Dilip Kumar (ed.) - The Tamil Story: Through the Times, Through the Tides

Edited by
Dilip Kumar

Translated by
Subashree Krishnaswamy

TRANQUEBAR PRESS

An imprint of westland ltd

61, II Floor, Silverline Building, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600 095

93, I Floor, Sham Lal Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002

First published in TRANQUEBAR PRESS by westland ltd 2016

First ebook edition: 2016

Copyright Dilip Kumar and Subashree Krishnaswamy 2016

Copyright of the original Tamil stories rest with the authors

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-93-86036-11-7

Book design by Art Works

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

To

the pioneering stalwarts of the Tamil short story

and

all the other writers who have kept the tradition alive

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Our deep sense of gratitude to Meenakshi Mukherjee, who sadly is no longer with us today. The fruition of this dream project owes much to her when we were scrambling around trying to get support, it was she who saw value in such a project and persuaded us to write to CIIL.

Prof Uday Narain Singh, the then director of CIIL, appreciated the significance of our proposal and responded immediately. If this project has seen the light of day, it is because of him, for not only sanctioning a grant but also ensuring that the process was smooth and efficient. We are immensely grateful to him. Our thanks also to Prof K Ramasamy, the then deputy director of CIIL, and his able staff.

We couldnt have found a more discerning publisher than Gautam Padmanabhan of Westland Ltd, who saw the literary value and historical importance of this project much before the book was ready. His commitment to and interest in such works was evident even several years ago when he published a seminal anthology of contemporary Tamil short fiction. We also thank Jayanthi Ramesh, Westland Ltd, for her prompt and efficient coordination at every stage.

We are indebted to our resource persons who gave invaluable suggestions and insights Ramakrishan of Cre-A, senior writer Ashokamitran and Kannan M of the French Institute, Pondicherry.

If this book is a pleasure to read, it owes much to the sharp eye and meticulous reading of Aruna Nambiar, who untiringly and unhesitatingly went over the manuscript a few times, insisting that she thoroughly enjoyed each reading afresh. We owe a deep debt to Vidya Mani, who, despite her busy schedule, offered with great alacrity to pore over the proofs, asserting that nothing gave her greater pleasure. We are also thankful to Varsha Natarajan, who volunteered to read the final proofs. However, mistakes, if any, are entirely ours.

If this book is a pleasure to hold, it owes to the creativity and aesthetic sense of Malvika Mehra, who immediately agreed to design the book. We also thank her able assistant R Venugopal. For the beautiful images on the cover, we have to thank the gifted artist, K R Santhanakrishnan, who readily gave us permission to use his paintings.

We are also deeply grateful to Gita Krishnankutty for her meaningful and perceptive comments. Our sincere thanks to A R Venkatachalapathy, who spared no efforts to provide us with an informative bio-note of writer Visalakshiammal.

A project of such a scale would not have been possible without the help and support of friends and well-wishers. We would like to particularly thank Ahana Krishnamoorthy, Bava Chelladurai, Janaki Neelamani, Kannan Sundaram, Kutty Revathi, Padma Narayanan, Prapanchan, Rajagopal, M Ramanathan, Ravi Subramaniyan, Sadiq, Selvi, Sendhooram Jagadish, Shailaja, Sri Kumar, Dr P R Subramanian, Thiruppur Krishnan, Seeni Vishwanathan, Dr Ganesh Kumar, Dalavai Sundaram and Nagam Muthu.

That this project took the avatar of a book is entirely due to the dedicated efforts of computer expert Ambika Dilip Kumar, who not only kept the manuscript scrupulously in order but also kept us replenished with endless cups of tea and snacks. Our very special thanks to her.

CONTENTS

Ammani Ammal

Va Ve Su Iyer

Subramania Bharati

Aa Madhavaiah

Selvakesavarayar

V Visalakshiammal

Pudumaippittan

Mauni

Ku Pa Rajagopalan

Na Pichamurthy

Ci Su Chellappa

Ka Naa Subramanyam

Kumudhini

S V V

Rasikan

Kalki

Devan

La Sa Ramamrutham

Thi Janakiraman

Ki Rajanarayanan

Ku Azhagirisamy

Sundara Ramaswamy

Ashokamitran

G Nagarajan

Aa Madhavan

Saarvaagan

Indira Parthasarathy

Krishnan Nambi

Neela Padmanabhan

Jayakanthan

C N Annadurai

T K Seenivasan

Rajam Krishnan

R Chudamani

Vaasanthi

Sivasankari

Sujatha

Ambai

Na Muthuswamy

Sa Kandasamy

Ramakrishnan

K Vittal Rao

Aadhavan

Poomani

Vannanilavan

Vannadasan

Prapanchan

Rajendra Sozhan

Balakumaran

Subramanya Raju

Jeyanthan

Maa Aranganathan

C R Raveendran

Gandharvan

Nanjil Nadan

Dilip Kumar

Suresh Kumara Indrajith

Vimaladhitha Maamallan

Thoppil Mohamed Meeran

Thilakavathi

A Egbert Sachidanandam

Shenbagam Ramaswamy

Subrabharathi Manian

Paavannan

Cho Dharman

Dhamayanthi

Sivakami

Sa Tamilselvan

Ma Kamuthurai

Jeyamohan

Konangi

Imayam

Su Venugopal

Perumal Murugan

Bama

Uma Maheswari

Vela Ramamoorthy

G Murugan

Gokula Kannan

S Ramakrishnan

Azhagiya Periyavan

Kanmani Gunasekaran

Meeran Maideen

Vizhi Pa Idayaventhan

Sudhakar Ghatak

Kumaraselva

Kanchana Thamodaran

N Shriram

Foreword

Modern prose in Indian literatures is barely a century and a half old. As is well known, the first inheritance from the West was the novel; the short story trotted a little behind. In the initial decades, because of its huge popularity and entertainment value, the novel held sway in Tamil. However, the lengthy, tiresome ramblings of social and moral issues never allowed it to achieve literary compactness or depth (even today the novel remains as deceptive a form as earlier). But with short fiction there was hardly a dull moment. It attained remarkable literary success and maturity no sooner than the form was adopted, with the perfect short story appearing quickly, all its elements intact. It is perhaps the short story that corresponds to and reflects the Indian perspective of life quite convincingly the glimpses may look scattered on the surface but are well bound beneath. Only the craft of the short story seems to have the benevolence to accommodate the fragmentary realities and truths of our existence.

In 1999, Manas published the anthology Contemporary Tamil Short Fiction (edited by me and translated by Vasantha Surya), covering three decades between the 1960s and 1980s. The translator of this anthology was the in-house editor at the time. The critical success and the readers response to that effort not only made us aware of the need for such a volume, but also goaded us to explore further possibilities in that direction. This comprehensive collection is the pleasant consequence of that understanding and process.