TAMIL
Musings on life
P. SUNDARESAN
SILA NAERANGALIL SILA ANUBAVANGAL: Bagkiam Ramasamy; Vikatan Prasuram, 757, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002. Rs. 40.
WITH HIS funny musings on life Bagkiam Ramasamy has cultivated a writing style to make readers dissolve into laughter. To focus on his magnum opus is to carry coal to Newcastle.
This book is a compilation of 31 articles written by him. In an article the author’s superego comes alive when years after the demise of his father-in-law he realised his callous disregard for the feelings of that reputed Tamil savant bent upon making him an able exponent of Nalavenba.
What follows is just a synopsis of a few more skits: how as a journalist he spent a couple of days with the immortal Kripananda Warriar is described in a lighter vein. A lie detector test might have prevented the recruitment of his car driver who while at the steering wheel had an epileptic fit with the attendant circumstances.
A vivid picture of a Muslim spreading fragrance in every commercial establishment from the incense he is associated with and reaping a reward. A skilful manoeuvre of some women selling food to hoodwink the gullible public into buying each a packet to satisfy the hunger of fake saints sitting in a row at a temple entrance and getting a share of the sale proceeds in secret exchange of the packets for rotation.
Above all, an eloquent portrait of the famous diarist Anandarangam Pillai forms the crown and glory of an unputdownable book that provokes peals of laughter.
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