About Paa.Jeyapirakasam


Paa.Jeyapirakasam (1941) was born in a poor agricultural family in Ramachandrapuram, a scorched and drought-stricken village near Vilathikulam (in the then Tirunelveli District in southern Tamilnadu). He lost his mother at a young age and moved to his grandmother's village, Senmamreddipatti, during his fifth grade. 

When he was a college student, he had  participated actively in the anti-Hindi Agitation during 1965. He was arrested under the notorious and draconian Defence of India Rules and he had to spend three months in Palayamkottai Prison. After completing Post Graduation in Tamil Literature, he joined as a lecturer in Wakf Board college, Madurai. From teaching, he moved to public relations, beginning as a Public Relations Officer with the Government of Tamilnadu and eventually retired as Joint Director in 1999.

He made his debut in literature with a short story, Kutram (Crime), which was published in Thaamarai, a popular literary magazine in the Seventies. Acclaimed and acknowledged to be one of the finest Tamil short story writers, he has been a trend-setter in writing stories about life struggles of the oppressed and voiceless people that had hitherto had not been documented and told. He not only gave voice to voiceless, but also told stories in their language.

In his long writing career, he had written nearly 143 short stories many of which have been collected in 14 anthologies and he continues to write short stories and articles on socio political issues in various magazines. He had also written poems under the pseudonym Suriyadeepan. During the Eighties, he was  associated with the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement, edited and contributed articles to Mana Osai, an alternative, progressive art and literature magazine. Besides 14 short story collections, there are more than dozen other books to his credit (More details here).

Thekkathi Athmakkal, a serial on the life style of grassroots people of karisal bhoomi (Scorched Earth) was published in Junior Vikadan (a weekly magazine from the Ananda Vikadan stable), brought laurels to him from various sections of readers – from lay readers to erudite literary critics.

One of his short story collections, Kaadu (Pastures), was prescribed by Madurai Kamaraj University as a text book for an undergraduate course. Karisalin Irulkal, a short story, was included in an Anthology of Modern Tamil Stories published by Orian Bird Book.

His second novel was Manal (Sand) about sand mining and it impact on people and environment. Paa. Jeyapirakasam had written his third Novel "Ucchi Veyil" which was in it's final stages before he died on 23 October 2022.

He passed away on October 23, 2022 at Vilathikulam and his body was donated to medical students at Thoothukudi hospital on 25th October 2022.

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