Jayakanthan’s stories as they first appeared

CHENNAI, 23/07/2014: Writer Jayakanthan cover. Photo: Handout

Popular Tamil writer Jayakanthan, winner of both Sahitya Akademi and Jnanapith award, is again on the spotlight.

A collection of 20 short stories written by him in the 1960s and the 1970s will give the reader the flavour of the period of his original writings, thanks to a London-based orthopedician Dr. N. Ram, an ardent fan of Jayakanthan.

As it was done in the past by many readers, Dr. Ram had torn apart and kept with him the printed pages of the short stories as they first appeared in the Tamil bi-weekly

Ananda Vikatan . This collection will be released in the same format here on Thursday. “It will have the advertisements released during the period. It will bear the jokes and other tit-bits that appeared in the magazine. The Tamil words, in the same font, before they were reformed, have been retained. More importantly, the stories are accompanied by the paintings of Gopulu and Maya,” said Dr. Ram.

The orthopedician, who first met the writer at Ramanathapuram when he was 15 and obtained an autograph, said Mr. Jayakanthan was happy about the decision to bring out the edition and even had written a preface.

“The specialty of the edition is that it will take the reader to that period,” said Mr. Jayakanthan, whose first short story was published in a little-magazine Sowbakiyavathi .

He used to write for

Saraswathi and

Thamarai and it was the weekly’s then editor S. Balasubramanian and writer Saavi persuaded him to write for a popular magazine like

Ananda Vikatan .

Dr. Ram’s wife Vanitha Ram scanned the pages, cleaned them and refurbished them. Mr. Balasubramanian will release the book.