Red Maruti

I’ve been relishing a 500 page Sujatha short story collection since January this year. Didn’t want to finish the book at all as almost all of those stories were awesome. What a man Sujatha has been!!! To conceive such themes and story lines 3 decades before and to even think on such areas for a short story is astounding. Be it sci-fi, romantic, thrillers, drama any genre, Sujatha manages to leave his stamp of perfection and freshness. In fact, he has grown into a genre of his own and anything which is novel and unique along with some scientific inputs explained at a basic level, is called out as “pulling a Sujatha”. Of the several dozen stories, which includes the original short story which got made into the movie “Kannathil Muthamittal”, the one that immediately stuck a chord with me was “Red Maruti”.
The story is about a family that travels back to Chennai on a Red Maruti car. There is a grand old lady, her son, his wife, their kids all part of the group who are on the commute. The son’s character would find immediate resonance with anyone part of such a family setup – quick to irritate and anger, showing his concern in the form of anger and giving up in desperation to the needs of the other family members despite being disgruntled. The DIL is again, a typical middle class wife, who has to support her husband, not allowing him to lose face at the same time balance out his vent from her mom-in-law. She is the typical buffer who has to bear the brunt from the son-mom combo yet has to tread a middle path, supporting both of them. The beauty of the character is brought out excellently and her situation explained in as few words and situation possible. To top it all, the grandma, the grandest character of them all. A very relatable and quite possibly based on a real life person, her portions and dialogues are the driving factor for the story.
The story begins mid commute, where the grandma wants her son to stop the car for rest room break. He gets pissed off, figuratively, since it was getting dark and before nightfall his plan was to reach to the safety of home. His worry being, any unplanned delays would screw up his rigid schedule. His mom also throws an additional request to detour to Kanchipuram, to visit the Varadaraja swamy temple. The conversations around this incident are so real that, you would be smiling and nodding, recollecting similar incidents from your own life. While they are arguing and shouting over this, they all notice another red maruti, rushing past them at break neck speed. The kids get excited and ask their dad to chase the car only to be admonished. What happens next is a super twist on the story and possibly something everyone on travel should be watching out for. Sujatha, brings into the play the magnanimity of the grandma, the selfishness of the son and the cinematic twist in the end, the story literally has it all. The reason how the grandma handles the situation and her response will move anyone. What was irking in the entire premise was the selfishness angle of the family. It somehow didn’t gel.
I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those who care to read the story. But in a 500 pager if this is the one that comes to mind after almost 2 months of reading the book, I would surely recommend this story as a must read. I am not worthy to review the entire book as the master belongs to a different level of genius. But would pick out couple of other stories that piqued my interest long after wrapping up te book.