Aide whose pen stopped Bharati writing prose January 26, 2021, 2:21 PM IST
Not many may know that the first book on the life and works of firebrand poet Subramania Bharati as we know it today, 100 years since his death, was by his close associate Va Ramaswami Aiyangar. Va Raa, as he was known, was the first biographer of Bharati. The two met at a time of turmoil and new awakening in Puducherry.
Born in 1889, V Ramaswami Ayyangar was a bright student but had to abandon his studies due to financial constraints. It was at this time that he was drawn towards the national movement. He attended the Congress convention in Madras in 1908, and having heard that Surendra Nath Banerji had started a national college in Calcutta went there to join it. He could neither meet Banerji nor join the college but during the stay there, he started learning Bengali. He wanted to meet Aurobindo Ghose, but couldn’t as he had moved to Puducherry in April of 1910.