A poem wrote and read at the Mattakalappu Thmizhgam book releasing event

by---Vyshali Manivannan

(Grand-daughter of V.C. Kandaiah)

To Speak of Strength

If I could have seen him,

insomniac at the desk that ran molten,

slick with lamplight, damp with shadow, alive with a river of words.

I would have seen that tall dark figure blotted with moonlight, face a mask of concentration, this face I do not remember.

I would have stood long, an apparition peering through a window, to watch his diligence well into the night.

He was fierce with learning.

This book that chronicles the eastern province as a sum of its parts: culture, literature, religion— What courage was required

to write this book, beginning to end, to immortalize in print one’s people and place.

I am told he could have gone to London, borne by merit and achievement, those honourable mentions.

That a white university professor stopped for dinner; that they served ketchup, I am told, in those days one of so many unheard-of things. That he turned it down to remain with family, to continue his work.

I have heard of his honorary degree, of the formidable host of accolades, and of the garden that bears his name still.

London, doctorates, professorial respects— I have heard these things were once unheard of.

You did not speak of them then. And I, inchoate, fragrant with words of another tongue, the derivation of his being, can only invent those things that drove him, the ways in which the myriad histories of his city possessed him, the things that made him write.

If I have inherited those things, and, through some kind conspiracy, continue his steps after he has ceased walking.

If it is possible to inherit motivation at all.

In pictures he does not look strong, this wiry man who sired a fount of intellect, who made genius of the late hours of night, studying and mouthing words, a creator, self-motivated, self-learned.

If I could have seen him then, as he was, a man sculpted of his own determination.

I would have asked for his courage.

I would have thought him strong.