Editor of Kumudam for the issue dt 30/08/1990

Sandhya, my wife was immersed in happiness and ecstasy when the then Editor-in-chief  Mr Ra.Ki.Rangarajan called her and requested to be the Editor of the issue dt 30/08/90 that was coinciding with the  eve of Ganesh Chathurthi !  There was only one single Television channel during those times and the announcers and News readers during those times were as popular as the film stars and were given a special status wherever they travelled throughout the State!  Similarly, Kumudam, the weekly Tamil magazine was so popular that people used to rush to the book stalls in their area to secure a copy of the most wanted and popular magazine, every Thursday!!  The magazine had a wide circulation of more than 100,000 copies every week!!  The Madras Door Darshan in between their popular programmes,  started flashing the advertisement of the forthcoming issue of the popular magazine and the name of the Editor who would pen, Edit and contribute to the magazine! Sandhya being one of the most popular News Readers and now editor of the most popular and leading weekly magazine created quite a flutter and infused inquisity and anxiety amongst the Tamils!!  One Mr Bamaji, a person filled with sense of humour and information on current affairs  was deputed to assist my wife in this venture.  Bamaji would convert even a simple sentence into a humour and it was great fun working with such a brilliant personality who was responsible for this temporary conversion of a Tamil News Reader into an Edior of the most popular magazine!! The advance information, in the form of advertisement in various forms of media,  from Kumudam attracted several individuals who were interested to be associated with the issue for the sake of mustering popularity and fame as it was a magazine with the largest circulation!  

There were many popular Tamil film artistes, theatre personalities, family members and freinds  who called us and impressed upon including them as part of some informative matter and the prominent amongst those was Music Director Shankar(Ganesh) who personally called me and started talking about being son of the soil of Tirunelveli and praised sky high about my singing capabilities and what not?  Incidentally, my wife also hailed from Tirunelveli(Gopalasamudram)!  The inputs given by so many personalities were taken and included.  However, the final verdict of inclusion rested with the Kumudam Editorial staff who scanned all the contents carefully and picked only those which had interesting substance in them in order to retain the popularity and readership that the magazine enjoyed!

My boys Neeraj(12) and Pushkar(8) both students of the D A V Higher Secondary School, Gopalapuram  knew there was something interesting happening and happily posed for photographs that were taken by the magazine for publication.  One such picture is what appeared on the cover of the magazine in the Sound Studios fondly named after my father Suryanarayanan!  

I also contributed my stories and jokes which formed part of the magazine besides talking about the bank in which I was working as the Chief Manager.  The trade union leader in the bank wanted me to write about him and about the union that he was heading in the south.  When I told him that it was my wife who was editing it and the magazine will not allow private publicity, he got angry and left my chamber with disgust!  Similarly, there were quite a few family members who got upset as their names did not feature in the issue and chose not to talk to us thereafter!!  On one side, there was joy in seeing the final output that came as an issue dt 30/08/90 and on the other side there were disgruntled elements who did not appreciate this popularity and were not in favour as the magazines did not mention about them?

Overall, the experience was rich and rewarding and the subsequent issues carried praises from the readers for bringing out an interesting weekly issue that was edited by my wife Sandhya!  I was thrilled to get this honour that made us more popular throughout the country!  For the sake of thrill, we drove past many bookstalls on that Thursday and felt happy to see the magazine stacked or clipped for display and sale!  The magazine at that time cost Rs1.75p only!!!  As I look back, 23 years have passed by and it is still fresh in our memories and thoughts and brings a smile in us whenever we recollect this pleasant past!