Recently, I was asked by my mum if I wanted to say a few words at an event honoring my great-grandfather, and while I did not know him that well as he had passed away long before I was born, he had still been a household name within my family. My great-grandfather was a writer and he was very well known in the Tamil community within Sri Lanka and certain parts of India even. This event was hosted by my grandaunts and uncles to commemorate the success of my great-grandfather and to release 13 of his poems to the public.
I had always liked giving out speeches it was probably because I was so comfortable on a stage, but that wasn’t the problem. the problem was coming up with words to say about my grandfather, a man whom I have never met but only heard stories of him through the perspective of others. I had asked my grandma and mum about him. They had given me many insights into the man he was and the more I had talked to them the more I had delved deeper into the works that he had produced. My great-grandfather was known as an accomplished man within my family and while that may mean many things to many different people in my family it meant that he had done a lot with his life.
My mum and grandma showed me a variety of his works from his translations of various authors’ works into Tamil and the poems that he had written. Looking through all the things he had done I had gained inspiration to write my speech. If you would like to read my speech, you can have a look at it here.
If you would like to watch me speak you can watch the YouTube video from 24:40 to 28:36 😁.
My great-grandfather’s name was K. Ganesh and he had written a variety of things from translations of various novels to poems, if you would like to read more about him, you can have a look at his Wikipedia page here.
Speaking at my great-grandfather’s event had somehow brought me closer to him and helped me discover a newfound appreciation for him. If you are able to read Tamil you can read the article written about the event in the local Tamil newspaper here.
