Su Ra remembrance meeting

The meeting called for reminiscences about Sundara Ramasamy was attended by about 30-40 people. It started with a short film by Lenin based on one of Su Ra's stories. Since I got into the hall halfway through the film, couldn't relate much to the story.

Then the meeting started with the organiser calling Ravikumar, a writer to talk about Su Ra and modernism. He started by quoting Su Ra stating that Bharathi and Pudumaippitthan as the founders of Modernism. After that he lost me, I think he said that Su Ra considered himself as the only true disciple of those two but he (Ravikumar) was doubtful about that. There is something about these literary meetings that make the speakers talk in dense terms. Then it was the turn of Kanimozhi to talk about lyricism in Su Ra's works. She quoted extensively from various works of Su Ra and mentioned that he was a writer for whom the story as well as the craft of writing were equally important. Lenin, the director of the short film and well known editor shared a few words on his meeting with Su Ra.

Then came the much expected Jayakanthan. He declared in the outset that he and Su Ra were close friends and he wasn't here to review his works. He shared his moments with Su Ra and declared, "I am not sorry for his death. I do not feel sorry or happy for any one's death. It is natural and it will happen to all of us. As a good friend I look forward to meeting him again".

The whole meeting took about 1 hour. As a finale they played a video recording of Koothu-p-pattarai's street play "Seethai Mark Seeyakkaith Thool" based on Su Ra's short story. I have heard about this story, and seeing it as a play was awesome. With just three characters, it was a master piece on commercialisation of art. Then the meeting ended with a montage of shots of Su Ra. I am a newbie to these meetings and couldn't identify any famous writer / personality other than those on stage.