Former IPS officer V.S. Ravi launches book celebrating lifelong passion for Shakespeare

Retired IPS officer and columnist V.S. Ravi launched his book Confessions of a Shakespeare Addict at a gathering marked by intellectual warmth and camaraderie. The event, held in Hyderabad on Monday, July 7 and moderated by former IPS officer B. Krishna Rao, brought together an audience of former bureaucrats, scholars, and literature enthusiasts who share Ravi’s reverence for the Bard.

The book, a culmination of Mr. Ravi’s lifelong engagement with William Shakespeare’s works, was praised as both erudite and deeply personal. Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary S. Chakravarthy offered a memorable tribute, stating, “Ravi breathes, inhales and exhales Shakespeare. He has pierced through Shakespeare to get the real essence. He is not just a reader, he is an addict.”

In his address, the author, Mr. Ravi recounted memories from visits to Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare and recitations at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Mr. Ravi narrated incidents such as stunning a group of tourists with verses from Hamlet and quoting Shakespeare during a car ride with Nobel laureate C.F. Powell. “I have recited Shakespeare in places where nobody ever did. Every word he wrote shines with incandescent luminosity,” he said.

Chairperson of The Hindu Group, Nirmala Lakshman, who could not attend due to a family emergency, conveyed her admiration in a message read by Mr. Krishna Rao. Praising Ravi’s contribution to English literary criticism through his long-running column in The Hindu Sunday Magazine, she called the new book a remarkable addition to the literary world.

“From talking about the astonishing vocabulary of the great poet who also coined nearly 2000 new words in the language to highlight the fact that we all use so many of Shakespeare’s phrases in our daily lives, Mr. Ravi also showed us that Shakespeare displayed a remarkable and innate understanding of human nature and emotions in his plays and poems. The timelessness of Shakespeare’s work is reflected in his acute and constant awareness of the human condition, as Ravi frequently pointed out to us. As students of Shakespeare, we ourselves all know how wonderfully Shakespeare dealt with subjects like love, loss, ambition, betrayal and evil. Through school days and college days, we have all grown up being impacted by Shakespeare in some way or the other. His greatness is something that stays indelibly with those of us who had the privilege to be exposed to his work,” her message said.

Former Tamil Nadu Governor and retired IPS officer Ram Mohan Rao, praised Ravi’s ability to enliven Shakespeare in everyday conversations. Though trained in mathematics and statistics, Rao said he deeply admired Ravi’s literary acumen. Among the dignitaries was former Hyderabad Police Commissioner A.K. Khan.