Ra.Ki. Rangarajan, a journalist, novelist, short story writer, essayist, translator and writer of self-improvement books, known for coming out with timely publications to suit market conditions, died here on Saturday. He was 85.
Born in the temple town of Kumbakonam to Sanskrit scholar R.V. Krishnamacharya, Rangarajan started writing at the age of 16. He first joined Sakthi , a literary magazine run by V. Govindan. His write-ups on freedom fighters Mangal Pandey, Rani of Jhansi and Nana Sahib have been included in the compilation of writings from the now-defunct magazine.
Later, he worked for Kalachakkaram . His association with the magazine Kumudam began in 1950 and initially, he worked for Jinkili , a child magazine run by the group.
His name became synonymous with Kumudam and the middle letter of A-ra-su Pathilgal, a popular question-answer section jointly administered by three writers, was a reference to him. He was later appointed deputy editor of Kumudam .
V. Srinivasan of Alliance Publishers narrated an incident that bore testimony to Rangarajan’s instinct for coming out with books at the opportune moment.
“Late Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai was reading TheMaster Christian by Marie Corelli when he was at the Cancer Institute, Adyar. He requested doctors to let him finish the book before he was taken into the operation theatre. When it became public knowledge, Rangarajan lost no time in translating the novel and serialising it in Kumudam .”
Similarly, when pugilist Muhammed Ali was in the news, he came up with Jeyithukondey Iruppen, based on Ali’s autobiography, which was lapped up by a large number of the boxer’s fans.
“Rangarajan used many pen names. ‘Mohini’ was the name he used while writing historical novels, Sundara Bhagavathar for comic writings, Surya, Krishakumar, Hamsa, Malathi and Avittam for other genres. But each genre would have a style of its own and you could never guess that all these works were by the same person,” said senior journalist R. Sivakumar.
A few literary works captured in detail the old Madras as his serial novel Adimaiyin Kadhal. It is a favourite of actor Kamal Haasan’s, who wrote the foreword for it. “I was filled with wonder that my Madras once looked like this,” wrote Kamal Haasan.
“Whenever I go for a walk near Santhome, the image of a Christian Missionary walking on the streets with his pet chameleon on his shoulder continues to haunt me,” recalled the actor in the foreword, while acknowledging the role played by Rangarajan in shaping the film Mahanadi.
“He wanted to see Adimaiyin Kaadhal in book form. Unfortunately, he died before it,” said Srinivasan. Some of his stories were made into films, a notable one being Sumai Thaangi.
He is survived by two sons and three daughters.
