time. Her voice.. something different.

In "Kalvanin Kathali"-  Sivaji meets her(his lover) in a jungle, where he's hiding  and asks her to sing.

She starts with humming and then a Bharathi's song..is that "Manathil Uruthi Vendum" ..?

Her lilting voice.. still in my ears..

T.N.Rajarathnam Pillai

Rajarathnam Pillai was hailed as Nagaswara Chakravarthi.. Rajarathnam Pillai was born on August 27th, 1898, in the village of Tirumarugal, in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu. Rajarathnam Pillai had glamourous titles like "Nagaswaram Everest" and "Nagaswaram Chakravarthi" bestowed on him.

        He started learning music from Natesa Pillai, a nagaswaram vidwan. After Natesa Pillai taught him everything he knew, he requested he learns from violin vidwan, Thirukodikaval Krishna Iyer. From there, he went to Ponnu Pillai, Konerirajapuram Vaidynatha Iyer, and to Manpoondia Pillai.   

His music was rich with creativity and he was always bursting with newer and newer ideas. Rajaratnam led a very adventurous life. Amongst other awards a significant one is the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. None was equal to him except himself.

        My father Subramaniam and Periappa "Ponillam" Ponniah went to South India, to arrange a Nathaswaram troupe for the festival season in Jaffna and met both T.N.Rajaratnam Pillai and his nephew "Kulikkarai"  Pitchaiappa Pillai, but for some reasons known to them, they preferred Pitchaiappa Pillai and brought his troupe to Jaffna..

They stayed in our village Karaveddi for months and performed in several temples in Jaffna and other districts. Later on T.N.R has heard about this and wrote a long letter with his grand photo as letter head,to my father, asking why they didn't invite him. As a small kid, it touched my heart and I kept that letter as a tresure for a long time but lost it eventually.

        Just to make peace with him my father arranged him (by now another person has brought T.N.R to Jaffna) to perform in our thiruvizha at Kilavithoddam Vinayagar temple, Karaveddi. So on the same stage T.N.R and his nephew Pitchaiappa Pillai performed together that day. This according to my father is a rare thing, which was not possible even in India as they don't perform together. Crowd turn out was massive.Cars were parked  at a strech for miles. Performance went ino early morning and fantastic even to the ears of a kid like me.