FOREWORD

by

Prof. K. R. SRINIVASA IYENGAR M.A.,D. Litt.
Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University (Retd)
Fellow, Sahitya Akademi

The reason behind Tiru Al. Valliappa’s request that I should
write a Foreword to his new collection of Songs for Children,
SIRIKKUM POOKKAL, can only be that, since I have myself
reached that stage in life called ‘second childhood’, I am duly
qualified for the role assigned to me. So be it, then. It is, indeed,
a pleasure to wish Godspeed to this volume, ‘Smiling Flowers’, by
a writer who has made ‘children’s literature’ his own elected field
and cultivated it with love, dedication and perseverance over a
period of several decades.

      While opting for the Banking profession to earn his
everyday bread and butter, Al. Valliappa nevertheless chose, for
the health of his heart and soul, to feed on the honeydew and
milk of Paradise so readily accessible in the world of children,
part make-believe and part quintessential reality. Lisping in
numbers at the age of thirteen, Valliappa hasn’t looked back, and
his books for children (prose and verse) number almost sixty. He
has also been a force, a movement, a trend-setter, and as early
as 1950 he brought into being the Association of Tamil Writers for
Children, and has served the cause of