S. Theodore Baskaran: Tamil Teller Of Tails

Summary

Sunderaraj Theodore Baskaran is a man of many parts, watchful guardian, memory-keeper and nature messenger, As a prolific author in Tamil, he brings cinema and conservation to people in their own language. He retired as Chief Postmaster General of Tamil Nadu

After graduating in history from Madras Christian College, followed by a job as researcher in Tamil Nadu State Archives for two years he joined the Indian Postal Service in 1964

During his career in the IPS in 1974 took study leave to research Tamil film history in 1976 he presented his first research article titled Film Censorship as an Instrument of Political Control in British India at the Indian History Congress at the Aligarh.

This and other articles formed the core of his first book The Message Bearers published in 1981. His second book The Eye of the Serpent (1996) won the Golden Lotus (Best Book on Cinema) Award in 1997.

In addition to his scholarly work on cinema, Baskaran is a keen bird watcher and a naturalist. He is a former honorary wild life warden, the South India Representative of the International Primate Protection League and served as a trustee of WWF-India. His collection of essays on nature and wild life conservation has been published as The Dance of the Saras (Oxford University Press) in 1999. He edited a book of articles on nature titled "The Sprint of The Black Buck" ; Penguin (2009)

In 2020 he was honoured by Sanctuary Foundation as a conservation hero with Sanctuary Lifetime Service Award 2020 for his role in wildlife conservation and his continuing legacy of writings in Tamil and English to the conservation discourse