ow likely is it that an Indian woman, raised in a conservative family, debuts as an Indian woman More surprise awaits you as you get to her stories.
Her prose is uncluttered and easy to read. Though her voice is gentle, she misses no detail. There is also her impish wit that shows up frequently.
And you begin to wonder why this is not her fourth or fifth book. But once you learn of all that she has packed into her life, you realise her writing career had to wait its turn.
Smt. Balam Sundaresan was born to doting parents who indulged her curiosity and dreams. She was set on getting a college degree before marrying. She sat out two years waiting for the first college in her city that would admit women. She is a formally trained Carnatic musician. Was a serious ball badminton player while a student. She is proficient enough in Tamil, English and Hindi to be able to translate texts from one into another. She's well versed in Sanskrit. She is learning French now. And oh, she's a serious artist and she has personally illustrated some of the stories in this book.
Her children and grandchildren live overseas. They visit her frequently and she, too, travels to meet them. In the retirement home where she lives, yoga, meditation, exercising and other activities fill her life.
And, of course, she writes.
Her story 'Two Loves' probably epitomises the author's sharp insight into how, though times and customs have changed, human empathy endures. A diffident granddaughter brings her foreigner husband over and is happy to find the elder very welcoming and non-judgemental about how today's young meet, fall in love and marry, even while reflecting on how her own loving husband would compensate for difficulties of his young wife coping with a strong mother-in-law. She is content to discover the foreigner is a kind and patient husband to her grandchild.
In another story, a wastrel of a husband returns with apprehension to the wife he had abandoned for another woman.
He fears he'd be thrown out instead she, with some contempt mixed with empathy, lets him into her successful roadside eatery, gives him a good meal, and shows him a corner to rest. The chastened man wakes up shamefaced, and quietly leaves.
'Suyamvaram' is a satirical story that came about due to the author reading a report on how Indian couples increasingly prefer a girl child to a male one.
I wanted to know her better. She returned my call. Her voice rang clear and exuded cheer. A life lived so full and given to learning and empathy must surely inspire those she meets. We talked for a while, and I told her she must write her memoirs and the social history she was witness to. She warmed up to the idea and promised to get going.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to my mentor, guide and guru, Sri. Prem Rawat, whose message of peace and gift of self-knowledge have enriched my life.
My father, Sri. K.G. Subrahmanyam, was a lawyer and a writer as well. He wrote two books - Can the State Kill Its Citizen and The Lighter Side of Law and Life - which were published by The Madras Law Journal. I think, for me, the inspiration to write came from him. Initially, I wrote in Tamil and some of my stories were published in popular Tamil magazines like Kalaimagal and Mangaiyar Malar. Other magazines like Tinkle and Gokulam also published some of my children's stories in English. After a while, I discontinued sending stores to magazines, as the process of manually mailing them to editors was time consuming and difficult to manage amidst my other household activities. It was my granddaughter, Anush, who suggested to me, in 2010, that I start a blog to share my writings. She helped me set up the website, and I started to post my stories, articles, recipes and opinions about various topics on my blog.
As my husband had a transferable job, I had the opportunity to live in different places in India such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Bombay. I could observe the lives, problems and cultures of the people of those places. You can see them reflected in my writings. When my children moved to foreign countries like the UK and USA, my husband and I visited them often, and I was impressed by the way of life of Indians there. I wrote about them, too.
All the members of my family have been very supportive in this endeavour, especially my daughter, Chitra, who saw the potential for my writings to be published as a book and has been making ceaseless efforts to bring it to fruition.
I would like to thank D.V. Sridharan for taking his valuable time to write a great foreword to my book, though I feel I do not deserve all the praises he has heaped upon me.
I also thank The Garuda Prakashan and all the members of their team for bringing out this book in an excellent form.
All the names, characters, events and incidents in this book are the products of the author's imagination unless explicitly mentioned. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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