Down Memory Lane — Sujatha

Today’s posting is “Down Memory Lane” by Sujatha. This article featured in Nrisimhapriya August 2004 issue ( English Edition )

I have never been asked why I became a Tamil writer. Let me think..

I was born in Triplicane and almost from my cradle whisked off toSrirangam by my grandmother. My father was in a transferable job and this was the reason given for my early separation from my parents. Srirangam had its own oddities and charm.

Even now it has some, but today’s Srirangam is not my childhood town. Except for the inner Uttra and Chitra streets and the sanctum, every thing has changed irrevocably.

Every morning the Prabandam verses were afloat in our ears recited in a sing-song voice, by little Vishnava boys, thanks to aVedapathasala established by my ancestor Kuvalagudi Singam Iyengar. This was a Charity Trust for the children of poor Iyengar families. Young and bright-eyed boys were given sustenance, along with Upanishad’s and Diyva Prabandam lessons.

They were to learn them by heart before they were twelve. Then, they were sent into the world to fend for themselves. I followed some of them in later life. Three became cooks. One became an assistant director in Kodambakkam, another a brilliant teacher of Visishtadaita and yet another, an archaka in Vishnu temple at California.

The parthasala model education was not suitable for the modern world. The Trust had to revise the curriculum to enable the boys survive in the world.

Recently, when I visited Srirangam there were hardly any students. The Iyengar community has presumably become prosperous. But even today, the vestiges of the great tradition established in early eighth century and canonised later by Sri Ramanuja, remain.

When Lord Ranganatha comes out of the great temple the verses of Divyaprabandam precede Him. In Margazhi festival, the entire Thiruvaymozhi is recited in decadic from day and night. The temple is steeped in Tamil tradition. You will find even today there are individuals who know the entire four thousand verses by heart. Without much difficulty I can recall a few hundred verses.

The verses got embedded in my memory before I knew their meaning. In Srirangam, even today, you find people greeting each other in chaste Tamil terms like adiyen, devareer, thirumeni, etc., No wonder I became a Tamil Writer.

Srirangam Rajagopuram sketch by Sujatha Desikan (1993)

Kolaiyudhir Kaalam – Sujatha

அறிவியலுக்கும் அமானுஷ்யத்திற்கும் இடையே நிகழும் தீராத போராட்டத்தை முன்வைக்கும் இந்நாவல்கணேஷ் வசந்த்தோன்றும் சுஜாதாவின் படைப்புகளில் பெரும் புகழ்பெற்றதாகும். மனதை அதிர வைக்கும் சம்பவங்களும் எதிர்பாராத திருப்பங்களும் தீர்க்கமுடியாத புதிர்களும் நிறைந்தகொலையுதிர் காலம்வெளிவந்த காலத்திலிருந்தே வாசகர்களின் உற்சாகமான வாசிப்பிற்கு உரியதாக இருந்து வந்திருக்கிறது.

Kolaiyudhir Kaalam(Season of Murders) is a murder thriller from Sujatha, the famous creator of Ganesh-Vasanth duo.

I have previously reviewed some of Sujatha’s works here. This one is no different in the plot genre and the characters juxtaposition, but the difference is that it deals with two different tracks at the same time toeing the main line. There is a thin line between labelling a crime as done by human elements and labelling it as superstitious elements. Sujatha takes this thread wonderfully and woes a story around it.

Ganesh and Vasanth are sent to an estate to settle certain succession related disputes by a friend called Deepak. There they find that the legal heir apparent is an 18 year old girl named Leena Vyasan, taken care of by her uncle Kumara Vyasan.

The estate has some strange things to offer. Kumara Vysan fills them up on the legend that runs in te family-of a ghost haunting the Vyasan family members, especially female members and the latest to be affected by it is Leena who had committed a murder two years back, but is unaware of the fact.

Ganesh and Vasanth decide to investigate and are perplexed at the nature things take shape. Whsipering voices in the dark, murder attempts, Leena’s strange behaviour, apparitions walking in the night with no clue as to how it all happens make them pinch themselves and pull at their hair.

Ganesh, ever the logician, rationalist refuses to believe the supernatural element and investigates deeply, injuring himself in the process. Vasanth is not so convinced in the science element and draws his own conclusions from the events. And all points to Leena, who denies any knowledge of the events.

As gradually Ganesh uncovers the reasons behind the strange happenings, a great blow falls…and all is blank for Ganesh and Vasanth. More characters join towards the end and a stunning climax awaits the reader, leaving him wondering whether it is all science or supernatural elements that play foil.

A good interesting read indeed.

–Harish Ragunathan

SCIENCE FICTION – Another tomorrow

SCIENCE FICTION is usually celebrated for the glimpses it offers into the future. The crispest definition of science fiction is to call it a literature of “what if?” Due to the protean nature of the genre, it embraces everything from crude interplanetary romances to sophisticated psychological drama. It has been universally acknowledged as the most popular form of fiction for young people and exists in diverse forms, challenging any kind of rigid categorisation. “It attempts to present realities which are different from those we know”, says critic Christopher Evans. “The imagined future, the altered present and the past in which history was different!” Science fiction writers have been perpetually interested in possibilities and potentials.


In his preface to the anthology of short stories written by Sujatha Rangarajan, a major Tamil writer, the author admits that as a subgenre, science fiction has not been widely practised by Tamil writers. However, Sujatha points out many elements of science fiction are present in novels written in the past in Tamil.


Many of his own stories have been published without being classified as science fiction, although they may have possessed many traits common to the genre. Just as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has been regarded as the forerunner of the genre in the Western world, our own epics and myths have elements of science fiction which are truly amazing. Not just rockets Sujatha, in his preface, reminds us that science fiction need not necessarily be concerned with rockets and space odysseys. Dark subjects like the survival of mankind are frequently addressed.


In “Jillu“, set in the future, there is a threat of acid rain after nuclear warfare between India and warring nations. Cities are being evacuated but the child Kumar refuses to board the helicopter without his pet dog Jillu. In the ensuing confusion, both the boy and the dog get left behind. The pity and the terror of the situation is conveyed in terse crisp prose. Sujatha’s knowledge of robotics and computer technology find expression in the stories “Adimai” (Slave) and “Agayam” (Sky).


In “Adimai“, the human is able to hoodwink the robot, but in “Agayam” the robot is juxtaposed against the human as an equal and the ending is left to the wild conjectures of the reader. Jayant Narlikar, in his Return of Vaman, has likewise speculated on the grave possibility of robots eventually taking the place of man, making him redundant.


“Anna Salai” and “Thimala” are stories set in the distant future. “Thimala” is particularly heart warming, for the power of religion and prayer still operates even after the modern miracles of the digital age have come to pass. The experience is described as “thrilling” by the protagonist Athma who agrees to visit Thimala (our Tirupati) to please his wife who still has within her remnants of the forgotten human qualities of love and piety.


“Suriyan” (The Sun) is also set in the future. It is about a few families which live underground to avoid the deadly effects of radiation, a legacy of global warfare. “Mister Munuswamy Oru 1.2.1” is an interesting essay into the psychological depths of the human mind and its capacity for total intellectual transformation. However, the scientific marvel of artificial intelligence is, alas, only temporary and Munuswamy is back to his illiterate life style, believing his short-lived transformation to be just a dream.


On the wings of time In “Oru Kathayil Erandu Kathai“, the same character is shown in two different eras, more or less displaying similar roles. In “Kala Yanthiram” the protagonist gets hold of a mechanical contraption which helps him travel backwards and forwards in time. Being a novice in such exercises, while operating it, he goes back in time to the age of the famous grammarian Tholkappiar and even has the pleasure of adding his contribution to the famous book by the grammarian. But the problem arises while trying to return to the 21st Century. By pressing the wrong button, he comes to 1774 instead of 2024 to which he belongs. This story has the reader in splits as Sujatha gets away with the anachronism inherent to such writing with audacity and brilliance.


Man and the unknown The motif of alien beings peopling our planet is a very common one in science fiction. Patrick Parrinder comments, “Science fiction, when it is concerned with alien modes of being, approaches man through his contact with the new and the unknown. Their concern is with man himself and the literary exercise is a process of discovering what man is and what choices are open to him.”


“Tejaswini“, written in 2001, has a startling conclusion while “Manjal Ratham” has all the weird connotations of life in a strange planet where we earthlings are the aliens. “Upagriham” is about a UFO phenomenon discovered by an aged man who is faced with disbelief and ridicule for his remarks. Sujatha’s anthology, in turn witty, wise and incredibly entertaining, makes imaginative use of conceptually intriguing scientific technology.


An accessible combination of conceptual daring and moral seriousness places the book well above the common run of science fiction. Sujatha says, in Marathi and Bengali, there has been a significant increase of writers experimenting in this category. Kondke’s anthology of stories entitled It Happened Tomorrow includes two Tamil stories.


Even if an author is ignorant of scientific facts, as long as he observes “internal consistency“, if it obeys social and structural rules within the plot, the story will be accepted, says Sujatha. He invites greater exploration of this genre which flouts tradition and invites a re-evaluation of old-fashioned viewpoints.


More than mere craftsmanship Being science fiction, Sujatha’s expertise in plumbing the depths of human emotions is naturally not in evidence. However, the reader’s intelligence and emotions are stimulated through the “thought through” explanatory mode of narration adopted by the author who is much more than a clever craftsman.


There is a constant sense of movement, physical as well as psychological, ensuring the reader’s attention. As Mark Twain once said, “Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense“: science fiction, often called the literature of the impossible, appears mainly as an alternative technique for apprehending and coping with our everyday world.


-Courtesy Sujatha Desikan 

கடந்த 25 ஆண்டுகளுக்கும் மேலாக சுஜாதா எழுதி வந்திருக்கும்விஞ்ஞானச் சிறுகதைகளின் முழுத் தொகுப்புமுதன் முதலாக வெளிவருகிறது. தமிழில் விஞ்ஞானக் கதைகளின் முன்னோடியான சுஜாதாவின் இப்படைப்புகளில் நிகழ்காலமும் எதிர்காலமும் அறிவியலும் புனைவும் யதார்த்தமும் கனவும் கலந்து மயங்குகின்றன. கால மாற்றத்தால் புதுமை குன்றாத இக்கதைகள் வாசகர்களின் மனதில் தீராத வினோதங்களைப் படைக்கின்றன.

PREMA SRINIVASAN Literary Review , The Hindu – Sunday, Sep 05, 2004.

இவரும் தமிழ்க் கடவுள்தான்!

தெய்வம் என்று ஒன்று இருந்தால் அது லோகம் பூராவுக்குந்தான். ஆனாலும் அதை ‘நம்முது’ (நம்முடையது) என்று விசேஷமாகப் பிரித்து வைத்து ப்ரியம் காட்டி உறவு கொண்டாடணும் என்று பக்த மனஸுக்குத் தோன்றுகிறதுண்டு. ஒவ்வொரு தெய்வத்திடம் இப்படி ஒவ்வொரு ஜனஸமூஹத்திற்கு ஒரு அலாதி பந்துத்வம் இருப்பதில், தமிழ் மக்களுக்கு ஸுப்ரஹ்மண்ய ஸ்வாமி என்றால் தனியான ஒரு ப்ரியம். முருகன், முருகன் என்று சொல்லி, தமிழ்த் தெய்வம் என்று அவரை இந்த நாட்டுக்கே, பாஷைக்கே உரித்தானவராக முத்ரை குத்தி வைத்துக் கொண்டாடுகிறோம்.

எனக்கென்னவோ அவரை மட்டும் அப்படிச் சொல்லாமல் அவருடைய அண்ணாக்காரரையும் தமிழ்த் தெய்வம் என்று சொல்லணும் என்று (இருக்கிறது)! இளையவரைத் தமிழ்த் தெய்வம் என்று குறிப்பாகச் சொல்ல எவ்வளவு காரணமுண்டோ அவ்வளவு -ஒருவேளை, அதைவிடக்கூட ஜாஸ்தியாகவே - அண்ணாக்காரரையும் சொல்வதற்கு இருப்பதாக எனக்குத் தோன்றுகிறது. அதனால் - அந்த அண்ணா - தம்பிகளைப் பிரிக்கவே படாது;

சேர்த்துச் சேர்த்தே சொல்லணும், நினைக்கணும், பூஜை பண்ணணும் என்பதாலேயும் - பிள்ளையார், ஸுப்ரஹ்மண்யர் இரண்டு பேரையுமே தமிழ்த் தெய்வங்கள் என்று வைத்துவிட வேண்டுமென்று தோன்றுகிறது. அப்படி ஒரு ‘ரெஸொல்யூஷன்’ கொண்டு வரப் போகிறேன்! (அது) ‘பாஸ்’ ஆகணுமே! அதனால் புஷ்டியான காரணம் நிறையக் காட்டுகிறேன். ‘யுனானிம’ஸாகவே ‘பாஸ்’ பண்ணி விடுவீர்கள்!

- ஜகத்குரு காஞ்சி காமகோடி ஸ்ரீ சந்திரசேகரேந்திர சரஸ்வதி சங்கராச்சார்ய ஸ்வாமிகள்