Creating a silent revolution is Dr. M G Anwar Batcha, a Tamil faculty at SBOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School at Chokkampudur, who has been writing a Thirukkural couplet along with its meaning every day for the past 40 years.

Anyone passing through the two-wheeler service shop located at Gandhi Park Corporation shopping complex can never miss the Thirukkural couplet written with the meaning on a blackboard. Be it rain or shine, the Tamil teacher makes it a point to write the verses with their meaning in an effort to make people read it. And, he has successfully completed 10 rounds in the last four decades, which has brought him satisfaction.

“It was my mentors Pulavar Rasiannan and Pulavar Arumugam, while studying at City Municipal High School at Variety Hall Road, who groomed me and brought out the best in me. In a step further, they motivated me to enhance my skills in Tamil,” he said.

The two-wheeler service shop at Gandhi Park came in handy for him since people frequented the area and he positioned the blackboard so as to make it visible to the people. ‘Daily a couplet’ was well received by the Kovaiites as they took awhile to read the couplet.

To mark the completion of each round of Thirukkural, Mr. Batcha used to keep a four-ft statue of Thiruvalluvar along with his Thirukkural book in a small push cart and take it out in a procession in and around the area besides serving food to inmates at orphanages, old age, destitute homes and differently-abled poor.

Not just writing the verses, he also conducts Thirukkural classes every Sunday at Aravind school campus and on Wednesdays at MNG Street and at Kuniyamuthur. He also conducts Thirukkural contests for students and gives away prizes. Dr. Anwar has many awards to his credit and has penned Thirukkural with English translation.

He is also proficient in Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu and is actively involved in several literary organisations.