Thiru is a form of reverential address in Tamil, like Shree. Not only are his origins in dispute, it is not certain if Thiruvalluvar was indeed his name. He is believed to have lived in Tamil Nadu anytime between 1 BC and 600 AD. And he has returned the favour of his beloved language by quoting its greatest literary figure, Thiruvalluvar, in every budget he has presented, and making him known to North Indians who have this incurable compulsion to spell the poet���s name without an ���h���. That was how he first found a political standing among the masses. Then she would speak in English (there was a jingoistic movement against Hindi then), and Chidambaram would translate her words into Tamil. Indira���s face would beam with the reassurance that she has been cute. That was enough in a region where hysteria is a dialect. She would say into a mike called AIR��� Vanakkam, which is Tamil for namaste. He was that long man, wearing windshields as spectacles, who used to stand by the side of Indira as she faced the teeming masses of Tamil Nadu. A whole generation will always remember Chidambaram not as the dispenser of taxes but, more fondly, as the interpreter of Indira Gandhi.
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