Tribute to Ramakrishnan Seetharaman
A blogpost by Cristina Muru
It is with great sorrow that have learnt about the demise of Ramakrishnan Seetharaman on November 17th, 2020.
Ramakrishnan Seetharaman in his office — Photo by Prasana
Ramakrishnan Seetharaman dedicated 45 years of his existence to his publishing house Cre-A,1 which he founded in 1974 with his friend Jayalakshmi. Even up to a few days prior to his death, he released the third edition of the Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil from his hospital bed.
Ramakrishnan Seetharaman also supported many other projects, such as that carried out with a group of motivated teachers, so as to go beyond the regular form of teaching, addressing primary school children in order to encourage their creativity. It was Ramakrishnan Seetharaman who launched a drive to donate the book காகித்ப் பாவைகள் (Paper puppet) to poor, government schools which would normally have no access to such books.
Ramakrishnan Seetharaman’s values were noble and profound: always attentive to others, always available, always ready to help without expecting anything in return. He was an ego-free person, deeply humble and far from any form of protagonism. Always eager to discover new forms of knowledge, a lover of nature, especially birds, he was always immersed in knowledge, music, books and art. He was an indefatigable worker who, with love, precision and meticulous scruple, dedicated himself to what he considered the most important tool we all have: the language and the words of which it is made.
Ramakrishnan Seetharaman was perfectly aware of the power of words and the importance of good communication: he recognized the social role played by language. For this reason, the books and the published translations, but also, and above all, the dictionary, were the results of a careful selection carried out with almost maniacal attention, a painstaking and punctual work. Ramakrishnan Seetharaman kept on working, relentlessly and against all odds to accomplish his mission of making ‘good’ knowledge available to many.
And now, wherever you are, I imagine you smiling in front of so much praise, dear friend, wondering if you would really like it. But we cannot help but remember you this way because so many are the seeds that you planted around you.
Rest in peace.
With heart-felt condolences to the family and friends of this great person.
- Cre-A is a publishing house that focussed attention on contemporary Tamil by publishing not only three revised and updated editions of the Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil (Kriyāviṉ taṟkālat tamiḻ akarāti, tamiḻ-tamiḻ-āṅkilam = Cre-A Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil, Tamil-Tamil-English), that is, one edition every ten years, but also, a variegated panorama of topics ranging from literature to nature, from medicine to geography, from agriculture to economics, in the most vivid and accurate contemporary Tamil form. [↩]
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Emmanuel Francis (November 23, 2020). Tribute to Ramakrishnan Seetharaman. Texts Surrounding Texts. Retrieved December 11, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/uxz5
