Bhubaneswar: Panmayakkalvan, a collection of love poems in Tamil by Odisha cadre senior IAS officer R. Balakrishnan, was released in Chennai Book Fair on Wednesday.
Eminent Tamil poet and Sahitya Academy Award winner Mu. Mehta released the book and presented the first copy to senior IAS officer Thiru Udaychandran.
The poet of the book, R.Balakrishnan could not attend the book release function as he was indisposed. In his absence senior IAS officer V.P Jayaseelan gave acceptance speech on his behalf.
Thiru Prapanjan, Tamil literary world’s leading personality who is also a Sahitya Academy Awardee, discussed about the literary creativity of the poet in this new poetry book. Thiru Prapanjan, in fact, has written the foreword for the book.
C.Rajendran, Voice of Valluvar (VOV) founder and Indian Revenue Services senior officer, poet S.Vijalakshmi, Sundar Ganesan, and Sangarasaravanan (Vaigarai Vasakan) also spoke on the occasion.
Trotsky Marudhu, an accomplished artist of Tamil Nadu, gave an artistic rendering for Panmayakkalvan.
” I was inspired by Thirukkural(love segment) while penning the love poems for the book, said Balakrishnan, who is now the development commissioner of Odisha.
The poet has expressed his gratitude to Bharathi Puthakalayam and Thozhar Nagarajan for publishing the book. He has also thanked the Panmayakkalvan for coordinating the book release event.
Besides being a creative literary writer, Balakrishnan, a former Indian Express journalist, is keen on rewriting history in proper prospective. His first collections of poems is ‘Anbulla Amma’ published in 1991. Incidentally, Kavignar Mu Mehta has written the Foreword for the book.
