Prabha Rajan Talent Foundation celebrates its 10th Anniversary

The 10th Anniversary of Prabha Rajan Talent Foundation ( PRTF), started by me in memory of Prabha, was celebrated yesterday (15th January 2023) at TAG Centre owned by my good friend R.T Chari. It is at the same venue four other earlier anniversaries were celebrated.

The special feature of this year`s event was the presentation of the `PRTF-ROLE MODEL` Award to 95 years old Kanakam Sharma, who started writing short stories in Tamil at 90 and became a published author of a book of short stories by 93. She is continuing to write. The second person to receive the award was 78 years old Jaya Krishnan. She started writing in Tamil after she turned 70. She already has two books on spiritual subjects to her credit and the third one is on the way. The citations were read by Mythili Seshadri.

The next event witnessed 81 years old Kumudha Srinivasan realizing her dream of publishing her first book of short story in Tamil. Kizhambur Sankara Subramanian, the editor of 91 years old Kalaimagal magazine, received the first copy from the Chief Guest. The three ladies proved that age is no barrier to pursuing one`s passion.

This was followed by Ravi Tamilvanan of Manimekalai Prasuram handing over two books of first-time authors sponsored by PRTF to the Chief Guest. After this cash prizes were distributed to the winners of the short story competitions held by Ladies Special and Kuvikam magazines in association with PRTF. A book containing prize-winning stories in the PRTF-Kuvikam contest was also released by the chief guest.

The meeting started with a melodious invocation song sung by Madhura Muralidharan followed by an emotional welcome address by Kavitha Srinivas. In his address, Rajan recalled the continuous support that PRTF has received from Kizhambur, Editor of Kalaimagal magazine, Ravi Tamilvanan of Manimekalai Prasuram, Girija Raghavan, Editor of Ladies Special magazine, Diwakar of Compuprint and R.T.Chari of the Tag group for the activities of PRTF right from its inception.

The chief guest, celebrity writer Sivasankari in her address congratulated PRTF for the excellent work it was doing in encouraging talented women. Her inspiring speech was listened to with rapt attention by the packed audience, estimated at over 150. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Sowmya Srinivasan followed by the National Anthem

A folder containing the details of activities of PRTF for the first ten years was distributed to the guests
The meeting, which started sharp at 6.05pm and ended sharply at 7.35, was anchored with aplomb by Girija Raghavan better known as the `one woman army`.