Gnani was nurtured at a time in the 1970s when alternate cultural movements rose to prominence in print, film and theatre. He was considered a small-time journalist among mainstream media, and a mainstream journalist among subaltern circles. His experience in working in an English daily, interest towards modern literature, involvement in theatre, in-depth knowledge in Art and painting, simple articulation, societal concern, resolute factual propositions, uncompromising criticism with unique perspectives, voicing for social harmony and secularism, and compassion towards the marginalised, made Gnani a noticeable force who cannot be ignored.

In the prefaces of his Book “Pazaiya paper, Gnani says, “Sharing deep and serious perspectives to the masses using simple language has always been my approach; at the same time, the simplicity and mass appeal doesn’t have to dilute the content either. This creates a dichotomy where I am identified as a serious journalist with scholarly depth by the mainstream media, and as a popular journalist with mass appeal by the subaltern circles. I don’t find any problem with that though...”

1982

In 1980, ‘Indian Express’ fired Gnani for parallelly functioning in other literary activities while simultaneously working for Express. Gnani challenged this injustice before court, which proceeded for four years. Gnani neither had a sound economic background, nor a stable source of income during those turbulent years, yet he decided to start his own news magazine with the support of his well wishers. Even though it was primarily a news reporting venture, Gnani wanted to ornate the it with rich literary content too. He attempted this novel idea at a time when he was practically broke, devoid of any investment to take such a risk.

So, Gnani wrote a letter to his friends and literary enthusiasts, explaining his situation and asking for monetary support (6.1.1982) to start his own news magazine, Subramania Raju donated 3000 rupees, and Sundara Ramasamy a 1000, encouraging Gnani’s brave new endeavour. The timely assistance of friends like Vaitheeswar is also worth mentioning. Advertisements of Sundara Ramasamy’s Sudharsan Textiles and Ramakrishnan’s Kriya Publications were featured in the inside cover, which helped the magazine run.

That was Bharathi’s birth centenary year. Gnani looked for an energetic catchy name for his magazine. Finally, the thunderous ‘Dheemtharikida’ from Bharathi’s poem ‘Mazhai’ (Rain) became the title of Gnani’s new magazine.

“Thikkugal ettum sidhari-thakka

Dheemtharikida Dheemtharikida Dheemtharikida Dheemtharikida”

Gnani was 28 at that time.