Took Madan's advice and went to take a peek at the Roja Mutthiah Library. My efforts to find the library were a (small) adventure all by itself, tempered with a great deal of exercise, as I had to walk in the sweltering heat, jump over long tunnels dug up by the men working in the area, skid through slipper mud, et al.
I managed to locate the library, get a nice, smiling person to get the Kalki issues I wanted, sat down and opened them ...
...I tell you, there is nothing like leafing through the issue in which Ponniyin Selvan/ PK/SS first appeared.
The pages are yellowish brown, brittle with age - the librarian warns me to touch them carefully, as they're already falling to pieces - and I turn the pages with Maniam's original drawings, reading the ancient words, and imagining what it must have been like decades ago, reading the stories for the really really first time. Do you know the smell of a book that old? To me, it's a fragrance. It's amazing how much it can take you back in time.
Perhaps Kalki saw one of these books as it was being printed (in all probability he didn't, but heck, I can imagine that he did.).
Either way, all thanks to Thiru Roja Muthaiah. Had he not sought to preserve this, I never could've gotten to see it.
SB sir: Your point noted. And a very diplomatic answer it was. :D And very true, as always.
oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about the tunnels and the dug up roads that make the library inaccessible, you have an access road though via the polytechnic (not WPT) nearby... but I guess its too late :P