Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 47

All 39 years of Bharati’s life, from day one to day zee were turbulent. The only uniqueness was whether one day was more turbulent than the other. The most remarkable aspect was that the man or poet was ‘cool’, as in current lingo. Otherwise, how could he manage to pen so many masterpieces, one after the other. The moral equivalence in another contemporary entity could be Arun Shourie. He just wrote tome after tome. They required deep and devoted research. He did them. Alongside he wrote articles. He was Editor of a daily newspaper more than once. His books were not musings or anecdotes or episodes. They were on hard subjects with profound outpourings including on Ramanar and Ramakrishna Paramahamasar and Buddha philosophy, apart from court judgments, constitutionalism, political history and exposure on Fatherland constructs of communists. Simply stunning and unimaginable that Arun Shourie could accomplish all this, despite attending to his wife afflicted by Parkinson’s disease and his son autistic, both requiring close, careful and loving attention.That was some equanimity as if in the eye of a storm on a second by second and minute by day passage of every day!

Back to basics. That is Bharathi. After D Rangachariar took over ‘India’, it was a dark and stormy day, afternoon and night, as Charles Schultz’s immortal Snoopy would write. Rangachariar totally forgot that Bharathi was a creative genius. And even within that class, he was different and distinct. Himself. He had to be dealt with differently. Rangachariar was equally different. He had an one size fit all regimentation imposes at ‘India’ office, encompassing Bharathi too.

Bharathi was told to stick to ‘office timings’. He was told’ , he cannot come and go as he pleased as there must be basic discipline in any organisation’. Wow! That inevitably led to ‘faces off’ with Rangachariar and Bharathi on a daily basis. There were shouting matches and Rangachariar communicated that he was the boss and Bharathi had to fall in line. Bharathi was constrained to say, “ Excuse me. It is all very well that everyone should abide by Office timings. But does the boss know that we are not being paid on a monthly basis and not with any sense of promptitude. If I am to stick to office timings let it be known that I would need to be paid more and in time”. And Rangachariar declined to oblige.

It was a volcanic tussle considering Bharathi’s temperament. Things came to a head one day morning, in the office. D Rangachariar raised his voice. Bharathi was not flinching or yielding. He made it clear that he was a ‘Parasakthi Ubasakan. He cannot be dictated to. You cannot switch on and off for his writings . And a boss of ‘India’ cannot be commercially minded when Swadeshi cause was at stake.”. Rangachariar got furious that he was being ‘spoken to’. Not even Bharathi could do it to him.

The provocation was immediate. Rangachariar had enough. He raised his hand to bash up Bharathi. And Bharathi was a frail person. If the blow had landed on him, he must have been ‘smashed to smithereens ’ concluded Nagaswamy who was a witness. Nagaswamy could take it no more. He immediately intervened to catch the raised arm of Rangachariar. Then quietly put his arms around Bharathi and took him away from the room and presence of his provocateur.

Bharathi was fuming. His body was throbbing. He had made up his mind. This was not his ‘India’ anymore. The institution he built and nurtured. It had been taken over by someone who did not see eye to eye with Swadeshis. Had interests other than service. This was not Bharathi had bargained for. He discussed with Nagaswamy. He debated with others in the office, to the exclusion of D Rangachariar. There was only one way to go. GO.

But, where to GO. Bharathi knew nothing else but writing. He had to make a living too. He had to write as that was his life and soul. Not merely poems. But writing to communicate to his brethren in the cause of Bharat Mata.

Chaikon Chinnayya came as the providential Abathbanthavan. He was a well to do businessman with multiple interests. Including a hand in ‘Chaikon Chinnayya Press’. It was a reputed press and a big one in Pondy. He was publishing a magazine in the name and style of ‘Suryodayam’.

Bharathi did not know Chinnayya. But Chinnayya knew Bharathi. He highly regarded and respected him. And Chinnayya had been wondering if he could have the services of a writer like Bharathi. And most importantly, Nagaswamy knew Chinnayya, and Suryodayam which had a circulation within Pondy alone.

Nagaswamy introduced Bharathi. But, before he did that he spoke in private to Chinnayya as to what had transpired between Bharathi and Rangachariar. He verbatim expanded on the happening. Chinnayya felt sorry that a poet of the eminence of Bharathi went through such a trauma. He hosted Bharathi very respectfully and affectionately. And fed him with a good meal. Not stopping with it – Chinnayya paid a decent sum as ‘advance’, in anticipation of the consent of Bharathi to run Suryodayam.

Bharathi felt good. Nagaswamy felt better. Chinnayya was pleased. It was a win win for the stakeholders of Suryodayam. Bharathi ‘Quit ‘India’’ as he took over the mantle of editorship of Suryodayam. And launched himself headlong with a Special Edition for the very next issue. The movement of Bharathi to Suryodayam was big news. And when the stamp of Bharathi was seen with his photograph as well, it was hugely noticed. Within a few months,the circulation spiralled to 5000 which was significant then and in Pondy. And copies travelled across the border and the subscriber base went up to 8000 in a short while thereafter.

In the meanwhile, ‘India’ suffered a huge set back. It lost its motif. Its insignia. Bharathi was ‘India’ ever since he started writing in it. Without Bharathi ‘India’ was no longer ‘India’. D Rangachariar paid a huge price.

(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)