“Erode Reads” proclaim the hoardings at the 10th Book Fair, as actor-orator Sivakumar’s car enters the premises, which opens into a large, packed auditorium. The rejuvenating Bharatiar verse, ‘Bharatha Samudayam Vaazhgavey’ echoes in the background and is a fitting opening to the address titled, ‘Vaazhkai Oru Vaanavil’ (‘Life is a Rainbow’).
“This is my fifth speech at the Fair. Stalin is keen on value-based, culturally enriching, patriotic and literary speeches. I deem it an honour to have been a speaker here for the most number of times, so far,” Sivakumar smiles.
Stalin Gunasekaran, the man behind the decade-old endeavour, is a writer and literary activist. He has widened the horizon of the young and old of Erode and places within a radius of 100 km, in many ways and the Erode Book Fair is one such. People there now understand that education extends beyond learning at schools and colleges. Constants at Sivakumar’s orations, like Nagarajan, proprietor, Ramraj Cotton, and ‘Iyakoka’ Subramaniam, entrepreneur and litterateur, are seen here too.
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“This time, instead of quoting exhaustively or dwelling on my tryst with cinema, I have taken up simple yet hard-hitting truths of life,” says Sivakumar. For a man steeped in family values, and an actor who makes no bones about stating the inward struggles he faced to exercise self-control and discipline while in cinema, the mind-set of our youth who make a mockery of marriage, commitments and relationships, is disconcerting. “I’ve come across at least three cases recently, where it is marriage at dawn and divorce application at dusk!”
Sivakumar juxtaposes such superficialities with the importance of give and take within the family, and the sorrow of being a widower late in life. ‘Vaazhkai …’ is more a clarion call to the youth to realise the gift of the present. “I see several sexagenarians in the crowd. I’m sure they relate to the pain caused by some of our youth.”
In this latest edition, Sivakumar shows that he is also evolving as a speaker with immense social consciousness. He touches a sentimental chord when he talks about the pain of poverty, trials, tribulations and timely help from his uncle, besides the foibles of adolescence and the pangs of old age. The subject per se is the five stages of man from childhood to old age, and those with yen for speeches with substance will find the session engaging.
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The anecdote involving Kovai Gnani, a teacher, who lost his vision, and his caring wife, is touching. So is the story of Pongiammal of his village. She had lost both her eyes due to illness, but her husband stood by her through all odds. They had five children and lived happily till the end!
Hardly known pieces of information about this achiever with multifarious skill sets find mention in ‘Vaazhkai …’ That Sivakumar was a Chenda player at the temple festivals in his village, is a case in point. But the speech isn’t a serious sojourn all the way. Riddles and tongue twisters sprinkled here and there evoke a smile.
Sivakumar sure knows the art of keeping the audience riveted. And his infallible memory, which helps him seamlessly weave in an apt connect between one thought process and the other, is, to say the least, mindboggling!
Catch ‘Vaazhkai …’
on Vijay TV, 7.30 – 9 a.m., this Deepavali
(October 22).