TAMIL
Short stories
P. SUNDARESAN
GHORI SIRUKATHAIKAL: A.A.H.K. Ghori; Published by Iruvatchi, 41, Kalyanasundaram Street, Perambur, Chennai-600011. Rs. 120.
IF THIS absorbing book of 26 long short stories is any criterion, Ghori, who has already a couple of anthologies to his credit, is well on the road of success.
The broad outline of certain stories: how marital breakdown led to the wife’s suicide and husband’s murder in revenge is told in vivid detail.
A story deprecates looking on the police with a jaundiced eye. An honest day’s work as the key to success is elaborated in one. Spiritualism that kept one on tenterhooks is laid bare in another. The end of a secret admiration between a widower and a widow after coming to know that the son of the former and the daughter of the latter are in love. The parents’ joy knew no bounds at the happy wedlock of the youngsters! How a poor and handicapped old man was duped by those posing to reward him with a tricycle at a public function when they got up to promote their interest pops out of the pages. Description of the living death of a one-armed lad (fire had swallowed the other arm) who miraculously survived a horrific tragedy at a Sivakasi factory only to take on the role of a breadwinner will move one to tears. Whoever feels like some ice cream can as well enjoy the poem written with gusto in the story on a passing infatuation.
A few other storylines: child labour; sentiment of justice; human rights violations; peaks and troughs of married life; alcoholism; social conscience; a frustrated pensioner’s delight; startling revelations about private life; awareness of AIDS and communal harmony. The message in the brief prefatory note can whet the appetite of budding writers.
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