From: vaisnavi@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us (vaisnavi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: An interview with Prabanjan - Part 1
Date: 16 Nov 1992 08:47:59 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

           ====================================           
           An interview with Prabanjan - Part 1
           ==================================== 

 Taken from    : Subhamangala
 Conducted by  : Komal Swaminathan
 Translated by : Vaisnavi
 
 ( This interview may be compared with the  interview that
Sundara Pandian posted earlier. I've broken this interview 
into many parts and this is the first part in the  series.
Your comments are welcome. - Vaisnavi ) 

------------------ interview - part 1 --------------------

    [ The women in his books won't  be  cruel  characters.
His  characters  are  mostly  of  gentle  nature.  He will
never create patients in his books. Violence or  bloodshed
is  beyond the scope of his  stories.  But when  it  comes
to  essays,  his writing  will  glow  like  fire.  Without
bothering  criticisms,  he will write what he believes. He
will be  provoking heated  discussions by his  essays.  He
is  showing   a new dimension in the recent days. A writer
of 200 short stories, 6 novels and a lot  of  essays,  his
name  is Prabanjan. He has bagged all awards for a writer.
He has suffered in his life by his  uncompromising   atti-
tude.   Poverty  had been his friend for many years. He is
currently working as a honourary  reader in Drama  in  the
Pondichery  University.  When   I took this  interview, he
touched many issues for a book including art,  literature,
education,  politics and feminism. In this interview which
lasted  for more than six  hours,  his  thought  provoking 
views are given in an abridged form.  - Komal. ]

                       * * * * * *

 Komal :        In which year did you start writing?

 Prabanjan :   In 1964, Chethur Koothan  ran  a  magazine
               titled `paraNi'. My first story came in it.
               I was then doing my eighth standard.

 Komal :         You must have  had  some  literary  back-
               ground  before  then,  right? What prompted
               you to start writing stories?

 Prabanjan :     I had a friend  named  Parthasarathy.  He
               and  his friend named Siddhanandhan ran to-
               gether a magazine titled  `kalaikkOyil'  in
               Pondichery.  When  they  were  runing  this
               magazine, Parthasarathy gave  me  some  Pu-
               dumaippithan stories to read. I didn't know
               who was Pudumaippithan then. I was familiar
               only  with  stories by Naa.Parthasarathy. I
               was only in that romantic world.  Pudumaip-
               pithan  stories  striked  very different to
               me. I was surprised whether one  can  write
               stories  like  this. I was surprised to see
               those stories with very ordinary characters
               in  very  ordinary  circumstances. The com-
               munist comrades in my colony gave  me  some
               issues  of `thaamarai' magazine to read. It
               is these two together which inspired me  to
               write stories.

 Komal :         Do you have any relatives  with  literary
               connections in your family?

 Prabanjan :     None.  But  my  father  was   a   freedom
               fighter. He fought against the French rule.
               But he was not  familiar  with  literature.
               But  my  grandfather was a joshyar. A book-
               worm  too.  He  had  books  filled  in  big
               shelves in his collection. But the books in
               his collection were only the books by  Arai
               Kuppuswamy  Mudaliar,  Vaduvoor  Duraiswamy
               Iyengar,  Vai.Mu.Kothainayagi   Ammal   and
               J.R.Rengaraju.  The  stories  that followed
               these books in Ananda Vikatan -  especially
               the  stories  by Jayakanthan - they gave me
               an inspiration to write stories. I was glad
               to see that my first story got published.

 Komal :          Did you write in the name `Prabanjan' in
               those days?
 
 Prabanjan :     No. I  wrote  only  in  the  name  `Ponni
               ThuRaivan'.  My  real name is Vaithilingam.
               `Prabanjan' is the pen-name given to me  by
               the  poets  in  Vaanambaadi club when I was
               writing poems there. Metha suggested me the
               name `Prabanjakaanan'. But I kept it short-
               ly as `Prabanjan'.

 Komal :          You also stayed at Tanjavur, right?

 Prabanjan :     Yes, that's right. I went to Tanjavur  to
               join  in  a college. For taking part in the
               anti-Hindi  agitations  in  1965,   I   was
               arrested  and  put  in  Vaanur  jail for 15
               days. They failed me for that reason. There
               were seats allotted in Karandhai Tamil San-
               gam for students who  took  part  in  anti-
               Hindi  agitations.  I joined there. I got a
               friend named Prakash. I  came  to  know  of
               modern  literature  through him. There were
               no books that Prakash didn't have. Manikko-
               di volumes, Theni volumes, vattam, ezuthu -
               all were available. I  made  contacts  with
               M.V.Venkatram  and  Karichaan Kunju in Man-
               naar only through him. Then he gave me  the
               book  `Vyaasar  padaiththa  peNmaNikaL' and
               asked me to write an introduction  for  the
               book.  It was a shock as well as an uneasi-
               ness for me. I  also  got  Na.Pichamurthy's
               contact  only  then.  Their speeches, their
               conversations, their outlook on  literature
               and society - very fascinating ones.

 Komal :         You   had   written   many   stories   in
               `thaamarai'. How was that experience?

 Prabanjan :     From 1968 to 1971, my stories would  come
               in  almost  once  every two issues.  It was
               when I was  actively  in  it,  Vannadhasan,
               Vannanilavan,   Jayaprakash  and  seven  or
               eight popular writers nowadays also started
               writed  stories in it.  T.K.C. was the then
               editor of `thaamarai'. He  ran  it  like  a
               yajna.  If  I  send him a story, I will get
               his reply after three days criticizing  the
               pros and cons in my story.

 Komal :         T.K.C. still has the same spirit. When  a
               `SubamangaLaa' issue comes out, a criticism
               after a first reading and later a criticism
               after deep reading, thus we get two letters
               from him every month.

 Prabanjan :     Yes. The literary world is debted to him.
               He has the capacity to see who are going to
               write for  the  next  twenty  years.  After
               T.K.C.  left  `thaamarai',  there was a big
               change in that magazine. When I sent a sto-
               ry,  some  lines  were deleted and replaced
               with some other lines. They  felt  that  my
               lines  did  not  suit the stand took by the
               party. I stopped writing  there  with  that
               story.

 Komal :        You were known as  a  writer  only  to  a
               small  circle  then. How did you get a base
               to reach a wide audience in a big scale?

 Prabanjan :     In 1982, `Dinamani Kathir' had a plan  to
               put  five  stories by a writer in a series.
               It was the first time I wrote in a  commer-
               cial magazine. It was arranged by Thiruppur
               Krishnan. It was a few days before that  he
               selected   my  short  story  `Brahmam'  for
               `ilakkiya chindhanai'  award.  It  came  in
               `KaNaiyaazhi'.   Thenafterwards, my stories
               met a wide audience.

---------------- end of interview - part 1 ---------------


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