AIR newsreader, who announced to Tamil listeners India attaining Independence, dies

R.S. Venkatraman, the voice of Independence for Tamil listeners, passes away at 102 in Chennai.

R.S. Venkatraman, 102, who had announced to lakhs of Tamil listeners that the nation had attained Independence on All India Radio (AIR), passed away at his daughter’s home in Mandaveli here on Tuesday.

Manorama Ganeshkumar, his daughter, said her father had announced it on the news on the South East Asian Broadcast at 5.45 a.m. on August 16, 1947, a day after Independence.

Venkatraman was born on 14 April in 1923 in Radha Narasimhapuram, a village near Mannargudi to Sambasiva Iyer, a teacher, and Kalyani, a homemaker. Having completed his schooling, he moved to Delhi in 1943 and then joined AIR as a translator-cum-newsreader. Even after he retired, he continued working at the news unit on a casual basis till the age of 86.

Srimathi Ravichandran, his daughter-in-law, who was also a newsreader, said apart from reading the news, he was a prolific writer too. He wrote many short stories in Tamil under the pen name Gajamukhan. Jayalakshmi, his wife, predeceased him. He is survived by his three daughters. A former colleague recalled that he was a very nice person and possessed a good broadcasting voice.