A grand statue of Mahakavi Bharathiar was unveiled at the Kumaraguru campus as a part of the Centenary Celebrations of the Founder Dr N Mahalingam on Saturday. The statue erected in front of Mahalingam Vigyan Bhavan (Admin Block) was unveiled by the students of Kumaraguru Institutions in the presence of renowned poet and writer, two-time Sahitya Akademi Award winner, Padma Shri Sirpi Balasubramaniam, Dr B K Krishnraj Vanavarayar, Chairman, Kumaraguru Institutions, Dr M Manikam, Vice Chairman, Kumararguru Institutions, Shri M. Balasubramaniam, Correspondent, Kumaraguru Institutions and Shri Shankar Vanavarayar, Joint Correspondent, Kumaraguru Institutions on April 01, 2023.

Delivering a special address at the event, Padma Shri Sirpi Balasubramaniam mentioned that he wrote a poem on Mahakavi Bharathiar long ago and he is at the Kumaraguru campus for the unveiling of his statue today. He said that we live in an era where computers write poems, referring to the conversational AI model ChatGPT and further adding, “ChatGPT states that Tamil is the oldest language. Mahakavi was known for articulating modern thoughts using this oldest language of the world”. Though Bharathiar lived a century ago when society was not influenced by scientific inventions, he gave importance to science in his creations and wanted people to gain industrial education to progress in life. Similarly, he was equally spiritual in his writing and also highlighted the shortcomings of society with this progressive writing. Padma Shri Sirpi Balasubramaniam further added that Mahakavi was a social scientist. This statue creates an opportunity for students to remember Mahakavi, understand as well as imbibe the in-depth meaning of his writing and achieve progress by implementing it in their lives.