Listen to my previous audio posts here:
Podcast Main Page: The Hyacinth Girl Radio
Just A Minute Series
Batman
Democracy
Reading Selected Excerpts/Poems/Short Stories
“The Chrome Goddess” by Julia Vinograd
Socialism sounds good in theory, but doesn’t human nature make it impossible to realize?
“Exiled” by Madhurantakam Rajaram
“ಬುದ್ಧಿವಂತರಿಗೆ ಕನಸು ಬಿದ್ದರೆ” by A.K. Ramanujan
Thi. Janakiraman, or Thi Jaa, as he was fondly known, is instantly recognisable to more than one generation of Tamil readers as the author of subversive novels such as Mohamul (“Thorn of Desire”) and Amma Vandhaal (translated twice into English as “The Sins of Appu’s Mother” and “Remembering Amma”).
Thi Jaa’s novels are vast canvases of desire and longing, his short stories are keen, deft slices of life. Description and dialogue are the meat and marrow of these stories, which dwell on the dreams, disappointments and the many pettinesses of middle-class men and women you come to know and love and care for in the course of a plot twist.
In this audio post, I have selected a story from “ಗುಡಿ ಗಂಟೆ ಮತ್ತು ಇತರ ಕತೆಗಳು...” (transliteration: “Gudi Gante Matthu Ithara Kathegalu”), a collection of short stories by Thi. Janakiraman originally written in Tamil, and is translated to Kannada by K. Nallathambi.
PS. I have really gone slow in reading Kannada because I have lost touch with the language in terms of reading and writing. Yet, I have somehow managed to read and record an entire short story. So, go gentle on me!
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