Chennai: Velu Saravanan, one of the awardees of Sahitya Akademi award, shared his moments of happiness with DC and said, “My biggest inspirations to act and write for children are Avvaiyar and Bharathiyar. “Ulagam Kuzhandayai Iruntha Pozhuthu” is one of my favourite books. Danish writer Hans Anderson, a fairy tale writer, inspired me. I also like Russian and Scandinavian writers. I am also a fan of Alexander Pushkin, a Russian poet and playwright”.
“I love children and I started my career as a children theatre artist. I love eating children’s food. I love living with them,” naively adds the awardee.
B. Ravi Kumar, assistant professor, department of Tamil, Pondicherry University, who is also the colleague of the awardee Velu Saravanan, said, “I am very glad that my colleague has won the award. He has been contributing to children’s literature for nearly two decades. He started his career as a children’s theatre artist and acted in numerous plays. His contribution to this theatre world is immense and also he started writing children essays”.
Ravi Kumar, who is also the mentor of Jayabharathi, Yuva Puruskar awardee, said, “Jayabharathi deserves the award. Her writing has clarity and the language she uses is incredible. She brings emotion to her words quite effortlessly. I would say that her poetries were born out of her struggles in her life”.
