அமரர் கல்கியின் சிறுகதைகள்

by Kalki Krishnamurthy

Kalki (Tamil: கல்கி) was the pen name of R. Krishnamurthy (September 9, 1899–December 5, 1954), a noted Tamil freedom fighter, social crusader, novelist, short story writer, journalist, humorist, satirist, travel writer, script-writer, poet, film & music critic, Indian independence activist and connoisseur of the arts writer from Tamil Nadu, India. He derived his pen name from the suffixes of his wife name Kalyani and his name Krishnamurthy in Tamil form கல்யாணி and கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி as Kalki(கல்கி) "Kalki avatar", the tenth and last avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu.[1] His writings includes over 120 short stories, 10 novelettes, five novels, three historical romances, editorial and political writings and hundreds of film and music reviews.

Genres: Fiction, India, Short Stories, Indian Literature

304 pages

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Tamil language Novel Writer, Journalist, Poet & Critic late Ramaswamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy also known as ‘Kalki’. He derived his pen name from the suffixes of his wife name Kalyani and his name Krishnamurthy in Tamil form கல்யாணி and கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி as Kalki (கல்கி). His name also represents “Kalki avatar”, the tenth and last avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu.

His writings includes over 120 short stories, 10 novelettes, 5 novels, 3 historical romances, editorial and political writings and hundreds of film and music reviews. Krishnamurthy’s witty, incisive comments on politics, literature, music and other forms of art were looked forward to with unceasing interest by readers. He wrote under the pen names of ‘Kalki’, ‘Ra. Ki’, ‘Tamil Theni’, ‘Karnatakam’ and so on.

The success that Krishnamurthy attained in the realm of historical fiction is phenomenal. Sixty years ago, at a time when the literacy level was low and when the English-educated Tamils looked down on writings in Tamil, Kalki’s circulation touched 71,000 copies – the largest for any weekly in the county then – when it serialised his historical novels. Kalki had also the genius to classify the historical and non-historical events, historical and non-historical characters and how much the novel owes to history.

Reviews

[Vaidya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely set of stories. Many of them have an O.Henry touch. Stories are unlike RKN for a change. They are set in specific cultural settings like Nadaswaram players or Devadasis or freedom fighters.

[Smitha Murthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last year, my friend bought tons of books on my credit card when she was in India (sigh) - books that I muttered I would not ever read. But as my bookshelf needs space, I glanced at some of those books, thinking that I really need to clear my shelf, and picked up Kalki's selected short stories.

Having had no idea really of the writer apart from my friend's gushing praise last year, the stories came to me like tender wisps of dandelions, blown away on the monsoonal wind of Bangalore, each story inventive and evolved in its own way. To truly understand these stories, I would need to understand more of Kalki's work, but the stories were still easy to read through, except towards the end when I struggled with the introduction of some more fantastical or magic-realism elements in the stories.

[Dharini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somewhere in 2007, during the lazy, humid summer evenings spent at my grandparents' home in Trichy, I learnt to read Tamil from my granddad (one of my favourite memories of him), to the extent that my 9 year old attention span would allow. Growing up as I did, I never saw the point in being able to read what I thought was a needlessly complicated language, with letters missing and a convoluted syntax. I never lived in a place that necessitated it, and no amount of parental encouragement pushed me out of my comfort zone. Tamil books didn't seem nearly as interesting as Dahl and Kipling, Ogden Nash and Tolkien, or whatever swashbuckling adventure with beautiful illustrations I could get my hands on at the time.

As the years passed, reading Tamil was reserved for occasional trips to Chennai, wedding invitations and the rare Instagram caption. After 14 years, my proficiency in my own mother tongue is still appallingly poor, and I feel disconnected from my heritage. To call myself truly Tamilian feels like a pretense, and I'm becoming aware of a large body of literature and cinema I've simply never opened my eyes to. Kalki, popular as he is, seemed like the most sensible place to start at to bridge the gaps in my knowledge.

To those of us - and I'm perhaps wrongly taking the liberty of speaking for my friends - who are Indian and grew up reading English language fiction, it really is strange and wonderful to read stories set in our towns, with our people. There's an element of relatability, of familiarity that is in itself unfamiliar. If, as the saying goes, you travel through books, then I have spent most of my life in America and Europe, perhaps forayed into the Middle East and Africa, and am only now venturing into my own homeland.

Kalki: Selected Stories gets five stars from me partly for these reasons, but also because it's a collection of amusing, thought provoking, insightful tales from a man who seems to have been far ahead of his times. The stories themselves are varied; some sharp and witty, with not a sentence out of place. Some are long and meandering, trailing off into logical inconsistencies. All are evocative and self-aware, with a good helping of the absurd.

One day, I will read and understand them in Tamil.

[Swati · Rating 4 out of 5]

After going through an interminably long book slump where at least 4 to 5 books have been abandoned, half-read (ashamed face), it was Kalki that finally revived the joy of reading. Deeply cultural and resonating with ideals and beliefs unusual for the time, these stories, written between 1925 and 1950, are a delight to read. The translation is not really smooth but the beauty of the stories overcomes this hurdle. This is my first encounter with Kalki and I can't wait to read more of his works.

[Gnana Sujan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading Ponniyin Selvan I wanted to read more tamil fiction. But this time I thought about going into short stories.

The authors came to my mind are Jayomohan, Jayakanthan, and Sujatha. But, I decided to go with the same author.

Every short story has different setting and tone and each displayed unique theme and explored different emotions.

There were stories with witty humour and irony. Also some with gloomy ending and emotional connection. There were suspenseful stories as well giving thrills. I enjoyed all these mix of short stories.

Arunachalathin aluval, prabala natchathiram, pithalai ottiyanam, parisal thurai, theepiditha kudisaigal, tharkolai, and Susila M. A. are stories I enjoyed the most.

If you are starting your reading journey on short stories in tamil, then it is the best to start with.

[Gowri N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though Tamil is my mother tongue and I can read, write, and speak it, I have not read too many literary works in the language. I picked this up because the name of Kalki is quite familiar from my mother's and grandmother's stories, and I wanted to get a glimpse of the world as they knew it.

And on that count, this collection certainly did not disappoint. However, in terms of literary merit, I wouldn't give this too high a rating. In the book's preface and on other forums, I have seen Kalki being compared to O'Henry, but the latter is far superior in the way he keeps his story endings taut and striking.

The biggest problem with this collection was that Kalki *told* the story when he should have *showed* it. Many of the tales had a surprise ending which sort of fell flat sometimes because the author just explained everything instead of keeping it subtle and letting the readers figure things out.

The themes dealt with were certainly ahead of the times and I can see how these would have gripped the imagination of a nation torn by confusion and uncertainty.

[Chaitra · Rating 3 out of 5]

All his stories were surely ahead of its time.. the first one in the book is by far the best

[P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly entertaining, these stories provide a sense of popular literature that attempted to convey nationalist messages to the Tamil reading public.

[S. Anuradha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of stories and brings to life an age when people were more principled.

[Fadillah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love and Passion are but three days’ madness! Of what use is it to give up your life? At least dying for your country makes some sense.
- The Ruined Fort, Kalki.
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I was blown away by this book. I have no other words to describe Kalki’s short stories except it is witty and playful. The way Ramaswamy Krishnamurthy (Kalki’s real name) wrote his characters in each story pull you into it within a second. You wanted to know more and more by the end of each story. The fact that his stories did not shy away from making a social commentary in it but at the same time still maintain the focus on the story is highly appreciated. One can go on and on rambling how this value or that change is needed and important but you didnt see this kind of ‘preachy tone’ in his stories. Kalki let the readers to reflect on it once they finished it. You will find literacy, women empowerment, education, caste, nationalism, tamil language, pre-independence india, the concept of ‘Satyagraha’ and Gandhi to be among the major common themes across the book.
Translated to English from Tamil language by his own grand daughter, Gowri Ramnarayan whom i have to say million thanks because without her, i will never read this precious gem. However, i do feel that if readers have a limited knowledge about India and could not differentiate North and South India, have not watched any Indian Films especially Tamil films, you might not catch the cultural nuances / symbolism in Kalki’s stories and ultimately it might hinder youself to enjoy this book. Regardless of that, I would still recommend it for those who have heard of Kalki but never read this book or who have never heard of Kalki but decided to travel to Tamil Nadu, the southern part of India in the literary form. This ultimately deserved 5 stars because most of his stories is surely ahead of his time especially when it was published of 1920s - 1940s.
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5 stories in this book definitely deserved a shoutout because i was in awe with the whole premise of the story.
1. Kaditamum Kanneerum / The letter (1937)
2. Tiruvazhundur Sivakozhundu / Sivakozhundu of Tiruvazhundur (1939)
3. Kanaiyazhiyin Kanavu / Rural Fantasy (1934)
4. Vishamandiram / The poison Cure (1925)
5. S.S Menaka / The S.S Menaka
Netflix India, if by any chance you see this - Can we have another anthology drama based on Kalki’s stories like ‘Paava Kadhaigal’ or a feature film like Super Deluxe?

[Booksndbooksly · Rating 3 out of 5]

இந்த நூல் பல்வேறு கதைகளின் தொகுப்பாக இருந்து, கல்கியின் வண்ணமயமான கற்பனை திறனையும், அவரின் மனித குணங்களைப்பற்றிய ஆழ்ந்த கருத்துக்களையும் வெளிப்படுத்துகிறது.

குறிப்பு :

இந்த நூல் பல்வேறு கதைகளைக் கொண்டுள்ளது, அவை ஒவ்வொன்றும் வேறுபட்ட தோற்றங்களை, குணங்களை, உணர்வுகளை சித்தரிக்கின்றன. கல்கியின் எழுத்து பாணி, அவரது கதாபாத்திரங்களின் அனுபவங்களும், சோகம்,
சந்தோஷம், எதிர்மறை உணர்வுகள் ஆகியவற்றை மிகவும் அழகாகவும், உணர்வுபூர்வமாகவும் வெளிப்படுத்துகிறது.

தலைப்புகள்:

1. மனித உணர்வுகள்
2. சமூக விமர்சனம்
3. வரலாற்று பின்னணி

வாசகனின் மனதில் வாழ்க்கையின் பல்வேறு தோற்றங்களையும் காட்சியமைப்புகளையும் கொண்டு வருவதில் அவர் வல்லவர். இந்த தொகுப்பில் பல நினைவுபடுத்தக்கூடிய கதைகள் உள்ளன, அவற்றின் கதை சொல்லல் திறனாலும், கருத்துத்தொகுப்பாலும் பிரமிக்க வைக்கின்றன.

"கல்கியின் சிறுகதைகள்" தமிழ் இலக்கியத்தில் முக்கிய இடம் வகிக்கின்றன. கல்கியின் இலக்கிய திறமையை அவர்கள் வரலாற்று நாவல்கள் மட்டுமல்லாது சிறுகதைகளிலும் வெளிப்படுத்துகின்றன.

[Tejaswini The Soulful Scripturient · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a really tattered old book from my college library. Two of those stories I couldn't read because the pages were ripped (I'll have to read those later), but the rest of the stories were just amazing! The themes and plotlines were so beautiful and I loved how everything whimsical and quaint some of the stories were along with a hint of tragedy every now and then. Perfect!

[Alex]

My copy was coming apart at the binding, page by page. Sadly, it could not be finished. But the stories I did read were excellent.

[Saravana Sastha Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing short stories from the GOAT of modern tamizh fiction.

[Arvind Srinivasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are mostly people oriented based on relationship so can be called a family drama. Some stories are different and some of them seem to be repetition of earlier stories. The stories mostly deal with people sufferings so if read in right frame of mind can sound to be optimistic else can trigger pessimistic or philosophical thought.
After reading kalki's novels if you expect something of that quality, you will be bit unhappy about the content. Might be that is why my rating is bit on the lower side for the collection.

[Kripa Cm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this writer when I was in class 5. My relatives used to talk about him. A versatile writer in Tamil language. After watching Ponniyin Selvan, my curiosity increased, and I picked this book. I loved the stories - The Letter, Governor Visit and the Poison Cure.

[S K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting plots and characters reflective of the issues at the time these stories were written.

Some stories are not-so-short, but engaging nonetheless.

[Lakshitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice

[Anandakumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

pongumaangadal story .