Members of The Rotary Club of Chenna Patna recently conferred the `For the sake of honour’ award on Avvai Natarajan for his contributions to literature and culture of Tamilnadu. The club placed on record the veteran’s ability to blend real life episodes with literary references that left thousands of listeners spell bound.
A rose by any other name would indeed smell as sweet, but a lot of people might be upset if they suddenly had to call a rose by something less familiar. A whole host of scholars and the Tamil speaking world would be upset if they were to refer to the scholar and man of letters par excellence by any other name than AVVAI.
Yes, born to Avvai Doraiswamy and Lokambal and christened Natarajan, this scholar and administrator rolled into one, is lovingly referred to as AVVAI and even the venerable Tamil poet of yore Avvaiyar will be proud with this.
You, Dr. Avvai Natarajan, are an outstanding figure in the literary, artistic and cultural scene of state of Tamil Nadu today. Wherever Tamil speaking people reside you are regarded as a genuine representative of Tamil Culture and Education. The Government of Tamil Nadu recognising this appointed you as Secretary to Government in the Department of Tamil Development and Culture in 1984 and you, Sir, have the distinction of being the first non IAS Officer to be appointed as the founder Secretary for language and cultural affairs in Independent India.
You, Sir, are an accomplished man of letters and an acclaimed orator with several publications and awards to your credit. Your extempore orations that never fail to enthral audience from all walks of life across the globe have seen you being invited on several occasions to deliver prestigious academic endowment lectures at reputable universities in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in the Tamil speaking world.
Your ability, Sir, to spontaneously blend real life episodes with literary references has left the listeners from Sri Lanka, Burma, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Africa, Fiji Islands, Mauritius and wherever Tamil is spoken, wanting for more. Your prose, Sir, is poetry.
Your achievements, Sir, are many but the one closest to our hearts is the mammoth and historic enterprise of the Fifth World Tamil Conference in Madurai that brought out the able administrator in you. The State Government in recognition of you contribution to Tamil literature and as recognition to your ability as a suave administrator appointed you as the Vice-Chancellor Thanjai Tamil University.
Tamil, by any criteria one may choose, is one of the great classical literature and traditions of the world that predates the literature of other modern Indian languages by more than a thousand years. This has been recognised by the Indian Government and Tamil has been granted the status of a classical language. We hope, Sir that it goes further in honouring one of the greatest living exponents of the language with the post of an Ambassador to one of the Tamil speaking nations.
We, the members of Rotary Club of Madras Chennapatna, today, the 18th of May 2006 while being proud that we have amongst us, one who is carrying forward the great tradition of your family, are really honoured and privileged to present you the “For the Sake of Honor” Award.
While this is but a small drop in a big ocean, may we see more and greater awards come your way.
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