Picks of the year
Let me start off with this. I am not a big time reader. I barely average a book and half per MONTH!!! And my taste in reading is pretty straight jacketed around thrillers and commercial masala flavored scripts. But if I’ve to remember any standout story for this year, its neither of the 17 books that’ve read this year (excluding Sujatha’s short novels second part, that I am relishing at present). Both of my picks are from the weekly magazine Kumudham.
The first one is a short story titled “Maanudam”. The old man from the story, picks a dog from the street, as a pup and rears it as his pet. It listens to everything the old man says and he boasts that the dog even understands his spoken tongue – tamil. The old man’s son lives in some foreign land and rarely visits him. One day while on his evening walk along with the dog, he catches up with his friend. The old man tells him about his situation that his son has been asking him to relocate to the foreign land, for which the friend wonders why the old man is overthinking on a no-brainer situation. He urges the old man to relocate immediately as his health condition needs monitoring and he should spend the last days with his son. The old man wonders who will take care of his dog in his absence, which is laughed away by his friend. He advises that for something that was born on the streets, the dog would find a way of its own and best case scenario – can be left with blue cross and it will survive, but it was him who needs to pack his bags and settle with his son. The old man is still not convinced as he has gone to love the dog as his own kin and doesn’t have the heart to leave him, let alone give it to someone. He dozes away while thinking about this and when he wakes up the dog is nowhere to be found. The next day, his regular vegetable cart vendor informs him that the dog was run over by a truck and was dead on the spot. The old man becomes heart broken and his friend sees the bright spot in it that he no longer has to worry about the dog. Hearing this the vendor tells the old man that, he actually saw the accident happen and for such a smart dog, it felt as if the dog had actually lied down in front of the moving truck on its own. It dawns on both the old man and his friend that, having heard their conversation and the predicament of its master, the dog had made the decision. The story ends with both the old man and his friend crying inconsolably at the humanness of the dog, which is apparently lacking in them.
It’s a simple three pager in the magazine and I read it some months back. But for some reason, every time I think about the story, from the very first time I read it, it’s always moving and leaves me with moist eyes. I am not a big fan of dogs leave alone pets for I am scared to the core. Somehow the story found a resonance with me at a level I couldn’t quite understand and left a lasting impression. I still couldn’t understand why I get so emotional on a relatively normal story. But of all the dozen and half books of several hundred pages that I read, this is the one that stands out.
About the next one there is already a dedicated post. Yet, week after week, the write up goes up by a notch and it is something I have begun to look out for in the magazine the moment it lands in our house – Tamizachi Aandal. Initially I thought, the series where a rebuke of sorts at the Vairamuthu issue, who degraded Aandal. But the way in which Priya Kalyanaraman has shaped the write up, the vairamuthu incident would be nothing but like stray dog barking at the sun. The story of Andaal’s devotion to lord Krishna is known to everyone. How the love for the god grows in on her along with her from her childhood is shown in such a lovely and fantastic write up, that oozes with cuteness associated with a child and devotion that is associated with divinity in kids. I can vouch for it that anyone who once starts following this series, irrespective of their background, if they love good tamil write ups, would cherish this series. That, it comes with mythological stories is an added advantage. I wish it runs full steam into the next year as well.
The first one is a short story titled “Maanudam”. The old man from the story, picks a dog from the street, as a pup and rears it as his pet. It listens to everything the old man says and he boasts that the dog even understands his spoken tongue – tamil. The old man’s son lives in some foreign land and rarely visits him. One day while on his evening walk along with the dog, he catches up with his friend. The old man tells him about his situation that his son has been asking him to relocate to the foreign land, for which the friend wonders why the old man is overthinking on a no-brainer situation. He urges the old man to relocate immediately as his health condition needs monitoring and he should spend the last days with his son. The old man wonders who will take care of his dog in his absence, which is laughed away by his friend. He advises that for something that was born on the streets, the dog would find a way of its own and best case scenario – can be left with blue cross and it will survive, but it was him who needs to pack his bags and settle with his son. The old man is still not convinced as he has gone to love the dog as his own kin and doesn’t have the heart to leave him, let alone give it to someone. He dozes away while thinking about this and when he wakes up the dog is nowhere to be found. The next day, his regular vegetable cart vendor informs him that the dog was run over by a truck and was dead on the spot. The old man becomes heart broken and his friend sees the bright spot in it that he no longer has to worry about the dog. Hearing this the vendor tells the old man that, he actually saw the accident happen and for such a smart dog, it felt as if the dog had actually lied down in front of the moving truck on its own. It dawns on both the old man and his friend that, having heard their conversation and the predicament of its master, the dog had made the decision. The story ends with both the old man and his friend crying inconsolably at the humanness of the dog, which is apparently lacking in them.
It’s a simple three pager in the magazine and I read it some months back. But for some reason, every time I think about the story, from the very first time I read it, it’s always moving and leaves me with moist eyes. I am not a big fan of dogs leave alone pets for I am scared to the core. Somehow the story found a resonance with me at a level I couldn’t quite understand and left a lasting impression. I still couldn’t understand why I get so emotional on a relatively normal story. But of all the dozen and half books of several hundred pages that I read, this is the one that stands out.
About the next one there is already a dedicated post. Yet, week after week, the write up goes up by a notch and it is something I have begun to look out for in the magazine the moment it lands in our house – Tamizachi Aandal. Initially I thought, the series where a rebuke of sorts at the Vairamuthu issue, who degraded Aandal. But the way in which Priya Kalyanaraman has shaped the write up, the vairamuthu incident would be nothing but like stray dog barking at the sun. The story of Andaal’s devotion to lord Krishna is known to everyone. How the love for the god grows in on her along with her from her childhood is shown in such a lovely and fantastic write up, that oozes with cuteness associated with a child and devotion that is associated with divinity in kids. I can vouch for it that anyone who once starts following this series, irrespective of their background, if they love good tamil write ups, would cherish this series. That, it comes with mythological stories is an added advantage. I wish it runs full steam into the next year as well.
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