Chennai
DMK working president MK Stalin had slapped his middle-class teenage wife then for not recognizing Nedunchezhian, better known as Navalar, who went on to become the caretaker chief minister of Tamil Nadu before her father-in-law M Karunanidhi took over from him.
“Ungalapaaka Nedunchezhiyan nu yaaro vanduirukaanga (someone by name Nedunchezhiyan has come to meet you),” Durga Stalin says in her tell-all ‘autobiography’ Avarumnaanum (He and I), a collection of her series written in a Tamil magazine between 2011 and 2015, released in the city on Tuesday.
“Naaney avara peyar solli koopidamaaten, nee enna solra (even I don’t address him by name. How dare you do?” Durga recalls Stalin as saying before he slapped her.
In another instance, when she had ‘ignorantly’ referred to Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani by name, Stalin had reacted equally annoyed. Only this time, a cautious Durga had covered her cheeks and fled the scene before her irritated husband turned towards her, recalled actor Saranya Ponvannan in the all-women book launch function in which book publisher Manushya Puthiran of Uyirmai Pathigam was the sole male face on dais.
Like the slapping and staring, the 850-page and 135-chapter book also give audience a peek into the personal and political life of Stalin and his wife Durga as was seen through her eyes.
Writer and poet Tamilachi Thangapandian, who cared to harp on Stalin’s Dravidian roots in the function said, “Only a leader raised by the Dravidian movement would enjoy his wife getting her book released on the dais, while he remains seated among audience.” True to her words, an unusually jubilant Stalin was in splits during most part of the function, probably, a perfect stress buster the Leader of Opposition badly needed. In her brief acceptance speech, Durga Stalin appreciated her husband, despite his hectic political schedule, for fulfilling her wishes when she had entered the family as an ordinary woman.
She also said that she takes pride in being addressed as Anni (wife of annan (brother) Stalin) by the party men.
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