My dear Sambandhan,
I went through your article. It is good. It exposes the widespread hypocrisy and sycophancy of our society. You have rightly pointed out how shameless our politicians and intellectuals are, drawing attention to sycophancy in the higher levels also. Your must also add literary people to the list-you know how authors and their worthless books are presented as “gems of literature ornament to Tamil etc! It is an article relevant to the present situation in this sub-continent.
It is good that without bluntly coming to these hypocrisies you have started with the family first, pointing out the necessity for pleasant words there. It makes pleasant reading.
Though you have asked for comments only, I have taken the liberty of touching up the article here and there. A few words are altered and errors of spelling which your daughter must have made while copying corrected.
In general, you have a love for words. I had it once. (Even now I don’t know whether I am completely free of it. In your enthusiasm to say things effectively you use words in abundance and big words too. And your sentences are very long and complex. In the place of a complex sentence, you can write two or three short, simple sentences. In the choice of words also, simple and direct words are to be preferred. For instance, instead of saying “generates beneficial externalities” you can simply say, “brings good” though your style is closely connected with your personality (which is always bursting out in anger against hypocrisy and falsehood). You can still try to write more simply.
However, unlike some of our young friends who write without any feeling for English, you write readable English.
You must write more articles of this kind-about our hallow and long-winded platform oratories, waste of precious time, lack of punctuality, indifference to social evils etc,
The hero-worshipping tendency found equally among our educated and uneducated people deserves one full article. How much public money-the sweat and blood of common people is spent for the personal comforts of our rulers! We allow everything without protest-looking upon the leaders as gods instead of regarding them as paid servants of the people.
I have been thinking for a long time of organizing meetings where without becoming merely intellectual or ideational, kindred souls must come together to think over the problem of living-understanding life and living it meaningfully; but I don’t know whether it is my laziness or my deeper understanding that makes me hesitant. At times it strikes me that all intellectual activity is meaningless and that the only activity which matters is to make ourselves good and loving human beings. However, it will be good if we meet occasionally. So please make it a point to come over here some day.
With love,
Thangappa
This was the letter written by Prof. Thangappa in response to my request to make some corrections/comments on my article entitled “The Social Cost of Flattery, Pomposity and Manipulative Politics”.
This was written in early 90’s and he was quick enough to respond by making stylistic changes in my article. Before you read the article, a few words about the Prof.Thangappa. Prof. Lenin Thangappa is a great scholar in Tamil in our region and he is equally proficient in English also. He has a lot of scholarly volumes both classic poems and poetic prose to his credit. Very rarely we would come across a poet of his caliber. He has also done a lot of translation of Tamil literature encompassing love (recently published by Penguin) and also some sacred text like “Ramalingaswamigal” also called as “Vallalar” in Tamil speaking world.
I went through your article. It is good. It exposes the widespread hypocrisy and sycophancy of our society. You have rightly pointed out how shameless our politicians and intellectuals are, drawing attention to sycophancy in the higher levels also. Your must also add literary people to the list-you know how authors and their worthless books are presented as “gems of literature ornament to Tamil etc! It is an article relevant to the present situation in this sub-continent.
It is good that without bluntly coming to these hypocrisies you have started with the family first, pointing out the necessity for pleasant words there. It makes pleasant reading.
Though you have asked for comments only, I have taken the liberty of touching up the article here and there. A few words are altered and errors of spelling which your daughter must have made while copying corrected.
In general, you have a love for words. I had it once. (Even now I don’t know whether I am completely free of it. In your enthusiasm to say things effectively you use words in abundance and big words too. And your sentences are very long and complex. In the place of a complex sentence, you can write two or three short, simple sentences. In the choice of words also, simple and direct words are to be preferred. For instance, instead of saying “generates beneficial externalities” you can simply say, “brings good” though your style is closely connected with your personality (which is always bursting out in anger against hypocrisy and falsehood). You can still try to write more simply.
However, unlike some of our young friends who write without any feeling for English, you write readable English.
You must write more articles of this kind-about our hallow and long-winded platform oratories, waste of precious time, lack of punctuality, indifference to social evils etc,
The hero-worshipping tendency found equally among our educated and uneducated people deserves one full article. How much public money-the sweat and blood of common people is spent for the personal comforts of our rulers! We allow everything without protest-looking upon the leaders as gods instead of regarding them as paid servants of the people.
I have been thinking for a long time of organizing meetings where without becoming merely intellectual or ideational, kindred souls must come together to think over the problem of living-understanding life and living it meaningfully; but I don’t know whether it is my laziness or my deeper understanding that makes me hesitant. At times it strikes me that all intellectual activity is meaningless and that the only activity which matters is to make ourselves good and loving human beings. However, it will be good if we meet occasionally. So please make it a point to come over here some day.
With love,
Thangappa
This was the letter written by Prof. Thangappa in response to my request to make some corrections/comments on my article entitled “The Social Cost of Flattery, Pomposity and Manipulative Politics”.
This was written in early 90’s and he was quick enough to respond by making stylistic changes in my article. Before you read the article, a few words about the Prof.Thangappa. Prof. Lenin Thangappa is a great scholar in Tamil in our region and he is equally proficient in English also. He has a lot of scholarly volumes both classic poems and poetic prose to his credit. Very rarely we would come across a poet of his caliber. He has also done a lot of translation of Tamil literature encompassing love (recently published by Penguin) and also some sacred text like “Ramalingaswamigal” also called as “Vallalar” in Tamil speaking world.
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