Biography as History- A tribute!

Two days ago an old man, in his early 90s joined our coffee group at Velu`s coffee shop. Talking to him I found that he was  S V S Raghavan, an   IAS officer who retired as the Chairman of MMTC. When I mentioned my name he said,` Oh you are the writer Rajan. You write well`. My day was made!

My mind went back to the time when I had started writing on a variety of topics because of the success of my autobiography published in 2009, post retirement. The person who had motivated me to write was Mr.S.Muthiah, the well-known writer/ author and a mentor for scores of writers who are popular today. I was also one of the lucky few to be mentored by him.  He would always say that I was one of the first persons to respond to his appeal to senior citizens to write their memoirs. Because `Biography is history` he would say.

Since his passing away I have been carrying his message to all my friends, many of them senior citizens like me, relentlessly persuading them to write their biographies. In fact a motivational talk I give on the topic `Getting hooked on writing post retirement` has influenced many to start writing. Some of them have used the forced confinement at home because of the pandemic during the last twelve months to write their life stories. I am happy to report that in the last two months five have already published their autobiographies including my younger brother Seshadri who literally followed my footsteps in the world of advertising.  Ten others had  published their books earlier. Five more have started writing. I am thrilled. I am sure Mr.Muthiah, whose second death anniversary was two days ago, would be very happy to know that I am vigorously following up on one of his pet projects- making senior citizens write their memoirs. It is my way of  paying  tribute to a man who was  responsible for my new Avathar as writer/author. But it is another matter that he never wrote his own memoirs. I think his talented daughters ( Parvathi -you write well) or his favourite `chela` V.Sriram, should take up writing Mr Muthiah`s biography.  They owe it to the legions of Mr.Muthiah`s admirers.