Ambimama - India

My mother tongue is Hindi though I am by birth from Thanjavur district in Tamilnadu.
It is because of transfer to Mumbai (Bombay then) of my father due to promotion.

So I had my schooling and first year in College in Mumbai. Tamil and Marathi were second and third languages. Of course English was the first Language.

But I had a passion for Tamil. I used to read “Ananda Vikatan”, ”Kumudam” and “Kalkandu” by Tamilvanan”. And with family we used to see Tamil films, which was shown in only two theatres. One was “Janata” in Mulund where we stayed and “Aurora” in Kings Circle.
We had seen Sivaji and MGR films and listened to AIR (All India Radio), Ceylon Radio.

Then came again the transfer to Chennai in the 70’s. Now my passion for Tamil increased but could not take that second language in my college as the standard was very high.

I started reading novels, historical fictions based on facts. The authors were many. But those who impressed me most was Kalki, Chandilyan, Sujatha, Jayakanthan, Javar Seetharaman, Akilan, Ra Ki Rangarajan, Asoka Mitran and Vasanthi. There are other authors, which I might have missed. Bharathi impressed me the most. Even today I read love his songs on freedom for India and his love for ‘Kali’ the Mother or “Bharath Mata”.

Great literary works by Kamban, and other was beyond my reach of level of intelligence.
I used to visit discourses on these and listen.

Now the technology has improved and I just browsed for Tamil and various authors.

I was just flabbergasted by the search in Google. How many sites! What an information explosion! I will write on some of the sites that impressed me.

But I wonder how Kalki and other authors in the 1930′, and 40s’ without access to information on a click, could produce masterpiece of works like Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki in 1940’s. Still today it stands out as the best piece. Even youngsters are impressed by this historical novel based on Raja Raja Cholan.

Of course on religious Saints I love Abirami Andhadi by Abirami Bhattar and more than that “Tirupugahz” by Arunagiri Nathar and Nalayira Divya Prabhandam by the Alwars.