SHORT STORIES
Contemporary concerns
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`These stories take you on an exciting journey, and you traverse a whole gamut of human experience and emotions that reflect the changing Tamil milieu.'
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A PLACE TO LIVE is a superb collection of short stories spanning the last four decades by well-known writers who take you on an exciting journey, and you traverse a whole gamut of human experience and emotions that reflect the changing Tamil milieu.
The editor of the anthology of 29 short stories, Dilip Kumar, says it is more a personal effort to reassess the Tamil short story in terms of content, style and ability to maintain its links with its rich literary past. The stories mirror the slowly changing nature of Tamil life, without attempting to be overly correct, politically or morally. Vasantha Surya, who has translated the stories, feels that they should not be compared with the originals and hopes that they will be read for themselves. Endowed with a good ear for contemporary Tamil, she has used Indian English to convey the liveliness of speech in the southern parts of India.
Krishnan Nambi's "The Daughter-in-law's Vote" is a delightful tale which explores the definite dominance of the mother-in-law, but done in a gentle and witty style so that the message goes home beautifully. Ruku's monologue in the cowshed is a treat. En route the polling booth she sights an alisam tree. "In all the world there was only one alisam tree and it had been in her school. Was it the same tree?" The innocence, er..or is it the ignorance, of the docile daughter-in-law is portrayed with a fine brush even as the writer uses the conventional cat and parrot analogy to effect.Vannadasan's "The Chariot Comes to a Halt" voices the longing of 12-year-old Komu, a domestic help, who gets left out while all the inmates rush out to feast their eyes on the temple chariot. The all-round callousness and insensitivity cry out to be addressed and are in direct contrast to the child's equanimity.
Indira Parthasarathy's "A Cup of Coffee" chronicles the social decay that has set in. It is the story of a brahmin who has fallen on hard times and now waits for people to die, for he will get his fill during the rituals observed in deference to the dead. How he longs for a cuppa is told with a rare poignancy, and the resulting pathos is almost palpable.
If you are ever going to warm to Sujatha, here is your chance. "City", a straightforward tale, articulates the tragic implications of the illiterate villager being left out, and thus missing out on all the benefits which are his if only he knew. A case of many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip, and in this case the slip costs a life.
Asokamitran's "The Rat" seems like an achingly real account — Ganesan sets out to trap the havoc-causing rat in his house and the writer details his night-out in search of bait for the rattrap. The rat has the last laugh, it gets caught in the trap, and there is devastating irony in it leaving the bait untouched.
"The Plastic-God Box" by Ambai, Sundara Ramaswamy's "Temple Bull Plough Ox", "Curry Leaf" by Vimaladhitha Maamallan and K.Rajanarayan's "The Chair" are a few of the other memorable stories in the collection.
SELINE AUGUSTINE
A Place to Live: Contemporary Tamil Short Fiction, edited by Dilip Kumar, translated by Vasantha Surya, Penguin, p.276, Rs 250.
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