If you are a fan of old songs, you might have heard this Tamil cinema song:

“Kaadhalile patru vaithaal annaiyadaa annai
Kanmaniye varavu vaithaal unnaiyadaa unnai”

The song was authored by the great Tamil lyrist Kannadasan. If you are familiar with accounting principles, try to apply those principles to this song. You will be surprised how Kannadasan has simply stated an accounting principle in a cinema song.

“Debit” and “Credit” are denoted as “Patru” and “Varavu” respectively in Tamil accounting system. The song uses those words and brings out the expression of a girl whose lover has forgotten her.

A girl falls in love and opens her lover’s account in her heart. She debits her lover’s account with love. She gets a child and so she credits her lover’s account with the child. Her lover’s account is balanced and there is no outstanding. It implies that her lover has forgotten her, since the account has been settled.

What an intelligent imagination it is! Even in a commercial cinema song we are able to see an accounting principle. Is it the beauty of Tamil or the scholarly skill of Kannadasan?

- Kanakkar