Bakery in Tamil Nadu kickstarts campaign demanding ‘Bharat Ratna’ award for music maestro Ilaiyaraaja

Tamil Nadu: Kickstarting a campaign for conferring music maestro Ilaiyaraaja with the ‘Bharat Ratna’, India’s highest civilian award, a bakery installed his life-size dummy cake statue at Bharati Nagar in Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, on Friday in a bid to mobilise public support for the campaign. 

The statue, kept in a glass case, depicts Ilaiyaraaja, hailed as the world’s most prolific music composer, in his trademark white kurta and dhoti and sporting ‘rudraksha mala’. It was a huge attraction with children and adults posing by it and taking selfies before entering the bakery-restaurant. Aiswaryaa’s bakery has also come out with a poetry, describing the music composer as one of the navaratnas (nine gems) and wondered why he could not be conferred with Bharat Ratna.

Pointing that the maestro had composed more than 7,000 songs and performed more than 20,000 concerts, it said the government had honoured him with Padma Vibushan but he deserved the highest civilian award. Six workers made the five-foot-high cake, using about 100 kg of sugar and flour and 250 eggs. It took six days to make the cake ready for display.