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Literary Review
PERSONALITY
True to the original
HARIHARAN BALAKRISHNAN
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These stories mirror the society of emerging India early in the last century.
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A momentous century passed between the birth of Prof. K.N. Sundaresan (1899) and the day his eldest daughter passed away in 1999. K.N. Sundaresan was a professor, poet and above all, a patriot. When he named his eldest-born “India Devi” i
n 1927, not many were amused. In fact, wry smirks and poor jokes abounded.
But few gauged the passion of the man who left his native village in Tiruchi for small-town Berhampur in the East Coast to teach mathematics in a fledgling college. The flight was due to prevailing politics in Madras that made jobs scarce for Brahmins.
Sundaresan’s five children never had the opportunity to study Tamil at school. All learning of the mother tongue was at home, courtesy the time their parents could spare, and the few magazines available at the AH Wheeler’s stall in the railway station.
Glorious moment
It was a glorious moment for the family when India Devi presented them a copy of the August 1947 issue of the prestigious magazine Kalaimagal when India won her independence. Her first short story was published in that issue. Truly, the 20-year-old had justified her name, and vindicated her father.
India Devi went on to write more than 100 short stories for magazines like Kalaimagal, Kalki, Sadeshamitran and Ananda Vikatan — many of them prize-winners. She wrote under the pen name “Vindhiya” — maybe subconsciously aware of the inevitable “question mark” whenever her real name was pronounced or spelt.
Her brother Andy Sundaresan has now translated selected stories into English and brought out the book Cupid’s Alarms and Other Stories (published by Kurinji Publictions, in the U.S. ( www.kurinjipubs.com.).
These stories mirror the society of emerging India in the first half of the last century. Some are from real life and reflect the author’s sensitivity.
The first story “Parvathi”, published in 1947 is about the delicate subject of a girl coming of age and her mother’s anxiety, and reassurance by a neighbour who goes into an autobiographical mode relating how blind faith in the Almanac could damage an individual.
“The warmth in his eyes” is a moving true story of the blind violinist Marella Kesava Rao and his doting father who accompanied the talented youngster wherever he went to perform and guided him through life. It speaks of the courage and wisdom of a talented artiste whose father died on the railway platform of Viziawada when they were returning home after a performance for AIR.
“Cupid’s Alarms” is the story of doubt and distrust of a woman towards her professor-husband’s close friend whom she intuitively suspects of philandering.
“A Loving Heart” possibly speaks of the author’s own life and psyche. It is about the innocence of a child’s responses to events in early life. It is the story of a childless couple agonising over the apparent hatred of a niece who was beaten by the uncle in a thoughtless moment.
India Devi’s last story was published in 1959. This is again based on a real-life incident where an old man on the banks of the Cauvery who had visited Benares in his youth. He often expressed his latent wish to “spend four months” there and asked his grandson who had joined the BHU to find him accommodation in a lodge or chowltry every time the young man came home for vacation.
Finally, towards the end of his course, the young man rushes to the platform to receive his grandfather, only to be greeted with his ashes in an urn.
Vindhiya’s output was amazing for one who spent all her 72 years in Orissa that had less than a sprinkling of Tamil population. Her grasp of the Tamil ethos and middle-class mores of Tamil society of the day was uncanny.
For some reason not clear even to her family, she stopped sending her stories to magazines for the rest of her life. But she continued writing — often past midnight.
Lost manuscripts
In a sad incident, their house was burgled a few years after her husband’s retirement. After her death, her husband discovered one of the most precious of the lost items. There was familiar handwriting on a paper bag in which the shop-keeper gave him some lentil.
It was the manuscript of one of several unpublished stories she had written during the last decades of her life. All these, possibly the most mature of her work, are tragically lost for ever.
India Devi and Prof. Subrahmanyan had no children of their own, but were a warm and ever-smiling couple till the end.
India Devi died tragically in 1999 due to a short circuit in the immersion heater at their home in Cuttack. He husband, who had retired as Principal of Christ College there, followed in a couple of years.
Andy’s translations are authentic and true to the original. They carry the Tamil flavour — maybe a little too much of it. While some phrases are deliberate with the American reader in view, an overdose of Tamil idiom like “Lalitha twisted her tongue as she expressed her agreement with her husband” and “All these actions spun my fluid thoughts into a knotty braid...” jar the sensibilities of readers who think in English.
Hopefully, the next edition will take care to avoid such discordant notes. The special charm of the book comes from the sketches that accompanied the original stories in the respective Tamil magazines in which they were published.
All in all, the book is a fitting tribute to a gifted author who was truly “home-grown”.
E-mail: fabalas02@yahoo.com
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