Transverse

Tamil Thought. English Voice.

The Unfortunate Semi-Seriousness of ‘The Last Farmer’ (கடைசி விவசாயி) – Film Review

There is a scene near the middle of Kadaisi Vivasayi that contains, in miniature, everything the film is capable of. Maayandi – eighty-two years old, sun-darkened, hard of hearing – stands before a judge who has ordered him remanded to a city jail on a charge of killing peacocks. The courtroom exchange is already quietly…
On Senthil Kumar’s Yata no Kagami (யஹதா ககாமி)

At eleven pages long, the first two-thirds of யஹதா ககாமி unfolds like a typical day in a sixth-grade classroom. A somewhat timid Rajesh Kumar brings in a shiny black stone, which immediately becomes an object of intense fascination. As the stone changes hands, it eventually reaches Pandiamma and Ambika – two girls with a history…
Samraj’s ‘Shorty Binu’ (குள்ளன் பினு) – Short Story Review

https://yarl.com/forum3/topic/215311-குள்ளன்-பினு/ “என்னடா, ஆள்களை அடிச்சவுடனே உயரமாயிட்டியா நீ?” There is a particular kind of loneliness that comes from not measuring up to the world’s expectations. Binu, in Samraj’s குள்ளன் பினு, is more than accepted by his parents, certainly loved by his sisters, but the world he inhabits has a fixed idea of what a man is. And…
On Nirmal Pitchai’s களவின் கண் கன்றிய காதல்

Set in Georgia a few years after the Soviet collapse, Nirmal’s spare களவின் கண் கன்றிய காதல் understands something essential about what that collapse actually meant for ordinary people: not liberation, but a void. The narrator, a young man who calls himself இரும்புக் கம்மான் – a name that reeks of Soviet-era bravado – is a petty…
On Yuvan Chandrasekhar’s ‘The Clock Bird’ (கடிகாரக் குருவி)

https://www.sirukathaigal.com/கடிகாரக்-குருவி/ Yuvan Chandrasekhar’s கடிகாரக் குருவி is a playful experiment in narrative unreliability. The story operates through three distinct voices. Raghavan is an insomniac, anxiety-ridden man prone to wearing mismatched sandals to work, where colleagues remark on his sluggishness – a walking advertisement for his own unreliability as a narrator. Sowrirajan, his roommate, makes this explicit,…
My Speech on M.Navin’s Vairam at VLC Bay Area Meetup

Here’s the story and my written review.
VLC Bay Area Meeting Minutes – February, 2026

The Bay Area chapter of Vishnupuram Literary Circle met for our 16th monthly meeting today at Fremont Public Library. Considering the upcoming Tamil Literary Festival in NYC in April, we’ve decided to pick a short story from many of the authors who’ll be visiting the event. Padmanabha kicked off with Suneel Krishnan’s Ambu Padukkai. This…
Dialogue as Craft in Jeyamohan’s ‘Poonai’

Of the short stories I’ve read by contemporary Tamil short story writers, it feels like many of them choose themes that lend themselves well to the compressed form. They construct situations of moral weight, place characters under pressure, and let plot and action carry the reader forward. The results are quite effective, sometimes even moving.…
On Azhagunila’s ‘Exclusion’ (விலக்கு)

Azhagunila’s short story விலக்கு spends a day with thirteen-year-old Lavanya, foregrounding her isolation at home and at school because she has not yet gotten her first period. The pressure she feels is largely implicit: classmates casually discuss sanitary pads and boyfriends, while those who have not menstruated are dismissed as “babies,” abruptly stripped of the…
Ra.Giridharan’s ‘There Are No Stories In This Land’

This is my translation of Tamil writer Ra.Giridharan’s இந்த நிலத்தில் கதைகள் எதுவும் கிடையாது. This story is a piece of speculative fiction that blends environmental science with a deeply human yearning for authenticity. It is a cautionary tale about a future where “perfect” technology might solve our resource problems, but at the cost of our connection…