A Good News! Seek Your Wishes And Blessings!

Kamla · Sep 24, 2007

Dear Varalotti,

As usual, I am a little late in commenting about your book, The Weaker Sex. I finished it sometime back and meant to write about it.
On the outset, let me thank you for giving such a wonderful collection of your stories in this book. You must have carefully pondered over your creations and it must have been hard to pick just a few to present in this book...as a parent loves his child, so also I can imagine you loving all your creations!
Considering that, you have made a very wise and a lovely selection. The short stories in this book covers a wide spectrum of themes which makes the book very very interesting indeed.
Emotions swing from those of an innocent child to that of a designing woman.
Even though I have read a few of them earlier, it was difficult to put the book down after finishing each story...the urge was to jump to the next story.
My favorite was The Journey's End ! Maybe it is because I am all mom ?!
All in all, a wonderful collection of short stories and it is both very easy to read and at the same time, captivates the reader and his/her emotions at once.

L, Kamla

varalotti · Sep 25, 2007

Dear Kamla,
I have been very patiently waiting for this post of yours for the past one month. I did not want to hurry you in the process of reading as I know very well your time has to be shared between very precious people - your husband, your daughters and even more precious people, your grand kids.

In selecting these 13 from out of some 250 short stories I wrote during the period of some 8 years, I had some very clear criteria. Number one, if the story is already published it should have been widely accepted. (Promise came in because of that. It is the most blogged story of mine since 2003 when it appeared in Deccan Herald). Number two, there has to be some kind of a "dhum" in the story, if it is not already published or accepted. The Weaker Sex came in because of that. And finally a few unpublished stories (The Young Crow and The Power Game saw the light of the world only in this book. These stories are my specials to the book buyers)

Yes, as you elegantly captured the relationship between the author and his stories, all of them are my children. A mother does not discriminate between her children. You might be knowing this anecdote. Eisenhower returned home to America as a War Hero. The entire nation was singing his praises. Every child in every corner of the world knew his name. This man had a younger brother which few of us know.

When a reporter asked Eisenhower's mother, "Aren't you proud of your son?", the little old lady replied non-chalantly, "Which son?". That was my attitude when I selected those stories. Left to myself I would have come with a compendium of all my stories. But that would impose a burden on my readers, both financially and time-wise.

I am happy you liked The Journey's End. It was first published in Kumudam and got me a special award in their Sirukathai Thiruvizha. For the first time Kumudam published my picture for this story.

While savouring your lovely words of praise I have a pleasant duty to thank my editors Venkat (Indhu's twin-brother) and Sunitha Lal (presently Vice President HR in a large software company in India). These two people did a perfectly non-intrusive editing. At the same time because of their intimacy with me they were brutal in rejecting my stories. For instance I wanted to run the story The Young Mother by them. Each of them said individually it is not of the right quality (when I first wrote it). I had emotionally invested a lot in that story. I went back to my desk and started weaving one more story into that story. If you had noticed the woven story is given completely in italics. Finally I had to weave the two stories into one. The final knot. As I did that it was almost midnight and I was alone in my desk. I was crying silently for a while before I saved the file and shut down the system.

I have given a very long reply to your post. The reason is you were the very first to buy my book. And as my first reader I owe a lot to you and this long post is a repayment of a millionth of what I owe you.

This is a question to you and all the ILites:

Suppose if I publish SHE in a book format, do you think ILites will buy it? I want that story in hard copy. But unless at least there are some minimum purchsaes it will not be worth the while doing it.

Thanks once again, Kamla.
Love,
sridhar

Kamla · Sep 25, 2007

Dear Sridhar,

What a beautiful response from you ! It was a pleasure to read. You are so passionate about writing. This enthusiasm and dedication will take you a long way and we at IL are really privileged to get the first hand views from you about life, your observations and your thoughts about penning words.
Thank you.

L, Kamla

ish_nalini · Nov 9, 2007

HI Mr.VR

I am astounished after seeing your new release trailor...May this little girl know the indian price of the book and the book mart where I can purchase it?

varalotti · Nov 10, 2007

I am sorry I have to disappoint a little girl, and that too a nice girl like you. But the book can't be purchased in an Indian bookmart. You will have to buy it on line using a credit card. The Indian price of the book .... well multiply the price by the current dollar exchange rate. That's all. But you will have to add shipping costs as well......