Reading occurs in the reader’s imagination, and language serves as a vehicle for that imagination. In fact, reading is itself a translation; we are converting a linguistic form into our experience. A good reader can easily fill the gaps of translation and imagine the feel of the original.
He has spent most of his career in culture and communications fields as practitioner, policy analyst and educator. He works for the Institute of Policy Studies and taught at the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. Beyond his professional career, he has been active in serving the Tamil community. Over four decades, he has collaborated with government agencies and community organisations to develop the community’s intellectual and cultural resources. His current project is to launch the first Encyclopedia of Singapore Tamils, an online resource in Tamil and English.