Taking writer Sujatha’s works in Tamil to a wider audience was the reason for translating his best writings, said Vimala Balakrishnan, who has penned ‘Reliving Sujatha’.

The book, a collection of eight Tamil short stories and novellas by the late writer was released by his wife Sujatha Rangarajan at the Writer’s Cafe on Thursday.

“I was initially hoping to pen a biography of the writer and had approached Ms. Sujatha Rangarajan for the same. However, I later decided that it would be better to ensure that his works reached a wider audience. There are a lot of Tamil speakers who don’t know the language but are fascinated by his body of work,” Ms. Vimala said.

Speaking about his writing in a conversation with journalist and writer Shobha Warrier, Ms. Vimala said what appealed to her the most was how relevant his works were. She hoped more youngsters would relate to his work.

The book has been published by Vitasta Publications. “His stories are extremely contemporary and there has been an increase in the number of people seeking out translated works,” said S. Saraswathi of Vitasta Publications.

Ms. Sujatha Rangarajan recalled that her husband was extremely passionate about his writing. “When he started writing his first story, I wasn’t even aware that he had taken ‘Sujatha’ as his pen name. Now, I am known as Mrs. Rangarajan and he is known as Mr. Sujatha,” she said on a lighter note.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – February 24th, 2017