Chevalier awardee Madana Kalyani dead

Madana Kalyani, 84, the first woman recipient of the prestigious Chevalier Award of the Republic of France, passed away in the wee hours of Thursday. Ms. Kalyani, who retired as a professor of Tamil at the Lycee Francaise after four decades in the teaching profession, was a writer, poet and translator. In 2011, she became the first woman in Tamil Nadu-Puducherry to be bestowed the Chevalier Ordre des Palmes académiques, a national order bestowed by the French Republic on distinguished academics and teachers. The French honour came two years after she was conferred the Kalaimamani title.

Madana Kalyani, 84, the first woman recipient of the prestigious Chevalier Award of the Republic of France, passed away in the wee hours of Thursday.

Ms. Kalyani, who retired as a professor of Tamil at the Lycee Francaise after four decades in the teaching profession, was a writer, poet and translator. In 2011, she became the first woman in Tamil Nadu-Puducherry to be bestowed the Chevalier Ordre des Palmes académiques, a national order bestowed by the French Republic on distinguished academics and teachers. The French honour came two years after she was conferred the Kalaimamani title.

Ms, Kalyani, who was equally proficient in Tamil and French, had produced French-Tamil and Tamil-French translations of several important works. Among her most popular and best-selling translations was ‘Kollai Noi’ based on Nobel Laureate Albert Camus’ ‘La Peste’ (The Plague), family sources said.

She has also translated into French the Tamil writer Sujatha’s ‘Karaiyellam Shenbagapoo’, the poetry of Subramania Bharathi and Bharathidasan, and Tamil folk tales, while bringing to a Tamil readership the great works of French masters such as Victor Hugo, Jean de La Fontaine and Charles Pierre Baudelaire. She is survived by three sons.