Chennai: Writers are usually possessive with their pens; they seldom gift it to their friends. But, poet and lyricist Vairamuthu, who met DMK president M. Karunanidhi on July 11 this year to seek his blessings on his birthday has received a rare gift of the iconic pen used by the legendary writer and his literary icon.
“After seeking Karunanidhi’s blessings, I asked for a gift - the iconic pen used by him. He asked his daughter Kanimozhi to get the pen and presented it to me. It will be my prized possession. I never knew it was going to be my last meeting with him,” an emotional Vairamuthu told this paper.
“Before leaving, he raised his hands to bless me. Everyone around him was surprised with that gesture,” he recalled about the meeting with ailing DMK patriarch last month.
Even while he was busy as the Chief Minister, Mr. Karunanidhi would take his literary friends to places like Mamallapuram to talk about literature. It was his interest in literature that had kept him very active even when he was out of power.
He bestowed the sobriquet ‘Kaviperarasu’ to Vairamuthu. “We know each other for over 35 years. I am feeling like I have lost my father,” Vairamuthu said.
When asked about his unfulfilled wishes, he said, “Karunanidhi’s long-cherished wish was to remove “the thorn from the heart” of his mentor and social reformer Periyar E.V. Ramasamy.”
Periyar considered the continuation of caste discrimination in temple priesthood as the last thorn in his heart. “That wish was fulfilled recently with the appointment of a non-brahmin priest at a temple near Madurai,” he said. “Karunanidhi wanted all Tamils to live with self-respect and fought for more autonomy for the state of Tamil Nadu,” Vairamuthu said.
