Varalotti has hit the jackpot ! I am thrilled to announce this to you all !

Chitvish · Oct 10, 2006

Dear All,
I just now received the Deepavali Malar of Ananda Vikatan. It has now become customary for me, to look out for V R’s story in all tamil magazines as soon as I get them. I just looked at the names of those who have written stories in the Malar – what do I see?
My dear friend Varalott Rengasamy”s name is there !
He has written “oru pakka sirukathai” called “ Kalyana kolam !”.
I read in the magazine that they posted (beautiful) photographs by the famous artist Madhavan which came on the covers of “Uma” , a magazine of yester years, to many famous writers & asked them to send stories to suit the picture sent to them.
So, I think, it was not at all an easy challenge in any way !
Sridhar, now I know that you love to embrace the complexity of a challenge and how very successfully you have emerged a winner !
The twist you have given is beyond anybody’s comprehension, undoubtedly ! The story is so nice, so nice, so nice.
I do not want to write my review, thus giving a clue to your fans here.
My deepavali mood has fully set in now ! Sridhar, as a gift, I plan to “punish” you & yours with some more of my sweets – please don’t say “no”. You deserve much more, but nothing less than my home made sweets! Unlike you, a multifaceted personality , Sir, I am just a "glorified cook".
“ I am so delighted” is underestimating how I feel now, my dear friend !
Love & regards,
Chithra.

safa · Oct 10, 2006

Congratulations!

Again , Congrats Sridhar!
Chithra, thanks for sharing this happy news with us..waiting to read all the stories...

Preethi · Oct 10, 2006

As Usual....

Dear Varalotti,

As Usual, You have done a great job again ! Congrats.........Without even reading your story, I can tell you your story would be the best and enjoyable ! How much I look forward to read your stories now !!!!!!

If like other stories, the online version is made available to us, it would be great for ppl like me as sometimes tamil magazines wont be available when needed here......

Hope to see your latest story online soon !

Regards,
Preethi

varalotti · Oct 14, 2006

Thanks Everyone!

Dear All,
Thanks everyone for those nice words. First thanks are due to Chitra who first saw the story (even before me) and posted it here in IL.
Thanks Shahana and Twinmom for your kind wishes.
Regarding making available this story online you may have to wait for some time as the book has just now come out.
Usually I write the story and then the editor would ask some artist to draw a picture to match the story. But this time they sent me a picture of an yesteryear artist, Madhavan. His pictures used to be as awesome as those of Ravi Varma. His pictures were so good that they decorated the cover pages of a literary magazine Uma (run by Anand Theatre Umapathy). One of those cover page pictures was sent to me.
It was a fairly simple picture depicting a typical South Indian Hindu marriage scene. The picture did not have much story to tell in itself. I first thought that they have given a bad picture to me while other writers had had good "story pictures." It is true to some extent as I now see that other pictures had a story hidden in themselves. But I had to contrive mine, literally squeeze that out from the picture. Then I wrote some five or six one pagers and rejected those stories which anybody would have thought. Posted the most unusual three and they selected the most unusual of the three.
This is what we writers call as "kathai pirantha kathai" or the story of the story.
Just wanted to share with you the birth pangs of this story.
thanks for your time,
regards,
sridhar