Gleanings:

A New Thamil Magazine from London

K. S. Sivakumaran

The first issue of a journal in Thamil published at 02,Langley Walk, Crawley, RH11 7LR, UK covering the period April-May 2009, edited by M Fauzer

reached me last week. This man who is in England presently has edited a yet another Thamil literary magazine called Moontravathu Manithan (The Third Man) while he was in Lanka. This large size 80 page is primarily concerned with politics and partly the arts, particularly literature.

The name of the journal is Ethu Varai (meaning either How Far? Or How Long?) It has a sub-tag: Maranathil Irunthu Vaalvitku...(From Death to Living...) The cover picture has a background with writing in white sporting in the right hand corner the picture of a child looking over a fence with fear and curiosity.

The bottom half excerpts two passages from a book titled Murintha Panai (The Broken Palmyrah).

Since I am not interested in political articles I am not commenting on them except to mention what the titles of the essays are and who have written them. However I shall give my views on the literary features.

The political articles when translated into English are The Unitary Nature of the Minorities-Today's Need (Nirmala), Post-Tigers (A. Marx),The Past, Present and Future: Solution to Problems (S.T.R), Today's Need: An Honest Realistic Revaluation (P.A. Cader), Thamil Eelam and Thamilians: Globalised colonialism's Tricky Games (Jamaalan), The Italian wouldn't just Nod (Kalaiarasan),Possibilities of racial relationship in Lanka ( Ravi Suntharalingam)

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There are two pieces of literary criticism on two writers. One is by M.I.M. Rauf and the other is by S. Kuneswaran.

The former's analytical piece while commenting in passing on the writing of Islamic writers of the East Lanka (Maddakkalappu region) in Thamil focuses on a particular novel by Junaida Sherrif (Junaida is the female nom-de-plume of a male writer) The title of the novel is Periya Maraikar, Sinna Maraikar.

The critic describes the novel an 'easy chair' style of writing as opposed to serious writing in depth. The critic has earlier published a literary magazine and has since matured in his critical sense.

The other critic is not known to me earlier. He comments on the short stories of Kalamohan who emigrated to France in 1983. This writer also writes in French, I understand. According to the critic, Kalamohan shows the decline of values among Lankan Thamil women in foreign climes.

The magazine also includes two stories by Shobacshakthi and Theeran. R.M. Nausad.It's difficult for me to comment on this type of writing since I am not in favour of the kind of writing produced by expatriate Lankan writers in Thamil.

G.T.K. Keatharanathan has paid a tribute to the late Harold Pinter. The former is an asset for Lankan Thamil writers both locally and abroad who are not fluent in English, as he introduces western literature and films for their benefit.

Nine people have written poems in this issue. They are Sitharthan, Nawas Saubi, Theepachelvan, Anaar, Sugan, Maruthamunai Vijili, C. Jeyashankar, Kalloranl and Mulumathi M Murthala.

There are also short notes on three journals in Thamil- Uyir Nilal from France, Kaalam from Canada and Uyir Mei from Norway. I am not sure whether the journal under review could continue to be published and whether most readers would be interested in reading such magazines in the present context of almost no-reading at all of the present youngsters.

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