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It
was a great moment for Chennaionline when the book 'Trees
and Tree Tales' was released in Chennai September 20, 2007.
The book is a collection of articles written by retired botany
professor K N Rao for Chennaionline and has been brought out by
Oxygen Books, New Horizon Books.
The book, released by another retired professor of botany, Dr R
Ponnuraj, talks of trees commonly found in Chennai and their
uncommon traits. Talking wittily, Dr Ponnuraj said he had known
Prof Rao from his early day as both had belonged to the same
profession. He praised Rao for having a great interest in not
just botany but also literature.
 Dr
Ponnuraj, who taught at the Kandaswami Kandar College, Vellore,
was also mildly critical when he spotted two technical errors in
the book, but made light of it saying that since their professor
had written it, his students would accept it! Such was his
standing among his students because he went beyond teaching
botany: He taught about life, too. Prof Rao was not only a good
writer but also a good teacher, Dr Ponnuraj observed.
 He
said, surprisingly, he found that Rao was also a good cook as he
gives the recipe for Andhra avakkai pickle in the book in the
chapter dealing with mangoes!
Dr Ponnuraj praised Rao's style of writing
which made his book eminently readable.
Journalist and writer N Meera Raghavendra Rao,
whose column
Lighter Side of Life is hosted by Chennaionline, received
the first copy of the book.
 As
Prof Rao had asked her to keep her speech short, she humorously
recalled a story. A speaker was once asked to keep his speech
short. How short, he asked. Stand on one leg while making the
speech and end it when you put the other foot down, he was told!
Meera said she deemed it an honour to have
received the book from a seasoned botany professor. Though she
said she was a little apprehensive of standing in the company of
two botany stalwarts, as she had no knowledge of the subject,
she praised the book for its content and pictures. She said it
was after reading the book that she became aware of the neem
tree in front of her house and the cool breeze that wafted from
it. "After reading the book, I hope more avenue trees would be
planted and the road spruced up," she declared.
 She
could always depend on her "literary uncle", which is what she
called Prof Rao who, though a botany professor, had a literary
bent of mind, to help her when she had a doubt in English. She
also referred to him as a 'walking encyclopaedia'.
Meera had a word of prasie for the publishers
who had brought out the book with alacrity.
 Replying
to the felicitations, Prof Rao said it was Chennaionline that
had requested him to write a column on Chennai trees. He spoke
on how he went about writing the column and how it had reached
the stage where it was being published as a book. He profusely
thanked the publishers, who, he said, were doing a great service
to society by publishing new titles and carrying out
translations. He singled out Deepika Davidar, Jonathan Davidar
and
V Ramnarayan of the publishing house for his generous
thanks.
 Badri
Seshadri of New Horizon Books said they were ready to bring out
new books and translations but wanted authors and translators to
come forward with their works. Welcoming writers with open arms,
he appealed to anybody who wanted interesting books to be
published in English, Tamil and Malayalam to get in touch with
the publishing house.
This had Prof Rao springing to his feet and
hoping that they would bring out books in Telugu also as he was
ready to write one. There is no stopping the man.
R Chitra |
