• For this 99-year-old man, age is just a number. His drive to write and to give his readers new story premises is inspiring.

• ‘Karisal kaadu’ in Tamil refers to the regions with black soil. The lifestyle of people in such regions is drastically different from those in other regions. Rajanarayanan studied this area and the people to give an authentic account of this region. Such dedicated writing was the inspiration for many famous writers who came up in the later years.

• He favoured left-wing ideologies and was a person who marched to the field to protest for the plight of farmers. Such activism caused him to be imprisoned.

• Though he had formal education only till class 7, he kept reading and reading, built his knowledge, and became a professor at a university. He showed great interest in compiling folklores.

• Among those who studied his work for their doctorates, majority of them are women. Some of the popular highlights (roughly translated) from his work include ‘Stories are the best form of treatment for humans’ and ‘I stepped into the school only when it rained, instead of seeing the school, I stood staring at the rain.’

• In his movie ‘Acchamillai Acchamillai’, director Balachander used the slang Rajanarayanan uses in his book. His novel ‘Kidai’ was made into a movie named ‘Oruthi’ by director Amshan Kumar. 

• His journey from ‘Maayamaan’ (1956) to ‘Andarenda Patchi’ (2020) has been truly an incredible one, not just for him, but for his readers too.

To know more about Ki. Rajanarayanan..