Film actor Kamal Haasan became nostalgic and recalled his early days, when he developed a kind of affiliation to Tamil language particularly the works of writer D Jayakanthan.

Speaking at a function organised jointly by Indo-Russian Cultural and Friendship Society (IRCUFS), Tamilnadu and Russian Centre of Science and Culture, Chennai, yesterday to felicitate Jayakanthan on his 76th birthday, Kamal said, ‘ During my childhood days when I was enrolled in a convent, I was not that good in Tamil. But I used to listen to my elder sister reading out Jayakanthan’s works to my mother.

And it was his works that stirred in me an interest to  learn Tamil, particularly to read his works in those days. Kamal said that his mother would have been happy, if she had seen him sitting next to such a great writer. ‘ However I will share my experience with my sister. I will ring her up and express the joy I felt sitting next to him and would also send a photo for her to see,’ he said.

Expressing his great admiration for the writer, Kamal praised Jayakanthan to be a brave man who speaks straight from his heart. Later, Jayakanthan said it was the reflection of pain and sufferings of those in society that accounts for great literature. ‘ Though my writings delve in poverty and tragedies of others, I have never gone through hard times, he said.

Poet Vairamuthu, general secretary of the IRCUFS P Thangapan and   secretary, Tourism and Culture Department, Iraianbu were among the others who participated on the occasion. Later, industrialist N Mahalingam inaugurated a photo exhibition on Jayakanthan