Stories from our families

This Sunday I had the privilege of participating in the launch of a  book titled `Nammathu Kadaigal`( Stories from our families). It  was like a big family affair. The book is a collection of  61 short stories/essays in Tamil  by 34 writers, compiled by Dr.Sunderaraman Chintamani. He is  a corporate honcho turned digital Marketing consultant and  a popular professional  speaker  apart from his many other talents.

 I received the first copy of the book from Mr.Suresh, the Managing Director  of the Arun Excello Group of Companies,  a house of Engineering & Construction excellence, whose Senior Citizen facility `JIVA` near Mahabalipuram is becoming  favourite destination for many senior citizens. Other guests of honour on the dais were the ever popular auditor & philanthropist,  Kalaimamani J.Balasubramaniam & `the one woman army`  Girija Raghavan, the editor of Ladies Special magazine. The function which was held in the mini Hall of IIT Tech park in Taramani, anchored ably by Mrs Jayanthi Sunderaraman, was attended by some of the contributing  writers and their families.

The uniqueness of the book is that it contains stories of  families  with brahminical background with generous use of brahminical language/conversations, which according to Dr.Sunderraman is missing from most of the stories published in the last 20 years.  He felt the need for archiving such stories so that the younger generation is aware of the brahminical culture and traditions, which is sadly going out of fashion.  It took him almost five years to compile the book as initially there was resistance from some writers who were worried about participating in a venture which focused on a community. However Sundararaman`s persistence paid and his dream has become a reality.

The book  has the cover designed by auditor and part time artist Sridhar Seethapathy who  has  also done  the illustrations used in every story.

The four dignitaries on the dais offering their felicitations to the author  congratulated him and wished him well.

As a part of the programme, using the power point presentation,  the author gave a brief introduction to all the writers featured in the book .Those present in the audience or their representatives received their first copies from the guests of honour.  This ambitious book  of the author is  self published  by Jingyashika, a company owned by the Sundararaman . The project has been supported by a few sponsors. The 450 pages book is priced at Rs 450/- and is presently available with the author who can be contacted on 9840923764.