Honour for a Tamil writer after 25 years

Indira Parthasarathy, commonly known as Ee. Paa, is Sahitya Akademi fellow

After a gap of 25 years, the Sahitya Akademi has chosen a Tamil littérateur — Indira Parthasarathy, commonly known as Ee. Paa — for its highest honour of Fellowship.

In 1996, D. Jayakanthan, aged 62, was the youngest to become a Fellow of the Akademi. Before him, only two from the Tamil literary world — Rajaji or C. Rajagopalachari (1969) and T.P. Meenakshisundaram (1975) — were chosen. Though V. Raghavan (1979) and K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar (1985), both Tamils, were also given the Fellowship, they were recognised for their contributions to Sanskrit and the Indian writing in English.

In an interaction with The Hindu on Sunday, Prof. Parthasarathy, 91, who is, in the words of the Akademi, an “eminent Tamil writer, scholar and cultural historian”, said, “At my age, getting this honour, it beats me completely on how to react. I thank the Akademi for remembering me.”