நண்பர் திருப்பதி மகேஷ் எனக்கு அனுப்பும் இத்தகைய குறிப்புகள் என் காலைப் பொழுதை மலர வைக்கின்றன. அவருக்கு என் நன்றி:
At one point in life, reading novels and blogs was my primary way of spending time. But after joining SBI, I lost the patience to read novels. During the COVID lockdown, I got the chance to work from home, and during that period, I managed to read a few novels. However, I couldn’t continue the habit afterward.
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This year, surprisingly, I started reading again — and that too with a non-fiction book titled Music Blooms, the debut work by my sister-like friend, Kavipporani M. Chamundeeswari.
Although I read one or two more non-fiction books afterward, they didn’t leave the kind of emotional impact that novels usually do.
I wanted to read a novel but wasn’t sure which one to choose.
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Around two months ago, in February, when I got a 2-day holiday on the second Saturday and Sunday, I suddenly had an idea — why not meet Tamil contemporary writer Abilash Chandran sir in person in Bangalore? My cousin brother Vasu and I visited him at Christ University, where he works. I also shared my disappointment with him about some of his books not being available on Amazon Kindle. He told me he was working on getting them published soon.
Last week, he released four of his novels on Amazon Kindle.
I’ve had a long-time wish to read his debut novel Kaalkal, which won the 2014 Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar. That wish was finally fulfilled yesterday.
As soon as I found out last week that his novels were released on Kindle, I immediately downloaded Kaalkal and started reading it on Monday night. I used to read Kindle books on my laptop, but the latest versions are no longer supported there. So I began reading on my mobile instead.
It took me some time to get used to reading on the Kindle mobile app and to get into the flow of the novel. But over the past three days, whenever I found time in the mornings and evenings, I kept reading Kaalkal — and finally finished it last night.
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Though I’m a visually challenged person and already understand the world of the visually impaired and the challenges they face, Kaalkal gave me a new perspective. For the first time, I stepped into the world of people with locomotor disabilities through the novel’s central character, Mathu.
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She is the only child of her parents, and due to a polio attack, she became locomotor disabled. The entire novel is narrated from her point of view.
Though I felt the novel was slightly lengthy, I still enjoyed many parts of it. I felt truly satisfied after completing Kaalkal.
As I don’t have any travel plans for this 3-day holiday, I’m now thinking of reading Abilash Chandran Sir’s latest novel Nilal Bommai, released this year. When I met him at Christ University in Bangalore, he had brought a hard copy of the novel and even read a few pages aloud to me. Just by touching the book, I was amazed at its thickness — and I was even more surprised when I found out that he wrote this 400-page novel in just 25 days!
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To download Abilash Chandran Sir’s novels on Amazon Kindle, click the link below:
https://www.amazon.in/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27%3A%25E0%25AE%2586%25E0%25AE%25B0%25E0%25AF%258D%2B%25E0%25AE%2585%25E0%25AE%25AA%25E0%25AE%25BF%25E0%25AE%25B2%25E0%25AE%25BE%25E0%25AE%25B7%25E0%25AF%258D&s=relevancerank&text=%E0%AE%86%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%8D+%E0%AE%85%E0%AE%AA%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B7%E0%AF%8D&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1
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Tirupati Mahesh
12/04/2025
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