Interview: A poem has a universal appeal

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Dr K Ramamurthi receiving an award from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kumari Jayalaitha.
Dr K Ramamurthi receiving an award from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kumari Jayalaitha.

Bharathi Kaavalar Dr K Ramamurthi has spent a lifetime of writing and appreciating poetry

By Sadiq Shaban

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Published: Sun 28 Feb 2016, 3:00 PM

Last updated: Sun 28 Feb 2016, 5:56 PM

Octogenarian poet, Bharathi Kaavalar Dr K Ramamurthi has an abiding love of poetry. His passion for the verse has earned him several national and international awards. "I am an author of more than 50 books in Tamil and English. For me poetry is the most concentrated form of literature. To appreciate it fully one must evoke the highest powers of response. At its best, poetry makes its way through our hearts and brains simultaneously. It is through the lines of great poets that mankind finds mental peace and emotional health," Dr K Ramamurthi told Khaleej Times.

A well-respected poet, who now lives in Dubai, Ramamurthi has attended several World Poet Conferences. Adds the 80-year-old, "Poetry seeks delight even in distress. No matter what condition you are in, poetry makes you aware. Bliss and beauty, truth and tranquility are the basic structures to poetry, apart from rhyme, alliteration, coherence, euphony and examples. Poetry must contain the conscience of the globe and humanitarian concerns of the powerless. It is the language of civilisation."
Ramamurthi has had a lifelong association with the written word. "Having perused thousands of ballads, hymns, lilts, lyrics, psalms and poems of reputed world poets from my student days till this time, I have come to admire and love the empirical and epical world poets. They live forever in my consciousness," he said.
As someone who has written poetry for more than six decades, Ramamurthi waxes eloquent about the poetry of Dubai's ruler. "His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai is a poet of excellence. I have read several of his poems. He is a poet and philosopher of repute. A nation like the UAE is great because it has rulers that are both sensitive and strong."
Understanding world cultures has been a recurring theme in Ramamurthi's works. "During my travels around the globe I have understood that human emotions and experiences are the same all over the world. People express themselves in various idioms to create and foster international understanding and fellowship in their works," he concluded.


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