The loss of a stylist
With the recent death of Sujatha, Tamilians lost one of their most beloved authors. Sujatha, whose real name was Rangarajan, brought a style into Tamil writing which can be variously categorized in modern terminology as 'hip', 'hep', 'cool' etc. Even those who would turn up their noses and say, "I read only English novels", didn't mind reading Sujatha (and letting others know). If it was 'hep' to read him in those days, it was 'cool' to read him in the 21st century. The fluency of thought, which made reading him so much fun, the conciseness of his descriptions, an experimental bent of mind with respect to language, his way with words which sprung up pleasant surprises, a keen sense of observation and an ever present sense of humor contributed to his unique style of writing. Sujatha's prose can be compared to some of S.D.Burman's best tunes. They remain very fresh and contemporary decades after they were written / tuned. Read...