What started as a small initiative has now become a famous and well patronised event in Salem city.
The literary meetings organised by the Readers Circle of the Paalam the Book Meet Book Stall in the city have become a weekly event on Sundays for the past three years, much to the delight of all sections of society. The 150 th weekly meeting of the Readers’ Circle was held last week.
It started with a group of regular visitors to the book stall launching the programme of meeting once a week under the shade of the punnai tree in the backyard of the book stall. They launched the Readers’ Circle for this purpose and the maiden meeting was held on September 8, 2013, when noted film critic and writer Theodore Baskaran addressed the book buffs.
Soon the event caught up not only with the readers, but also with the local people. The circle utilised the opportunity to introduce new books, conduct book review sessions, interaction sessions with noted authors, and short story telling sessions. The meetings started proving major attraction. Scholars, authors, poets, educationists such as Ajayan Bala; Aathavan Deekshanya; Imayam; Erode Jeevanantham, Oodai Duraiarasan; Sukirtharani Subbarao; S. Tamil Selvan, T. V. Venkateswaran; S. K. Jayakaran and G. Ramakrishnan participated in the meetings and interacted with the readers.
Novels, fictions, collection of poems, books on politics, scientific developments, history and economics were reviewed.
Noted writer Nagore Rumi, Head of the Department of English of Mazharul Uloom College, Ambur, Vellore district, who has authored more than 45 books on different topics in Tamil and English, including many motivational books, participated in an interactive session in the 149 th weekly meeting recently. Nagore Rumi had translated Homer’s “Illiad” and Freud’s “interpretation of Dreams” into Tamil.
The 150 th meeting was addressed by ‘Ayesha’ R. Natarajan, educationist-cum-author and Bala Sahitya Akademi awardee. Mr. Natarajan, who had authored 72 books of which 42 are based on children, commended the Readers Circle for organising such literary meetings.
P. Sahasranamam, proprietor of Paalam the Book Meet, said it was the encouraging crowd which turned up for the initial meetings, which motivated him to make it a weekly affair. The interaction sessions were so successful, that they were continued for two to three hours at a stretch, Mr. Sahasranamam added.
“We try to attract more students to these meetings. We pass on the message that students should become good readers first to become good leaders,” he said.
