Karunanidhi- The Definitive Biography

I have been a Tamil writer for long but had never lived in Tamil Nadu till I moved to Chennai at the beginning of 1993 to take up the job of editor of the Tamil edition of India Today. The nine years I worked there were the most exciting years of my writing career. I was born into a Tamil-speaking family in Bangalore, and though I studied in an English-medium school, Tamil was the language I loved and chose to write in. Until my assignment with India Today, however, I had no knowledge of the colorful nature of Tamil politics.

I was, I admit, a little nervous about my challenging new assignment and certainly not prepared for the cultural shocks that awaited me in Chennai. The very first one was staggering. It came directly from M. Karunanidhi, leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He was the leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, then headed by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and its young leader Jayalalithaa, perhaps the most fascinating that Tamil Nadu had yet seen.

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