yavana raniyum vilai raniyum

Hi,

Those who heaved a sigh of relief , on my absence from blog postings, for the past ten days ,beware. I have come with renewed vigour and energy so atht i can make your temporary relief, disappear in no time.

First things first, i had been away to a town Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh on official duty , where in i was more acting like a judge, hearing the defence council and the official reps , for hours to gether, with the result, at the end of each day, my head was rolling like a tailspin.Since my sanity was almost at the brink of disaster after hearing arguments and counter arguments,i decided to give a rest to the readers of my blog(and some one says too much!!! as i hardly have any followers ).

My experiences with KAKINADA(anther post in the offing) will be dwelt at length later. This post is to describe how my kakinad visit enabled me to spend some time with the books of one of my favourite authors from child hood.Yes.I mean THE GREAT WRITER of Historic novels, by nmae Sandilyan.

When i was hardly six years old, i have developed an interest in his writings.I still remember the fights i used to have with my sibling to catch hold of the copy of the Kumudam weekly magazine, the moment it is tossed in to our home by the paper boy,to finish reading of the serial called Yawana rani,(In translation it would mean the Queen of Yawanas.)After almost 50 years , during the journey to KAKI NADA, I had the opportunity of reading another historic novel by the same author , named "Vilai Rani"-traslation would read as "Queen for sale".

The charm of description, the narrative style, an eye for details, the beautiful fusion between historical characters and the imaginary characters, the ever lasting and appealing description of the love moments between the hero and heroine(people used to prohibit children from reading Sandilyan those days fearing that young minds would be adulterated on going thru his writings -he is attimes compared with HAROLD ROBINS), all of which attracted me to his writings when i was seven years old, continued to have the same grip and magnetic veil even on date when i am 58.

While Yavana Rani was the story of conflict among the kingdoms ruled by Cholas , Seras and Pandiyas, Vilai Rani covers the dynasty of Chandra Guptha Mouria , the knack and wisdom of Chanakya( on whose guidance the Chandra Gupta Mourya conquers the Nandas ) and the female charcters shrewn inbetween from fantasy to keep he story gripping and interesting. HATS OFF TO THE GREAT WRITER, who is no more .BUT HIS WRITINGS WILL CONTINUE TO BE WIH US, EVER ENCHANTING AND ENLIVENING.

I had the privilege of spending some intimate and transparent question and answer session with the famous writer, when he graced my home with his visit, during his presence at KOLKATA when we organised a Tamil cultural meet there about 30 years back.Enjoying the homely food prepared my wife, he was continuously answering all my questions and when i asked him how he was able to write so refreshingly about the love moments9at his age-he was almost 60 plus then), he said that mind is ageless . So long as mind is young and energetic, nothing could stop its relections on one's own writings.

AND THAT IS THE FINAL WORD. REMAIN YOUNG AT HEART.AND YOUR THOUGHTS AND WRITINGS WILL ALWAYS CARRY THE STAMP OF REFRESHNESS.