நிறமற்ற வானவில் - Sujatha

Read a Sujatha novel after a long time. நிறமற்ற வானவில். Before he starts the first chapter, Sujatha starts his silumizam.

The first chapter is named as “முதல் அத்தியாத்துக்கு முன்”!

I found it difficult to read (may be I’m still in the shadows of Ponniyin Selvan- Waiting for the 5th part book). Too much of sentences in English, those are in Tamil text. I had to spell it word by word. Some Tanglish words I could find or get the meaning. Ex. “லைஃப் இஸ் அப்ஸர்ட்”. அப்ஸர்ட்- I couldn’t translate in Tamil.

The story is about a middle-aged man named Moorthy. He is confronted with a personal loss in his life. How he gets himself out of the mess is the story.

Sujatha’s character can only extract dry and witty humor in unusual circumstances. As said before, when Moorthy is confronted with a personal loss, his brother-in-law speaks with him,

”மூர்த்தி ரொம்ப டீப்பா எடுத்துக்கறப்பா.. இதை”

“பின்ன விசில் அடிக்கச் சொல்றீங்களா, இல்லை தபலாவா? தாரை தப்பட்டையெல்லாம் கொட்டுவமா?”

Here is another, when Moorthy and his friend Vinod go to his secretary Guna (female) house. After meeting her Vinod to Moorthy,

“.. பேசாம அந்த குணாவைக் கல்யாணம் செய்துக்கோ! நல்லா டீ போடறா..”

The cliché part in the book is the Tamil slang by few characters. Is it mandatory that a Chennai city bus driver and the auto driver have to speak in Chennai-bashai ?

The 200-page novel is racy in parts, a little thriller at the end, sometimes it talks about death, but not philosophical. Ideal fictional read without much to think about.