Isaikkavi Ramanan

Born in Tirunelveli in 1954 to Savithri and T V Anantaramaseshan. Three elder sisters and one younger. Thanks to Appa’s penchant for shifting residences frequently, lived in Mylapore, Chrompet, Choolaimedu, T’Nagar, Nanganallur and Besant Nagar in Chennai. Completed schooling in Ramakrishna Mission Boys High School, North Branch, in 1969-70. Inspired by great teachers like Sri T S Ranganathan, Sri M V Raghavan, Sri Thathachariar and Sri R R Krishnan. Had a terrible time with even basic arithmetic which saw me either standing on the bench in the class most of the time or being the butt of several jokes in view of my ‘unmatched brilliance’ in math! And, my special subjects were Algebra, Geometry and Trignometry!! Struck by the beauty of Tamil poetry, thans to that unforgettable teacher Sri M V Raghavan. Appa did not want me to follow his footsteps (lecturer, journalist) B Com from A M Jain College, Meenambakkam, Chennai. God only knows how I scraped through.