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Literary Review
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Master storyteller
PADMA NARAYANAN
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La. Sa. Ra. brought a new dimension to both the language and the content of Tamil fiction.
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Whether he wrote about spiritual sojourns or the physical intensity of desire and lust, he never failed to convey the depth and weight of thE experience.
Literary experiments: La.Sa.Ra. was difficult to slot into a particular niche.
Lalgudi Saptharishi Ramamritham, or La.Sa.Ra. as he was popularly known in literary circles, died recently in Chennai on his 92nd birthday. La.Sa.Ra. started writing when he was 20, originally in English and then switched over to Tamil. He brought a
new dimension to both the language and the content of Tamil fiction. Over a period of time, his labyrinthine sentence constructions earned him the reputation of being a ‘difficult’ writer. Nevertheless, after one had unravelled the mysteries of the overt as well as implied thoughts, one began to admire both the beauty of his imagery and the depth of his practical experience that showed clearly through his writings. His many collections of short stories, his seven short novels, his two collections of essays, his autobiographical jottings — Chintha Nathi that won him the Sahithya Academy award in 1989 — together present a wide range of characters and emotions, making it difficult to slot him in a particular niche.
La. Sa. Ra. was both a traditionalist eulogising the merits of a good joint family as in Parkadal and a modernist whose protagonist has no hesitation in accepting the child born to his wife from an earlier pre-marital affair. To him the metaphysical and the physical, illusion and reality, truth and falsehood were not pairs of opposites but two sides of the same coin. Whether he wrote about spiritual sojourns or the very physical intensity of desire and lust, he never failed to convey the depth and weight of the experience.
Unique concept
As the noted Dravidologist and anthropologist Dr. Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, who has done extensive research into La.Sa.Ra.’s works, reiterates in many papers, La.Sa.Ra.’s concept of time was something ‘unique’. Dr. Ferro-Luzzi writes in her Afterword to the translated publication of La.Sa.Ra.’s novellas, “He recognises abstract time... In the right moment important things happen...” Much in accordance with this belief, La.Sa.Ra. mentions the important ‘present’ as a culmination of various events of the past. This, as well as his idea of life as an illusion or a dream, is not new and relies on the Hindu concepts of karma and maya; but his method of presenting these ideas convincingly through metaphors and similes is what distinguishes him as a master story-teller.
La. Sa. Ramamritham, as a fellow writer described him, was a contented man. Awards were welcome but never hankered or chased after. He had a childlike spirit that revealed itself when he described his culinary prowess or his repartees to comments from family members. His pride in his literary experiments as well as his comfortable mastery of both English and Tamil was genuine and never pompous. “I am a matriculate of ‘those’ days,” he would say, “I know my English.” Sure enough, he would come up with a substitute word or expression in your translation that would make you wonder why you hadn’t thought of it earlier. His writings were inspired and spontaneous. His wife told me that he had asked her to read one of his stories to him and exclaimed, “Did I write that?” He never failed to express his appreciation of the new entrants in Tamil literature. His forewords and appreciative comments are treasured by them.
Personal touch
My own introduction and interaction with La.Sa.Ra. is one I will always treasure . I had translated his short story, “Karantha Pal” and asked for his comments. He called me the very evening he received the script and said, “When do we meet?” He encouraged me to translate more of his works, suggesting a couple of titles. His guidance and suggestions throughout the project was phenomenal and I was happy that the translation of Kal sirikkirathu and Prayachitham appeared during his lifetime. A couple of students have done research on his stories. A few of his short stories have been translated by noted translators and writers and published in magazines. He has been translated into Czech and French too. Yet, he is not much known outside of Tamil Nadu. More translations to reach more non-Tamil readers both in India and abroad would be the only way to honour this great writer of Tamil fiction, La.Sa.Ra.
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