A Difficult Choice

By R.V. Rajan

Rummaging through some old papers I discovered a scrap book containing a few short stories I had written in Tamil during my school and college days. I could not believe that I had written those stories. I was surprised because I find that today I cannot even compose a simple letter in Tamil due to lack of practice for over 45 years. Though I have been writing essays on a variety of topics in English post the success of my autobiography published in 2009 and have also become a columnist in a local weekly, I had not written any short stories in English. I decided to give it a try. I wrote my first piece titled ‘Marriages are made in heaven’ in 2014 and circulated the same among a very select list of family and friends. Encouraged by the response I wrote a couple of stories more. I was surprised that one of my stories titled ‘Changing society’ which I had sent to my good friend Kizhambur, the editor of Kalaimagal Magazine for his comments, got published in the June, 2014 Issue of Kalaimagal. Impressed by the contemporary theme of the story, Kizhambur had got the story translated in Tamil by one of his panel of writers and published it without even informing me in advance. Getting recognized by a prestigious literary Tamil magazine was a shot in the arm. Another story titled ‘Indomitable Spirit’ was published by Dignity Dialogue, a monthly published by Dignity Foundation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pustaka Digital Media
• Release date: Dec 21, 2021
• ISBN: 6580550707853

Book preview

https://www.pustaka.co.in

A Difficult Choice

(A collection of short stories)

Author:

R.V. Rajan

For more books

https://www.pustaka.co.in/home/author/rv-rajan

Digital/Electronic Copyright © by Pustaka Digital Media Pvt. Ltd.

All other copyright © by Author.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of Prabha Rajan the original short story writer in the family.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

A Difficult Choice

A loyal soul

Changing Society

Commitment

Dacoits

God’s Child

Indomitable Spirit

Lost & Found

Love is blind

Marriages are Made in Heaven

Perceptions in Friendship

Reckless Youth

Restless Soul

Rooma

Taken for a Ride

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I would like to record my grateful thanks to the growing number of my readers for their encouraging feedback on my writings.

Thanks are also due to:

Indira Parthasarathy for his generous Foreword

Srividya for converting the handwritten manuscripts into typed Matter.

Seshadri, Sowmya Srinivasan for giving me their valuable feedback on the first drafts of the stories.

Charukesi and Shreekumar Verma for their views on the book Susan Philip for her meticulous copy editing.

Kavitha Srinivas for the cover design.

Foreword

R.V. Rajan is a distinguished advertising veteran among his many other achievements in the field of culture and social activism. In 2009, he brought out his ‘candid autobiography’ that focused on his many-splendoured personality as an achiever of the highest eminence. His wife, the late Prabha Rajan, was a brilliant writer in Tamil.

Now Rajan, to a great extent as a tribute to his beloved wife, has written these 15 stories in English, a language in which he is quite comfortable.

Though he claims that this is his ‘maiden effort,’ on reading all of them together one gets the impression that they have been in his mind for quite a while, only waiting to be expressed at the most appropriate time.

Even the slightest event can provoke a creative writer to fictionalize it. The shortest short story, someone said, talks of the meeting of two persons on a train. One asked the other, Do you believe in ghosts? Yes, said the other, and vanished!

Rajan, in his multi-faceted career, appears to have interacted with different kinds of people, interactions that have provided him material for writing these stories.

Renowned novelist E M Forster once said that a story is a slice of life. India, whether we like it or not, is a caste-ridden country, with several gradations of superiority relating to birth. ‘A Difficult Choice’, a story in this anthology, deals with this issue. A Dalit Christian boy, the son of a reformed gangster, and an educated Tam Brahm girl fall in love with each other. Her widowed mother and all her kin, more than being against the criminal history of the boy’s father, feel agitated about the boy being a Dalit and a Christian! No wonder! In our country, castesism dies hard! The lovers elope in the true modern fashion but, in an O.Henryian twist to the story, the girl returns to her mother, perhaps scared of the cultural challenges that she may encounter in her married life! Rajan narrates the story in a very simple style without being judgmental, and that adds a distinctive dimension to the story.

In ‘Changing Society’, there are no words such as ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. They are facts of life, which have become not uncommon in our metropolitan lives. I really liked the way Rajan has dealt with this theme in the most sophisticated fashion.

I do not want to write a long thesis but only add that this book will be another feather to the creative cap of my friend Rajan

- Indira Parthasarathy

The Legendary Tamil novelist and playwright

(Sahithya Academy Award winner)

Preface

Rummaging through some old papers I discovered a scrap book containing a few short stories I had written in Tamil during my school and college days. I could not believe that I had written those stories. I was surprised because I find that today I cannot even compose a simple letter in Tamil due to lack of practice for over 45 years. Though I have been writing essays on a variety of topics in English post the success of my autobiography published in 2009 and have also become a columnist in a local weekly, I had not written any short stories in English. I decided to give it a try. I wrote my first piece titled ‘Marriages are made in heaven’ in 2014 and circulated the same among a very select list of family and friends. Encouraged by the response I wrote a couple of stories more. I was surprised that one of my stories titled ‘Changing society’ which I had sent to my good friend Kizhambur, the editor of Kalaimagal Magazine for his comments, got published in the June, 2014 Issue of Kalaimagal. Impressed by the contemporary theme of the story, Kizhambur had got the story translated in Tamil by one of his panel of writers and published it without even informing me in advance. Getting recognized by a prestigious literary Tamil magazine was a shot in the arm. Another story titled ‘Indomitable Spirit’ was published by Dignity Dialogue, a monthly published by Dignity Foundation.

I decided to write at least 15 stories so that I could publish a book of my short stories in English. The book in your hands is my maiden effort in this genre.

While some of the stories are based on my own experiences and the characters I met, a few have been inspired by stories that I have heard from friends. I have not followed any particular formula or themes though a few stories deal with contemporary issues faced by the modern society.

With the publication of this book – my sixth in eight years – I have covered five genres of books: an autobiography; an industry based book on my experiences as a Rural Marketing Specialist; a collection of my essays on a variety of topics; an institutional history of 41 Clubs of India (an association of ex-tablers) and now a book of short stories. The only genre remaining in my target list is a ‘novel’. Hope God gives me enough time in this world to fulfill my dream of writing a novel. At 75 it might look like an over-ambitious dream but I am going to give it a good try.

In the meanwhile I look forward to your feedback on my short stories. Bouquets or brickbats – both are welcome. It is the feedback I receive for my articles from a growing number of readers that is keeping me going as a writer, post retirement.

R.V. Rajan

[e-mail]

[phone]

A Difficult Choice

There was a big commotion in front of a flat in Kapali Apartments, located in the suburbs of Chennai. A middle-aged lady was hitting a young man with her footwear while screaming and shouting at him.How dare you take my daughter out, you scoundrel. She is still in school and you are professing love to her, when she does not even know the meaning of love. Get lost! If I see you with her again, I will kill you.

The tall, dark and handsome youth, perhaps a college student, quickly took the lift opposite the flat. He left the building before a crowd could gather.

The girl’s mother did not know that she had hit a boy who was the son of a reformed gangster in North Chennai.

***

Laxmi, widowed at a young age, was struggling to bring up her only daughter Sandhya against all odds. The small income that was available to her, thanks to some savings in the bank left behind by her husband, was not enough to meet the growing demands of her pretty daughter.

Sandhya, at 18, studying in the 12th standard of a popular school, was fair of complexion and gracious of figure. She was the cynosure of all eyes in the locality. Though very conscious of her beauty, Sandhya refused to fall into any traps and went about her business like a normal, diligent student. She was a class topper and also very popular in the school as a singer. She was aware of her mother’s struggle to bring her up and her dreams for her future.

She had lost her father when she was only six. Her mother, a sickly woman, never went out of the home to attend any functions. Sandhya still missed her father! She missed the presence of a man in her house. Until one day she found a Prince Charming under unusual circumstances – a meeting which was to create a storm in her life.

***

On that fateful day, Sandhya was late to leave the school in the evening because she had to attend a special class. While she was walking to the bus stop with her close friend Maya, she suddenly found two boys blocking her way. While one boy passed lewd comments, the other tough looking fellow tried to molest her. In the tussle that followed, she fell down and started screaming for help.