Pa. Raghavan, a well known Tamil writer, winner of the prestigious ‘Bharathiya Basha Parishad Award’ in 2004. His best known and most appreciated work is Yathi, a Novel, which shows the world of Indian Sanyasis. His non fictions like Dollar Desam and Nilamellam Raththam are considered to be the milestones in Tamil non-fiction writing.
Life and Education
Pa. Raghavan, often called as Para, was born on 8th October 1971 to R.Parthasarathy and P. Ramamani in Adayar, Chennai. His father hailed from Thanjavur District of Tamilnadu and is from a family of teachers. His father had a career in education starting as a teacher and held various posts such as Head Master, District Education Officer before retiring as the Deputy Director in the Department of Education. He wrote short stories and poems under the pen name R.P. Sarathy. He has also translated books such as Baba Nama, Mahavamsa and India After Gandhi. Due to the nature of his father’s job, the family had to shift to various places and Para attended different schools in these places to complete his education. The family finally settled in Chennai and Para completed his diplomo in Mechanical Engineering in the Central Polytechnic, Chennai. Today, Para lives with his wife and daughter in Chromepet, Chennai.
Career
Professional Career
Para was very interested in writing from early days. His first published work was a Children’s Poem in the Tamil Magazine 'Gokulam'. Although he was writing continuously from then on, Para says he was able to master the technic of writing only after he got the friendship of Ma.Ve. Sivakumar, one of the great Tamil writers in 1989. In 1990, a story of his was published in the reputed magazine ‘Kanaiyazhi’ which got him the attention of the Tamil Literary community. Para entered into the Tamil magazine arena through his story ‘Mohenjodaro’, a critical review of the events that happened due to the Ram Janma Bhoomi - Babar Masjid issue, which was published in the magazine ‘Kalki'. He joined the maganzine and was its Assistant Editor from 1992 to 2000. He worked in ‘Kumudam’ after that for three years. He became the editor of ‘Kumudam Junction’ when it was launched. In 2004, he quit the magazines and entered the publishing industry. He joined as the Chief Editor of ‘Kizhakku Publications’ and was instrumental in bringing out their ’Nalam’, “Varam’ and “Prodigy’ line of books. He was in charge of the publication of over a thousand books and his work in publishing is still spoken about. He left this and turned a full-time writer in 2011. He has penned Thirteen novels and over 50 political history books.
Writing Career
Till the year 2000, Para had been writing only short stories and novels. When he joined ‘Kumudam’ he wrote a series on the political history of Pakistan. The success of that prompted him to concentrate more on political history. He then wrote ‘Dollar Desam’, ’Nilamellam Raththam’, ‘Mayavalai’ amongst many other books in this genre. He was known to explain complex political issues in simple language for a layman to understand. He returned to fiction, in the year 2017, with his novel ‘Poonai Kathai’ based on his experiences in the entertainment industry. He followed that up with ‘Yathi’ exploring the world of Sanyasis. Para had spent time with sanyasis for a brief period to satisfy his spiritual needs. He says his meeting with Swami Thapasyananda of Ramakrishna Mutt gave him the balance he was looking for and he realized that his mission is to write. After Yathi, his new novel Iravaan was published in 2020 January.
Television Career
When he turned a full time writer, Para also started writing screen plays and dialogues for television serials. He has worked in over 15 serials. He has penned the screen play and dialogues for the serial ‘Vani Rani’ from 2011 to 2018 encompassing over 1750 episodes. This is considered a record in the Indian television industry.
Film Career
Para has also written the dialogs for two Tamil movies - ‘Kanakavel Kakka’ in 2010 and ’Thambi Vettothi Sundaram’ in 2011.
