What do you ask a writer of 72 books? Who has also worked in radio and television, and before that, taught English Literature and participated in Tamil debating forums?
The answer: you just wait for the ebullient Professor K Natarajan to narrate his story, complete with anecdotes from his various careers that elide and bounce off in all directions.
“Writing was my passion even when I was in 6th standard,” says Mr Natarajan, who recently celebrated his 70th birthday. “I started off writing poems in Tamil. It was my teachers in Kalyanasundaram Higher Secondary School, Thanjavur, who inspired me to write in English and Tamil.”
Besides this, he owes his special interest in English and the literary works of William Shakespeare to his father, S Krishnamoorthy Iyer, who was appointed as the ‘National Professor of English’ by President Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in 1969.
Mr Iyer worked as Reader and then Professor of English in Annamalai University from 1923-1947. His later career involved stints in Kerala University in the 1960s.
With great pride and reverence, Mr Natarajan opens the little velvet-lined box to show his father’s gold medal in MA English, awarded in 1920.
“My father had moved with Englishmen, but he used to wear the Mettur dhoti and coat,” recalls Mr Natarajan. “However, he never used to discuss his work with us. On the 10th day after his death, when we opened his big trunk, I found that the great writers that we had been studying for our Honours, had been corresponding with him. His suggested emendations in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Pandora’s Tale were accepted by The Chaucer Society,” he adds.
Literature lover
Despite this, Mr Natarajan had to “fight and fast for a month” to get his father’s permission to follow in his footsteps. “My father wanted to see his three sons as engineers, because he had suffered a lot of uncertainty in his own teaching career.
My elder and younger brothers fulfilled that dream. But though I did my BSc Chemistry, I was determined to switch over to Literature,” says Mr Natarajan.
Once he got the paternal green signal, he did his Masters and MPhil from St Joseph’s College, Tiruchi, and then took his father’s advice to serve in government institutions.
Besides working in Kumbakonam, he taught English Literature at Periyar EVR College in Tiruchi for 35 years. “I used to act every line of Shakespeare in my class, to make the students more involved,” he says.
Studying the Bard’s works requires its own method, he adds.
“Treat Shakespeare’s writings as a text, and leave out the exams. Imbibe the experience. You should be transported to the 16th century, without having to imagine the probable essays questions to answer after reading his works,” he says.
His father’s notes, made for study and for teaching, were of immense use to Mr Natarajan.
“Out of 37 plays, he had prepared handwritten notes for 17 plays, which he taught up to his period. He had consulted all the available editions of Shakespeare and commentary of his time.
So I simply took his notes, diluted them for this generation of students and adapted the style to suit the exam questions. If I have earned money and fame out of my publications over these years, I owe it all to my father,” he says.
Study materials
Mr Natarajan put his love of literature to work by compiling anthologies of writings from all over the globe. Starting out with Prose With A Purpose in 2003, he became a full-time compiler of study materials in Tamil and English for school and college students from 2005, after retirement.
“We are becoming more monolingual as we go on, because the bread and butter aim of education has entered the picture,” he says, when asked why many Indian students struggle with communication skills. “Students get good credits in their core subjects, but their communication skills are dismally poor because they have not been given any importance by their teachers or at home. Most of our students are unemployable, though there are plenty of jobs now.”
Mr Natarajan has diplomas in German, Hindi and Sanskrit, which he feels have helped him while writing scholarly works on comparative literature.
Arts lover
Mr Natarajan is trained in Carnatic music too. “For that the credit goes to my maternal grandmother, who took care of us at a critical time during our childhood,” he says.
He has passed the Diploma in Carnatic Music Lower and Higher with a First Class. His audio CD on the Carnatic influences on contemporary Tamil film music was a sell-out.
From 1968, he has presented 192 programmes on radio. In 2010, his voice was found suitable for live commentary in English and Tamil by Prasar Bharathi. Since then he has been compering direct relay programmes presented by All India Radio, Tiruchi. He has also done several programmes for Tamil television channels. Under the auspices of the Tiruchi Tamil Sangam, he has given 102 literary talks. He has also worked in print media for a brief while. Another unusual pastime was being a participant of Tamil literary patti mandram (debating forums) in the 1980s.
“I have spoken under the great stalwarts like Namasivayam, Natesa Mudaliar, S. Sathiya Seelan and Thavathiru Kumarakkudi Adigalar,” he says. “There too, I’d bring in my love for English literature into my speeches. I’d quote from Robert Frost and Walt Whitman, while the others would be talking about Sangam poetry. In those days, we’d never repeat a joke.”
Mr Natarajan’s love for the arts and literature has given him a new goal. Using the proceeds of sales of his text-books, he hopes to start a charitable trust under his father’s name. He also wants to create an endowment for people pursuing English studies. “I’m happy with the pension I’m getting, and I’d like to help the younger generation of students,” he says.
His message for school and college goers?
“Read, read, read/As the wave is to the sea/the head to the body/read, read, read,” he recites in Tamil verse.
Winning holiday
One of Mr Natarajan’s most cherished memories is of a six-month vacation in Nottingham, United Kingdom, in 2009. Besides immersing himself in all things Shakespeare, he also got a chance to participate in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio 5 programme Word Play .
“It took me 7 rehearsals before I could actually play the game. My long years of teaching English were of little use, because I found that native speakers have their own idiom and style of English usage. Anyway, I was able to answer 7 questions, and having earned £20 per answer, I’ve still kept my winnings of £140 as a memento,” he says.
