From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: An interview with Balakumaran - Part 1
Date: 14 Sep 1992 14:33:12 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

           An interview with Balakumaran - Part 1
          ----------------------------------------
 Taken from    : Subamangalaa
 Conducted by  : Gomal Swaminathan
 Translated by : S.Pandian
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[ Balakumaran has lakhs of readers. He is  a  star-writer
in commercial magazines. In a period of fifteen years, he
has written eighty five short stories and a poem  collec-
tion.  His  writing  style forces the readers to read his
books at a stretch. I wanted to  interview  him  and  for
that  I  finished  four novels by him in just three days.
His style is very lucid and it flows like  a  race-horse.
The  themes  in  his books are often debated and strongly
criticized .  He has two sides - he  is  rejected  as  an
artless  commercial  writer by critics but respected as a
great writer by readers  of  popular  Tamil  magazines  -
especially female readers. He receives a lot of fan mails
like movie stars. His sharp, explicit and  question  pro-
voking words could be noticed in this interview.]


 Gomal :
           What is your first novel ?
 Balakumaran :
          `Mercury pookkaL'. It got the  `ilakkiya  chin-
          dhanai' award.

 Gomal :
          In your early days, what forced  you  to  enter
          into the literary world ?
 Balakumaran :
           It is due to my family. I didn't start my life
          with  a  hunger for literature. I was born in a
          poor Bramin family. I was brought up in a  poor
          atmosphere  with  no  more comforts than taking
          curd rice for breakfast, for lunch and also for
          dinner.  But  my dreams were more. But I didn't
          ge what I desired. Morover,  I  opine  that  my
          mother  was very smart. But she was very afraid
          of my father. My father kept her under his con-
          trol  by his shouts. I realized even when I was
          12-15 years old that he  had  no  reason  other
          than  he  was  a male for shouting at my mother
          for keeping her under his control. If my mother
          returns   after   attending  a  Kamba  Ramayana
          discourse, my father would take a broomstick to
          beat  her   for attending the discourse without
          his permission. It was a  very  shattering  ex-
          perience for me when I was fifteen years old.
             My  father  was  the   ultimate   in   male-
          domainance.  Not  only  my  mother, also my two
          aunts, grandmother and my cousin  sisters  were
          all suffered by the male- dominant society sur-
          rounding them. I believe that I took refuge  in
          literature  as  I  found them helpless in their
          sufferings. So I used to sit at  the  doorsteps
          and start dreaming a very good father for me. I
          would imagine getting a good  alliance  for  my
          mother. As a result, I started writing stories.
          Also as I could not continue my  studies  after
          S.S.L.C.,  I had alonging to do something to do
          to become a big man in my life. My father  used
          to  mock  at  me very often that I could atmost
          become   a   cook    taking    contracts    for
          functions.Those  words  would pierce through my
          heart and emerge from my head. I had a  longing
          to do something and accidently I arrived at the
          `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'  literary  club.   It   is
          N.Muthusamy who introduce me there. This is the
          true story of how I came to be a writer.

 Gomal :
            How was your `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra' experience?
 Balakumaran :
            Initially, I didn't learn  anything  in  that
          club.  Only  Muthusamy  encouraged me. He would
          tell me, `Don't get scared.  Don't  be  afraid.
          Don't  run  away from us'. But for Balakumaran,
          other than his ambitions  to  learn  literature
          from  `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'  and to produce good
          literature, I also had an ambition to  identify
          myself  among  other  writers.  I learned a lot
          from `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'.  My eyes were opened
          openly  there,  like  a puppy opening its eyes.
          Gnanakkoothan beautifully taught me the litera-
          ture. He is my guru.

 Gomal :
             You  started   your   literary   career   in
          `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'.   How  come  you  started
          writing commercial novels in  commercial  maga-
          zines to be acknowledged as a commercial writer
          now ? Is it due to need for  money  or  do  you
          honestly believe that what you write is litera-
          ture ?
 Balakumaran :
           What did I achieve in `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra' ? I
          must  have  written atmost five or six poems. I
          did not have the capacity then to  fully  enjoy
          `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'.  I  learned  only  partly
          there. I did not have a big  role  to  play  in
          `Kanaiyaazhi' or `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'. It was a
          starting and nothing more. What really mattered
          for me was tha my name should come out.

 Gomal :
           For earning.. ?
 Balakumaran :
          No. Balakumaran does not write for earning  mo-
          ney.  It  is just that his writing sells. So he
          earns money.

 Gomal :
           Isn't it true that you have made  a  habit  of
          writing  for  the needs of the commercial maga-
          zines and for the taste of the readers  of  the
          commercial magazines ?
 Balakumaran :
           To be precise, I will say so that  you  under-
          stand.  It is not a big sin. Isn't it true that
          your Subamangalaa is a  commercial  magazine  ?
          Don't put a varnish cover for it ?

 Gomal :
           Suba_mangaLaa doesn't qualify to be a  commer-
          cial  magazine  by  its  varnish cover. Now the
          magazines make  use  of  the  advances  of  the
          printing press.  Various magazines from econom-
          ical magazines or  astrological  magazines  pay
          attention  to  their  cover  designs.  But they
          differ in their contents. What I was saying  is
          that there is a middle class working in offices
          after their high  school  or  college  studies.
          Women form a majority of this class. One way of
          writing is writing for this class knowing their
          taste  well  but  not  provoking  any  thoughts
          through the writing. Can I  say  that  you  are
          also  writing like this but together with style
          and craftsmanship ?
 Balakumaran :
           Not at all. People like my writing. But at the
          same  time,  I  write  what  I  want t write. I
          learned  how  to   avoid   bad   writing   from
          `ka_sa_ta_tha_pa_Ra'.  [  He says it twice with
          emphasis.]

 Gomal :
           From where did you learn good writing ?
 Balakumaran :
           From T.Janakiraman. I understood when  Sujatha
          expounded it.

 Gomal :
           Do you think that you have learnt the literary
          art from T.Janakiraman ?
 Balakumaran :
           Not only I learned the literary art  from  him
          that  you  are  saying  but  also  I handled it
          better than him in a few places in my  opinion.
          Because  there  are  a few places where I don't
          agree with T.Janakiraman.

 Gomal :
           When a few critics  present  collections  like
          `Novels  in  70s' or `Novels in 80's they don't
          quite talk about any of your  novels.  What  do
          you say on that ?
 Balakumaran :
           If one doesn't talk about my novels,  I  can't
          jump  into  a  quick  conclusion that my novels
          must be bad. One big sickness in Tamil  litera-
          ture  is group mentality.  They are killing the
          literature. Their habit is to write  bad  about
          writers  not  belonging to their group.They are
          not healthy to literature in ayway. I have tak-
          en  no steps to get their approval. I won't fal
          humbly to critics.  ,in 0

           Gomal :
           No writer falls humbly to critics.
 Balakumaran :
           I don't agree with this. I know how they  can-
          vass  the  critics. People here know what to do
          to get Ka.Na.Su.'s  approval.  I  can't  accept
          Ka.Na.Su as a honest critic. I don't care about
          Ka.Na.Su.'s weighing scale. Time is there.  The
          question  is  whether Balakumaran will stand on
          that scale. My job is to write for social bene-
          fits.

 Gomal :
           What sort of social benefits that your writing
          relates to ?
 Balakumaran :
           Psychology says that one  gets  thoughts  from
          those  social  rules from which he was affected
          in his life. It is accepted by scholars also. I
          was affected by the sufferings of my mother and
          other women in our neighborhood. I  realised  a
          big  ice  bar standing between men and women in
          the days  when  I  started  writing  novels.  I
          wished  to  break this ice bar through my writ-
          ings. Women afraid of  men  and  men  having  a
          meagre  opinion on women. It is my opinion that
          children born of them have no ethics  and  that
          they are incapable of inheriting good politics,
          good arts and literature, good family and  good
          religion  and  that they are like seeds lacking
          vigour. Till today, my novels address this  is-
          sue only again and again.

 [ To be continued...]
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 [ Posted by : S.Pandian ( sp2@cec1.wustl.edu ) ]
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.indian.telugu