Varalotti Is Back : promising fireworks in IL too!!!

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

 

Dear Sridhar,
I welcome you back into our ( note, not my - that is likely to embarass you) fold, after prehaps an enjoyable break ! I am sure it was not a self-imposed exile for some retrospective thinking !
In your excitement of getting back to I L , you have "lavished" an adjective on me ! That only shows, how much you missed I L - irrespective of whether you agree or not !
Cheeniya Sir was filling up the void created by you admirably, can't help saying it . He is carving a niche for himself, with humour as his forte ! That also is, like what you have written, malice to none !
We are looking forward to enjoyable time with both of you in your respective forums. Is not, the more the merrier?

Friends, let us all celebrate Sridhar's return to I L on a well planned day - Akshaya thruthiyai. So, we start this day on the right note.

Good luck, God speed, my dear friend.
Love,
Chithra.

 

Welcome back Mr. Shridhar. Waiting for all your stories.

 

Dear Sridhar Sir,
Welcome back. Missed your stories a lot.
Meenakshirajan

 

Dear Chithra,

Thanks a lot for your welcome note. But I have the pleasant task of making some small corrections to the words used by you.

You know Chithra, women are very sensitive to colours. I have gone for blouse-shopping with Indhu. To me everything will look green. But Indhu will distinguish some dozen shades of green and pick up the green which suits her saree the best. She would make me feel as if I am suffering from a mild variant of Daltonism, or colour blindness.

Similarly Chithra, we writers treat words. A writer said if you drop a word a shade brighter or duller, then the whole sentence will convulse in pain.
So let me go on to make some minor shade-adjustments which are not very different from what my wife does when she goes blouse-shopping.

First my absence was not an exile. Here the shade is a lot darker and I would prefer a lighter shade which will go better with the facts at hand. The absence was for many reasons which I had already explained in my leave letter addressed to all of you. I do not remember to have listed "retrospective thinking" as one of the reasons, though, now I feel like listing that, just to show off. But I think if the absence (and not exile) is for self-introspection (which I think is a shade closer to the meaning which I want to convey) then you and the rest of the ILites should be quite happy about it, as more self-introspection means better writing; at least I naively think so.

I did miss IL, no doubt about it. When so many women from so many places are lavishing their love and affection on me as their brother, son, father and what not, I have to be made of solid rock not to miss IL. Fortunately I am made of flesh and bones and so I did miss IL a lot.

The adjective I used (again lavished is a word which is three shades stronger; so let's tone it down, so that the blouse-bit matches the saree exactly) on you is quite appropriate and was occasioned not by my missing IL but my fair estimate of the qualities you have.

We are not yet finished with words. I did not leave a "void" when I left IL. In IL as it is in the rest of the world, nobody can create a void by their absence, either temporary or permanent. I might have been missed, remembered and thought about; but all these expressions are light years away from creating a void.

And finally, Madam, Cheeniya Sir, has a place for himself. He is such an eminent writer that he does not need the void created by me to express himself. Cheeniya has hundreds of fans in this forum and I top the list.

That is why I have dedicated my first come-back thread in Wednesdays With Varalotti to some of his great writings.

We are looking forward to enjoyable time with both of you in your respective forums. Is not, the more the merrier?

Friends, let us all celebrate Sridhar's return to I L on a well planned day - Akshaya thruthiyai. So, we start this day on the right note.

Good luck, God speed, my dear friend.

I am indebted to you for your kind words.

Love,
sridhar

 

Thanks a lot, Rajameenakshi for your kind words.
sridhar

 

Dear Meenakshi Madam,
thanks. thanks and thanks.
Will be soon coming with my stories. The first will the serial SHE.
sridhar

 

Dear Sridhar,
A small correction from me, please.
You had just started calling me Chithra. You seem to have forgotten your corrected version & gone back to Chitra !
Please stand corrected, my friend.
Yes, now the saree & blouse are perfectly matched - I understand.
Love,
Chithra.

 

Dear Chithra,
Have corrected all the places where h was omitted earlier.
I always spell Sharadha with an extra h and tend to omit h in your name.
Need to correct in future.
thanks for pointing out.
sridhar