Not many professors among Tamils have taken to literary creative writing. P. Sundaram Pillai, Mu Varadarajan and Indira Parthasarathy are among those who belong to this club. A specialist in bio-physics, P.K. Ponnuswamy, former Vice Chancellor of University of Madras and Madurai Kamaraj University, is an aspirant to be part of such a league.
Having roots in the western belt (called in Tamil “Kongu” zone), Prof. Ponnuswamy has now come out with his third novel, “Thirumurthi Mann,” (Soil of Thirumurthi) which captures the social, cultural and economic changes in a rural part of the belt in the light of Tiruppur emerging as a new industrial hub in the garments sector. The work, brought out by NCBH publication, is an extension of his earlier novel, “Padukalam.” It covers the events in the lives of a host of people over 50 years, ending with 1985.
As far as the 82-year-old author is concerned, his experiences in the most impressionable part of his life are fresh in his memory and he has brought them out in ample measure through the work, which is characterised by the Kongu dialect. The period and the region, apart from the factor of familiarity for the author, are significant for the reason that there had been no major caste conflicts during the period in question in the region, known for having two evenly-balanced intermediate castes in terms of resources and social standing. The determination of women to carry on with their lives despite suffering misery is an important feature of the latest work, Prof. Ponnuswamy adds.