My first short story in Tamil in 60 years

With the publication of my short story titled `Express Rani` in the December 2023 issue of Kalaimagal,  the 92-year-old literary magazine in Tamil,  I have got rid of one more mental block.

 In my school days, I was a writer of short stories and plays in Tamil. I have also acted in plays written by me. Once I got into the demanding advertising profession I had stopped writing in Tamil though I continued to read popular Tamil Magazines.  Since I took a new avatar as a writer/author in English, post-retirement, some of my essays translated into Tamil have appeared in the Diwali issues of Kalaimagal and Ladies Special a Tamil monthly.  Impressed by my style of writing my good friend and well-wisher Kizhambur Sankara Subramanian, editor of Kalaimagal,  has been persuading me to write original articles/stories in Tamil. But my problem was that I could not write in Tamil as I had lost touch with writing in Tamil for 60 years. I found it very painful to compose even simple sentences in Tamil. Instead of writing a new story, I sent an unpublished story I had written in Tamil 60 years ago titled `Ilamai Thudippu`. Kizhambur found it interesting and published it in the Kalaimagal Diwali issue in 2022. He also insisted that I make a serious attempt to write an original story in Tamil.

 It happened during my last visit to Coimbatore when  I was staying with my daughter. I had not taken my laptop so I could not type any new essays during the golden hour in the morning, as is my habit. Not to waste time I decided to try my hand at writing a short story in Tamil. Though the thought process was smooth writing in Tamil was painful. I managed to get a draft ready with lots of scratching and rewriting. It is based on a real-life story and does not follow the usual grammar of short stories. Luckily my sister-in-law Mythili Seshadri who helps me with translations and Tamil typing found the draft legible  and  typed  it. I sent the short story titled `Express Rani` to Kizhambur and kept my fingers crossed.  He found the story interesting and promised to publish it in Kalaimagal. He kept up his promise by publishing it in the latest issue of the magazine.  I jumped with joy seeing my story, written in Tamil after 60 years in a prestigious magazine like Kalaimagal. Motivated by the encouraging feedback I am getting from my near and dear ones I have decided to explore this new avenue of writing  that has opened  to me. That is one of my New Year resolutions for 2024. But I must first learn to type in Tamil so that I don`t have to go through the painful process of writing by hand.

Thank you Kizhambur for your encouragement and support.