I would love to say I was born with a book in right hand and a DVD in left hand, but that was not the case. Initial years were similar to any other kid growing up in remote villages. My reading started with comics and periodicals (Vikatan, Kumudham, Ambuli Mama). Devoured various comics (thanks to my father’s colleague who had a good collection), got introduced to colorful pages of Phantom, Magician The Mandrake, Rip Kirby, The Steel Claw. Of all the characters, Steel Claw became my favorite comics hero, because unlike others this guy becomes invisible, except for his iron hand, when he comes in contact with electricity. Also, got to read The Steel Claw, both in English and Tamil (Irumbukkai Mayavi). With periodicals, my reading was restricted to tidbits, jokes, and stories in Ambuli Mama, till we moved to Nagercoil.

Things changed when we moved to Nagercoil, beginning of my 7^th grade. We got pretty much all periodicals, thanks to newspaper person who had a circulation library kind of sort. We get the new magazines on the day of release and got to keep it for 3 days. This I would say a golden period of growing up with books. Books opened the world to rest of the world. I didn’t discriminate between magazines (Vikatan, Kumudam, Kungumam, Idhayam, Kalkandu, Pesumpadam, Bommai, Raani, Kalaimagal, Dinamanikathir, Kalki, Saavi, Raanimuthu) or authors (Rajeshkumar, Rajendrakumar, Pattukottai Prabhakar, Lakshmi, Sivasankari, Anuradha Ramanan, Geetha Bennett, Stella Bruce, Tamilvanan, Balakumaran, Bhagyam Ramasamy, Sujata, Ki.Ra.). Got in to reading serial stories, since they got discussed over lunch and dinner at my home. Thanks to my parents, our dinner and weekend meal sessions were always lively with discussion about stories, movies, events, and politics. Being in Tamil, my mother tongue, and written in simple Tamil, these authors and magazines got me hooked in to reading which really helped in laying the foundation for future to get in to some serious reading.

As a beginner, I didn’t and couldn’t differentiate between the authors, I kept reading all kinds of authors without partiality!! Thanks to these authors, they opened various doors and worlds, just sitting at my home. As a high school kid sitting at home, I could bike down Avinasi and Comibatore roads with Rajesh Kumar, walk around Berlin, Geneva, Tokyo with Tamilvanan’s Sankarlal, learn about hologram from Ganesh & Vasanth of Sujata, get a lesson on why addiction is bad from Sivasankari. With Randor Guy got a virtual run of Hollywood Movies in my mind based on his writings (thanks to our control freak Censor Board, only few foreign movies got a release in India, and you are lucky if they make it to theatres in towns you live in. I got to watch most of those only in nineties). Manian wrote travelogues and gave a first-person account of Diana’s wedding!! Women in Lakshmi’s novels came in two shades, they would be either kudumba Kuthuvilakku, Veettu Mahalakshmi role models or would be a mix of Nambiar, Asokan, Manohar, and C.K.Saraswati. With Anuradha Ramanan, vaguely remember a novel about a fun loving, take it easy hero who gets hit with a heart problem, then he goes downhill along with the story.

Got a glimpse of NRI life in US from Geetha Bennett. Liked her writing style, continued to read her stories in Vikatan till she passed away this year. Can never forget Stella Bruce’s Oru muraithan pookkum, and Adhu Oru Nilakaalam.

Sivasankari’s Paalangal, 47 natkal, Oru Manithanin Kathai, and Amma please enakkaga were interesting reads. She penned a self-improvement series Chinna Noolkanda Nammai Siraipaduthuvuthu and that time I was surprised that many in my circle didn’t get the drift of the title.

Tamilvanan was one of early writers of detective novels in Tamil, and editor of Kalkandu (means either sugar crystals or See and Read). Got to read his key novels since invariably they were republished in magazines due to their popularity. He took his readers to various cities (Tokyo, Frankfurt, Berlin, Geneva) through his Sankarlal detective novels. Later he himself became the detective in some novels. He also wrote mystery novels like Manimozhi Ennai Maranthuvidu. I never ventured in to his self-improvement books though.

By the time I reached college, I grew out of many of the authors. Mainly due to lack of shades in their characters. Over a period of time, I can’t even recollect the titles or stories since they never had any interesting, memorable characters. Black and white, and one note characters. Like our current Vijay and Ajith movies.

During my higher secondary and college days, I became a big fan of Balakumaran writings. He brought in shade in his characters and they had a philosophical and intellectual tone. His women had strong will and had their agency. In some novels, they were much stronger than the heroes. This came as a breath of fresh air in that period. He would call out the thought process the characters go through, and many a times he would write why it is so as a commentary. Initially it did impress me since it gave a different perspective, but after reading multiple of his novels, that itself made me lose interest in his writings, he didn’t leave anything to readers’ imagination or interpretation. What attracted me to his writings became the one which made me pull away from his writings. My favorites are Irumbu Kuthiraigal, Karaiyora mudhalaigal, Nizhal Yudhdham, Pachchai Vayal Manathu, Ananda Vayal, Mercury Pookkal, and Thayumanavan.

One author who stayed with me from my school days is Sujata. I started reading Sujata like any other authors of that time (late seventies). It wasn’t love at first sight. He slowly grew on me.

For first 2 years, I didn’t even know Sujata is a He. She is a He. It took an interview in a magazine to find out Sujata is an allonym of S.Rangarajan who worked for BEL!! Initial attraction was due to science in his stories, and interesting story knots. As I started reading more of his writings, was bowled over by his characters, their shades of grey, economy of his words, and command over language. When I came to college, went on a reading spree catching up with his earlier writings, thanks to a lending library. He continued to enthrall me with his writings on various topics – fiction, science fiction, plays, science, musings, and Q&A. He explored science fiction through En Iniya Iyanthira and many short stories. In Meendum Jeeno he introduced AI and heuristics in 80s. Sneaked in Alan Turing in Aagayam. Discussed porno in his musings, and Kanaiyazhiyin kadaisi pakkangal. His characters talked and behaved in ways that was close to reality and had an immediate connect for readers like me. He left a lot to readers’ interpretation and imagination giving just enough information. I can visualize him writing a paragraph and then trimming it down to just what is required. Sentences are more than the sum of words. In hands of a good writer, it can take you to a different dimension, they are magicians with words. Sujata is one of those. I keep going back to his stories like Eldorado, Renuka, Muran, Nagaram, Ilaneer, Parvai, Thenilavu, Hostel Dhinangal, Mudhal Manaivi, Olaipattasu, Gunam, Kaagitha Sangiligal. He ventured and made contribution to story and screenplays of movies collaborating with famous directors. In my opinion, they were still directors’ movies but Sujata never missed to get his memorable one-liners in whenever he got an opportunity. Pretty much kept pace with his works till he passed away.

Now-a-days, never miss to read Melanmai ponnusamy, Nanchil Naadan, S.Ramakrishnan, Imaiyam, Maari Selvaraj, Raju Murugan writings whenever they appear in Vikatan or Thadam. Find them powerful with their unique style. Keep going back to Ki.Ra. and Sundara Ramasamy. Both are strong in building a universe with characters that come to life in their stories. While all others have a place in my heart, Sujata has a special place!!

Aside: From that time period of 70-80s, another key factor that needs to be called out is wonderful drawings by Ma.Se. and Jeyaraj. They enabled readers to put a face to characters. They imbued life to the characters and the story. Along with writers, they had huge fan following and were household names. With Jeyaraj, we were always looking forward to his mischievous caption on T-shirt and tops!! Yes, he did cross the line few times and took some heat for that.