Chennai: Anyone who saw the posters for a felicitation to writer S Ramakrishnan would have definitely been puzzled by the mention of one person among the writer guests — Rajinikanth.
The Superstar, who graces only the choicest of events, not only attended the event, but also delivered one of his most elaborate speeches in recent times, for nearly 20 minutes.
Ramakrishnan was honoured by Uyirmei Publications for having won the Iyal Lifetime Literary Achievement Award, given by the Tamil Literary Garden of Toronto.
"I am happy, surprised and even scared to be part of an event like this. I was told intellectuals would be participating in this event."
"Like Karna who was cursed to forget important mantras when he needed them the most, I feared that I would have been cursed to forget right Tamil words while speaking during such an event. I know many languages, but none of them fully well," he said, calling his English weak.
Rajinikanth recalled that Ramakrishnan wrote his biography when he planned to come out with one after the film Baba.
"However, I decided to publish it later as it was likely to hurt a lot of people, being a truthful account of my life. Ramakrishnan even refused remuneration for it," he added.
The Superstar claimed that he learnt a lot from books, though his educational background was somewhat limited.
Describing Rajinikanth as an avid reader who is especially fond of historical and mythological writing, Ramakrishnan, in his acceptance speech, said there was a writer in the Superstar.
True to this, Rajinikanth spoke quoting a number of famous personalities — Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Kannadasan, Thomas Alva Edison, Vasishtar, Viswamitrar and Parasuram.
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