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Updates

Wanted to write about a few things. Got busy with work in the past few days and couldn't write much. Here is an update on the books read.

1. En Sarithram - U.Ve.Swamynathaiyer

Fantastic piece of work. Traces his life from 1855-1896. You get to read about his initial efforts in publishing Sivaga Sinthamani, Silapathikkaran, Purananuru, Manimekalai and a few other books. It may be just a rhetorical question, but without this one person, we may not have had most of our literary heritage we take so much of pride about. We may have still known the names but there may not have been an edition (what they call a 'sempathippu') which we can bank upon. Its kind of mind boggling to imagine the amount of travel he undertook and work he has to do to make sure he is publishing 'THE' edition (for ex., he compares 5/6 versions of suvadis for Sivaga Sinthamani to get the right version to print). On the other hand, we have a generation who do not want theur kids to learn Tamil.

2. 'Sanangalin samigalin kathai' and 'Karppamai iruntha kannigal' - A.K. Perumal

I was always on the look out for stories of the numerous ayyannar temples and amman temples doting the landscape of south Tamilnadu. So when I saw these books in the book fair, I bought it without hesitation and they document the stories of some of these temples and a few essays on how these temples came into existense. So apart from the stories, you get a long essay on the worship of mother-God. Perumal is a professor in Aralvaimozhi and is a field reseacher on the Gods of south Tamilnadu. These are excellent books if you are in the least interested in the culture and history of Tamils.

3. Vijayamarthandam - A. Mathavaiah

This is a novel that documents to some extent the life and times of a Thevar zamin in south Tamilnadu. It is full of ethanographic details of the people in the area and the lifestyle. For a book that got published in 1903, Mathavaiah puts forth some very progressive ideas. For ex, he laments the fact that if a women comes alone to a public place or seen outside during ungodly hours, the immediate reaction of the community is to brand her a 'loose' female. We dont rush to help these poor women and rather we take pleasure in making sure her reputation is sullied. I dont see any difference after 104 years of this comment and we are still very jittery to let our wives talk to other men or stay late in office. Probably the tamil male has a complete lack of self-confident and respect irrespective of what our politicians want us to believe.

Sibi - Update

One of the things that I am constantly fascinated by is the way Sibi learns things. He has started reading and is showing signs of becoming a voracious reader. But what interests me more the way he is reading. It all started with the teaching of words in his school and he was looking for 2-letter and 3-letter words everywhere. Then he gradually changed this and started reading and asking about things he know. Like, phone or toys of truck etc. Then he moved on to construct words with words he knows. Like, he knows the words 'car' & 'pen' and he reads a bigger word like 'Carpenter' using these words. Now, I suspect he understand the phonics of the letters and is reading them with the sound. Like, he read 'Hamam' a couple of days back although there are no known words built in it. I think once he understands the phonics of the letters there is nothing that stops him from reading anything. Knowing the meaning and understanding the context are going to be the next big thing. But then, he just started learning.

Anyway, planning to go to the big and better Chennai book fair this weekend and grab a few books. Let me see.