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Novel experiment

Now read Sherlock Holmes in Tamil!

How will Sherlock Holmes say, "Elementary, my dear Dr. Watson" in Tamil? To learn more about that, you will have to read Manjari, the monthly Tamil magazine. Starting this month, "The Red Headed League," one of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic, will be published in three parts in Manjari as "Senthalaiargalil Sangam." And the man behind the translation is K. N. Srinivas, better known as Korattur Srinivas in the Tamil literary circle.

Hooked to whodunits

"I have been writing for over 20 years, mainly on science and technology, for various Tamil magazines such as Dinamani Kadir, Amudha Surabhi and Kalki. About 10 years ago, my father introduced me to Agatha Christie's `The Crooked House.' That was the turning point and I have been hooked to detective writing ever since," says Srinivas.

Armed with a doctorate in electrical engineering, Srinivas is a professor at Crescent Engineering College. "But writing is in my blood. An uncle of mine was a writer and my father is a voracious reader."

Why translate Doyle into Tamil? "I want to share the joy I experience reading his books with others who have similar taste. Also, I feel it's time serialised short stories made a comeback in magazines. If you had read `Thillana Mohanambal' by Kothamangalam Subbu, you need not watch the film. That was the power of the short story those days. That form of writing is practically non-existent today," says Srinivas.

Wider readership

He adds, "Even Bharathiar translated a Chinese story (Chu Chu) into Tamil. I want to take top class detective novels to a wider audience."

Srinivas, who also finds time to read the Tamil news on Podhigai and anchor programmes on AIR, has translated five more Doyle stories into Tamil and hopes to publish them soon. Besides Doyle and Christie, his personal favourites include writers R. Chudamani and Damayanti. He hopes to keep his passion for the Tamil language alive by translating English classics into Tamil.

SAVITHA GAUTAM

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