In Memory of Sujatha

Not long ago, I wrote about my views on Tamil writers and I vividly remember writing about Sujatha. I was not happy with his fray into the Tamil cinema. He was a prolific writer but I wouldn't put him on the same pedestal as Balakumaran or Kamal Hassan in terms of dialogue writing for movies. In fact, I couldn't help but feel that pearls were cast before swine because his work in movies was not at par with his work in literature. I agree that of late, my liking for him has been overshadowed by my disappointment with his role in cinema. And yet. It was a rude awakening today that a prolific Tamil writer, Sujatha, passed away.

We grew up with Sujatha's writings. I remember the fights we had at home every Friday when "Ananda Vikatan", a famous Tamil weekly used to be delivered with one of Sujatha's serial stories. If someone was hogging the book for long and the other complained to our mother, our ready response that promised acquittal was, "I was reading Sujatha's story". The unfortunate Tamilians who grew up not reading Tamil would recognize him from as early as the "Jeeno" days of Doordarshan. It was one of his famous science fiction stories not very well made into a TV serial. His writings covered so many feelings, opinions, and places that we associated with; the youth, the old, the orthodox traditions, the club life of the affluent, life in the agraharam of Srirangam, and life in the narrow streets of Triplicane, science fiction, the American dream, and many more.

His characters remain forever etched in our minds because of his attention to detailing. Be it, "Triplicane mAdhiri edathukkellAm nE pogave kOdAdhu, especially Saidoji lane-ukkellAm", "Enge pudiche indha pAppAra kuttiye?" in Anitavin KAdhalgal,

"Un peru enna?" "VelAyi. Un peru?" "Vimmu" "Adhu enna peru?" "Peru" in Pookkutti,

"Unga Athu TVla pommanAttigaL ellAm ammaNamA irukkALAme?" in Srirangathu DevadhaigaL, are classics. There are several more that can be quoted from his writings such as "Assam Kaattil saNal thinbadhu pola oru kanavu" etc.

The beauty about Sujatha's writings is that he spoke about several subjects. Aganaanooru, and Tholkaappiyam - Pudhu KavidhaigaL in Tamil. Science Fiction and Facts. Tamil Literature and English Literature. His writings had the freshness that people had never seen before. They had the power to inspire Tamil youth to once again pick up Tamil books and read the language. It is not an exaggeration to say that he brought about a revolution in modern Tamil Literature. There was a time when Tamil magazines used to advertise that Sujatha's story would be featured in the forthcoming issue to hike their sales. And yet, despite all this, he was very encouraging of new writers. It feels surreal that such a personality has passed away. An accomplished engineer and a devoted fan of the Vaishnavite literature, Sujatha had a weird attachment to IIT. If his heroes were engineers, they were from IIT. I still remember reading his "Maanju" short story in Vikatan that moved me to tears.

Let me finish this piece with an anecdote about Sujatha. A budding Tamil writer, who later became famous, also a fan of Sujatha's wanted to see Sujatha. But had no reason to, except to show his admiration. When he approached Sujatha's house, still thinking about what to say, Sujatha himself came out seeing the stranger. He asked the stranger, "What do you want?" and the youth became nervous and replied, "Onnum illai..... summA dhAn" (meaning: nothing... just like that). Sujatha was angry at this and said, "Summa dhAnA? Adhu enakku pidikkAdha vArthai. VandhA edhAvadhu kAriyathoda varaNum" (meaning: Just like that? I hate those words. If you have to visit, you must have a reason to do so). That epitomizes Sujatha. A man of terse words who drove the point quickly that his writings remain etched in our minds forever... It is a pity that for the rest of the Tamilians, one has to describe him as the man who was beyond films such as Roja, Kannathil Muthamittal, Priya, etc. It is unjust to list the man's accomplishments in such a shallow field rather than his contributions to literature and engineering for others to know him.

This is not a eulogy, but a die hard fan's outburst of finding it hard to let go. This is one of those times that you wished you had had one chance of meeting this personality. Just once... Just once...