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[Pic : hindu.com]

On an internet chat session with Writer Sujatha, the discussion went over to science fiction and my obvious response was that Bharathi was one of the earliest tamil science fiction writers of the last century. His science fiction poem[as I prefer to call it] Bharatha Desamendru popularly known as Sindhu Nathi Inisai, was written with a lot of forethought.

Sujatha replied that the pioneers of science fiction in Tamil were Kalki and Puthumai Pithan. Kalki’s Mohinitheevu and Puthumai Pithan’s Kadavulum Kandasaamy Pillayum could be identified as the intial science fiction stories. But even after decades after these stories, it was Sujatha who made science fiction as genre in tamil books. Having written science fiction novels including Enn Iniya Iyandira and Meendum Geno, he has also written many science fiction short stories at various occasions for various magazines.

Manushya Puthiran’s Uyirmmai Publishers have released a collection of Sujatha’s science fiction shortstories during earlier this year. I have to say that the shortstory Thimala is one of my favorite shortstory of Sujatha after his all-time best Nagaram. However Thimala is a science fiction and is included in this collection.

Even if an author is ignorant of scientific facts, as long as he observes “internal consistency”, if it obeys social and structural rules within the plot, the story will be accepted, says Sujatha. He invites greater exploration of this genre which flouts tradition and invites a re-evaluation of old-fashioned viewpoints. This is a passage from a good review of this Sujatha’s Vingnana Chirukathaigal written by Prema Srinivasan, can be read here in The Hindu or a reproduction of this in Desikan’s blog here.

On an another note, last week, I did buy one of Sujatha’s best written analysis called Kadavul Irukiraara ? which was serialised in a fortnightly called Vin Naayagan. I vaguely remember that Madhan was also involved in the effort of this magazine. The magazine has been stopped now and I was one of the regular readers of Vin Naayagan for this amazing column of Sujatha. This is now available as a book.

On another note, his Junior Vikatan column Yen ? Yetharkku Yeppadi ? – Part II and Vikatan column Katrathum Petrathum – Part II have just been released by Vikatan publication. A must read/buy if you a Sujatha fanatic.

This anecdote of Sujatha sums up his witty and serious social sense. Thanks to Latha for passing on that. When his flight took off from Bangalore, he could see water allover from a bird’s eye view and just after half hour while it was landing in Chennai, he could see just empty buckets in a queues, waiting for water. So he wrote Arai Manikkul Ithanai Paarapathchamaa. WOW!!

Last evening, while having my dinner at a local mess, I had a few uninvited guests to my table. As these guys entered, they glanced over the place for a table to sit. Found my table, and came over to sit beside me. So I was literally pushed over to one corner of the table. While waiting for my onion rava to come, I was forced(!) to listen to these guys. One of them who seemed elder with a white shirt and a white pant was in his 50’s with the spectacles reaching the tip of his nose. The two other guy seemed to be rather young, probably in their late 20’s. Their dress looked very new and one had a vibhuthi (religious mark) on his forehead and was looking very timid and shy. The other one had a screw driver in his shirt pocket, probably a electrician.

The oldie opened his bag, and took out a Kumaran silks cover. He dragged two passports out of them and handed it over to each of them. A flight ticket which was folded by two was also sticking out of the passports. He gave it to them and started telling them as to how they need to behave in the airport. I assumed that they were just leaving abroad for employment. Looks like they were leaving to Malaysia or Singapore. Couldn’t get that from their talk. He also handed over a pair of documents and told them that it was their insurance cover for 1 lakh. He also bragged about how he recovered one lakh rupees for an guy who died in accident abroad and scared them that if they lost these documents, they had nothing to back them up.

All this was looking fine. But he continued to say that when the reach the destination airport, they need to go through immigration and show these docs. Once they are out of airport, they need to take an escalator, reach the lobby and need to meet a man who will be stout, short and big bellied, who will take them to the place of employment. He said ” Angittu oruthar gunda..kullama…nalla periya thondhiyoda varuvaar. Avaru Ungala pickup pannikinu kottinu povaru”. I couldn’t hear him telling the name of that fat man who will pick them up. This dude with the vibhuthi was already scared after hearing the formalities in a foreign nation. He was probably scared because he wasn’t able to talk any english. This last advice should have scared him totally.

My onion rava was done and I had ordered a strong filter coffee. While picking up my bike outside the mess, this scared guy came out and reached for the auto rickshaw standing nearby. His wife with a kid and probably his mother were waiting for him. He entered the auto with them and I vaguely heard him telling the autowala ” Neraa Airport Udunga” [Go Straight, to the airport].

On my way back, I was thinking about the guy, his scared look and his young baby in his wife’s hands. I seriously hope he reaches the place safely and more sincerely the big bellied, stout ‘n’ short guy reaches the airport on time.

It was all going to be hell.

His followers were abandoning him. His friends no longer believed him. The press, which had adored him for so long, now excoriated him. His money was running out. An awesome fortune – nearly squandered. He had made a hundred millions in a handful of years, and now he was blowing it just as quickly on his failing startups. …. In a meeting, at the Next’s headquaters on the shore of San Francisco Bay, he looked around at the besieged refugees of his thinned-out executive team and he told them, in a tone of bitterness and envy: “Everyone can leave- except me”.

So starts the gripping book of Alan Deutschman. That ‘he’ in the previous paragraph was Apple‘s own, Steve Jobs. The book, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. With such a personality in context Deutschman creates magic throughout this gossipy biography. Yeah, at first the book seems like you are sitting in a road-side McDonalds of Silicon Valley, gossiping the whereabouts of Steve Jobs. But as the book unravels the fall and the rise of this complex personality, one is forced to develop a liking towards Steve. Yeah, that same Steve. That Steve who was THE guy behind launching the historical Apple’s Mac PC back in 1984, that Steve who was thrown out of Apple in 1985, that Steve who managed a computer start-up in 1986 called Next which eventually closed in 1993, that Steve who instrumental in revolutinizing the digital animation with Pixar, that Steve who cameback as Apple’s interim CEO in 1997 and brought back Apple from doldrums with inroducing the most famous iMac, that Steve who made Apple’s share propell from $13 to $118, raising the market valuation from less than $2 billion to $20 billion. An extraordinary rise and fall and rise of an extraordinary hippie called Steve Jobs documented in the most complelling manner by Deutschman.

The above is just the summary of what the book has to offer you. The most intricate details sketches the early rise of the Pop culture icon Steve Jobs who instrumented the introduction of Mac PCs. That early rise, though was relatively easier than others, describes the strict disciplinarian/perfectionist/elitist and so on in Steve. It shows the Good Steve and the Bad Steve. The Good Steve could possibly use all the available strategies to inspire people, creatively. He could woo prospective employees or business partners with his power of speech and his charming personality. The Bad Steve, when it comes to realizing the vision, could resort to intimidating or humilating the his employees. He could possibly walk out of a meet when a reporter could ask a reasonable question that could make him angry. And as Alan says the Bad Steve was an integral part of Steve’s success just as Good Steve was. Both these personalities mixed and matched the life of this tech savvy hippie.

Alan also tells us the background of the rise of Pixar Animation Studios and how Steve Jobs wooed it for just $10 million from George Lucas, the maker ot Star Wars, who was struggling to keep it going. And how Steve Jobs wanted to be the Walt Disney of the Digital Animation Era. Also how Bill Gates, once during the early days, called up Steve Jobs number when he was drunk and left an anonymous message in Steve’s answering message saying “…Mac Sucks “. Interestingly Steve Jobs met Bill on Panel discussion, at an industry conference, when they reached the dias, Steve reached out to his pocket and took out the tape and showed it to Gates, saying “This is the tape”. Both these icons then made it big in the forthcoming years.

Steve Jobs is a personification of the Silicon Valley, for all the values it holds today. The plethora of emotions, one goes through, while reading this amazing tale of a man who tries continously to change the world, is just because Steve Jobs is an unforgettable face of modern tech industry.