My Dear Friends,
One of the nicest feelings a person can ever hope to have is to know that he or she is missed by someone. Believe me the words "I miss you" convey much more love than the words "I love you."
During my absence I received many mails, many pms telling me that I am missed. To be loved by such wonderful women around the world is a privilege given to very few. Thanks to the good deeds I did in all my previous births God conferred that rare privilege on me.
IL is my home. My virtual home. The place where I come to rest as a writer and as a person. Please do not think that my going away for a month is like the Prodigal Son walking away from his father in search of happiness outside his home.
No it was not that. A son went out for a while to do his duties to the outside world. He did not seek happiness outside; but rather was exploring the ways how he could bring more happiness into this beautiful home,
www.indusladies.com. And I am back. This is a kind of home-coming for me. I am happier than you all in being with you once again.
Ladies, I am back. And as they say, back with a bang. I am now coming with the most controversial story I have ever written (if you do not count that short story which appeared in a website two years ago).
To balance that heaviness I will be posting some lighter stuff in my Wednesdays forum.
I owe an apology to all to whom I have not replied during my absence. I will do my best to reply them all in the next two days.
My thanks are due to Malathy whose support and encouragement in my absence was no less than they were in my presence in IL. I sent the synopsis of the story to Malathy and Laxmi for their approval as I did not want to take any risk.
Both were quite receptive. Malathy has so much confidence in me that she promptly wrote back, "Sridhar, I know this is going to be very controversial. But I also know that you can handle that kind of controversy. So go ahead."
What more does a writer want than this kind of freedom to express himself? I pray the Almighty to make me always worthy of that kind of confidence reposed in me by such nice people.
I also owe a big thanks to Vandhana for posting a thread to announce my absence and this one to announce my homecoming. I owe you one, Vandhana.
My thanks are due to the super-woman of this forum Chitvish for religiously posting my Dinamalar weekly article, though of late it looks like people have lost interest in that. Thank you, Chithra.
With the good and kind Sathya's permission let me post her pm to me and my reply to her. This happened just three days back:
Sathyas pm:
kaanamal ponalum poneer
ingu ulagathaye
pirattu pottukondirukiraargale
silar..
ninaivukku varugirathu
sabash sariyana potti
enru naangal galleryil
utkaarnthu paarpomo?
My reply:
நான் காணாமல் போனதே
உலகம் புரட்டப்பட வேண்டும் என்பதற்காகத்தான்.
இதில் போட்டிக்கு என்ன வேலை சத்யா?
பட்டாம்பூச்சிகளுக்குள்
ஓட்டப் பந்தயம் ஏது?
நடனமாடும் கடல் அலைகளுக்குள்
பத்மினி யார்? வைஜயந்திமாலா யார்?
கேலரியில் அமர்ந்து பாருங்கள்!
சபாஷ் நல்ல நடனம் என்று கை தட்டுங்கள்!
ஆடுவது யாராக இருந்தாலும் சரி!
கைதட்டல் ஆட்டத்திற்குத் தான்
ஆளுக்கு இல்லை!
Let me thank all of you for bearing with me for my absence; a greater thanks for putting up with my presence.
With love to all and malice to none,
sridhar a.ka. varalotti