In making decisions to add editorial changes without losing the nuanced work our father so magnificently achieves in his native language, and without losing fidelity to the original text, we were informed by and drew comfort from our shared knowledge of our father’s approach to being accessible to the reader. We knew that our father, SuRaa, was so committed to establishing a strong link with his readers that he was amenable to editorial changes pointed out by his editors. One of us (Thaila) also vividly remembers conversations with our father during his visits to her home in Santa Cruz where they discussed and systematically studied the craft of writing—there were lengthy conversations and exercises and annotations on how to rope a reader in, where to favor nuanced subtlety, and where to compromise toward better transparency and easy accessibility.

We also remember that SuRaa’s views of the editorial process changed dramatically over the years. He first submitted Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai to an iconic Tamil publishing house by the name of Vasagar Vattam. But he withdrew the work when they wanted to edit it. However, his attitude toward editing changed by the time he wrote his second novel. He worked with a team of editors assigned by the publisher (Cre-A), combing through the text line by line and carrying out the revisions he approved. He later described the process as shattering but enriching nevertheless. He revised his first novel again in the mid-1990s when someone pointed out an error in its timeline.

This intimate knowledge of our father’s approach to writing and editing allows us to believe that our father would have been willing to make some adjustments to his text to reach any reader who was willing to take this journey with him. He would have wanted to convene with new readers from the world over. In making our father’s dream and our dream of making this book available to a wider readership come true, we are grateful for the unwavering support we received from Gabi, Aniruddhan, and Tashan and Jayapriya.

Thaila Ramanujam

May 20, 2022

Santa Cruz

S. R. Sundaram (Kannan)

Nagercoil

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo © 2002 Puduvai Ilavenil

Sundara Ramaswamy was one of the most versatile and innovative of Tamil writers. A modernist and dazzling stylist, he wrote in many genres, including poetry, fiction, theater, essays, and literary criticism. In addition to his path-breaking novels, Sundara also edited and published the magazine Kalachuvadu, which was a notable forum for new writing and literary debate.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Aniruddhan Vasudevan is an award-winning translator, performer, writer, and anthropologist. He is currently a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at the Princeton Society of Fellows, Princeton University. Among his translations are works of fiction by such celebrated Tamil authors as Ambai and Perumal Murugan.