Kalaignar’s quirkiness, legacy remembered on social media

Dr Priya Selvaraj, grand-daughter of Gemini Ganesan shared a picture of her meeting Karunanidhi right after her marriage and recalls, “My grand father (and my family) enjoyed a great bond with him and his family; in fact, Kalaignar used to say that it was my grandfather who wished him without fail every birthday. He made it a point to attend every family function of ours and spoke to everyone. Even our chauffeurs have pictures with him.”

Aruna Subramaniam, management consultant, who is also on the board of NGOs, posted, “When I was young, cousins and I would skip on Marina beach, along with my uncle, who would bid us to sit and play in the sand some distance away from his friends. This was the enthralling group of Kalaignar Karunanidhi, Murasoli Maran and a few others, who would gather there. We were too young to realise that we were building sandcastles in the shadow of a history maker. I met him a few years ago and introduced myself as the niece of my uncle, who was his friend. He raised an eyebrow and his eyes widened in recognition,” she added.

Homemaker Sai Lakshmi, who also shared a picture, says that she and her husband Sanjay always had a wish. “Kalaignar is known to jot down some of his thoughts or vignettes on a piece of paper and hand them randomly to people around him. We always wished we were around when an opportunity like that presented itself. He was a friend of my father-in-law, director CV Sridhar and came to my wedding.”

While there were many tributes and artworks, the couple Sanjana Robinson and Harish Chandrasekaran of Crumbs & Layers, had a rather unique one — a Kalaignar cake, the picture of which was trending. “We used the pointalism technique to capture the legend’s essence,” they said.