PS is good enough read for 8-9th std students of present age. IF students can read Irving Wallace, Sidney Sheldon and James Hardly Chase they surely can read PS. The problem is the Tamil textbooks have an extra ordinary capability of making students hate Tamil Literature. Esp the ND books, all story are about difference between the rich and poor and sober stories(atleast when I read say 10 years ago). These students want to read books but get a very bad idea of Tamil Literature from Text Books. If we can make one person read PS in class that would be a chain reaction actually. It is good enough book to catch attention of the students. If group like PVSP can make any PS reading drive among the students , we are actually making a big change. Students will start liking Tamil Literature and also trigger interest in Tamil History. Story telling session or read along sessions or encouraging students to read PS.... as lovers of PS we should make this effort or at least try this out in one school.
Vairam, yes actually I tried this last year with my niece and her cousins. We started with 12 kids (all 8-9 years) and ended up with 2. I have had 3 story telling sessions in years ago (10 years ago) with bigger groups of kids and there has never been a lack of interest.
Problem with today's kids is attention span is very short, there is no patience to wait for next chapter and enjoy what it brings, they want the whole thing in one evening or one day. PS is to be savored and enjoyed, not fast food.
There are too many things - tv, internet, malls all that for kids to be interested in good old fashioned books. I really dislike being pessimistic but in this situation it seems to be the sad truth.
Attention span has definitely decreased but i dont think the popularity of books has decreased. I think the mode has story telling has to be changed for the present generation for books to succeed. Harry Potter is a brilliant example of how a book can succeed with this generation if the story were told in the right fashion. HP is actually quite a long book with lots of wierd names and stuff which nobody had heard of. The reason for its success was that it was told in a manner which most kids can realte too. Books/Authors have to compete with the malls, computers, etc and ensure they get the kids attention. It is the authors duty. For all of Kalki's talents his stories are actually quite descriptive hence i dont think it would work with today's generation if we keep describing the banks of the Kaveri, Kollidam or Veera Nararana eri. Take the two minute animation trailer for example, though very well made it had VD just riding riding and riding. We love it but im not sure the kids are going to lap it up simply because its too long and has to be edited mercilessly.
I agree Rahul. Harry Potter was a fantasy, fantasy stories let imagination have free reign and kids love that - of any age. I remember in our time the only 'fantasy' was the stories of fairies and goblins written by Enid Blyton - even that we used to gobble up and long for more.
For whatever reason though in those days kids did not mind sceneries and related stuff although of course i remember skipping pages of dialoguee between VD and Alwarkadiyan, VD and Kunthavai, Manimegalai's long tragic dialogues and so on for kids.
We have to remember clearly too Kalki was not a children's story writer. That needs different type of skill. May people may have read PS and other stories young because of parental influnece and of course what else did we have at that time that was so interesting? Nowadays lot of things are available, and PS needs to be edited considerably to captuer a modern child's mind,
A market survey in a generation of youngsters from say 15 to 26, how many people know RJC and How many people know Pallava Dynasty (lets not ask specifics), I am really interested to see the result.
I conducted the survey amoung say 30 of my own known IT professionals(BE's and MCA's), all in that age range. less than 20 percent knew these greats... the fun part of that was, those who knew of RJC were from Trichy and Tanjore, though their knowledge was very limited.
My worst nightmare would be to imagine a culture that is very confused and has no 'time' for ancient artifacts. Kids are getting very impatient, so much that they need to be occupied almost all the time till they hit bed and that occupied time must be quite racy.
Say in the 60's, almost all tamils who had the capacity to read and buy or borrow kalki would have read the book. By mid 80's only about 50% of the above criteria took to these books, and I am sure that percentage kept getting thinner over the years.
How do we get this moving? To get the younger gen interested, we need a harry potter, children who grow up as the book matures. One of the several reasons why Harry potter books sold way better than Lord of Rings or similar.
Unless there is mass publicity and a powerful movie combined with powerful narrators etc would kindle some interest in the current junta...
I know I will be hit with brickbats for this, but I personally feel, chandilyan's kadal pura or venkat's thillayil oru kollaikaran why, even SS have a better chance of hitting it on big screen than PS.
> I know I will be hit with brickbats for this, but I personally feel, chandilyan's kadal pura or venkat's thillayil oru kollaikaran why, even SS have a better chance of hitting it on big screen than PS.
thanks ravi. to be placed in the middle of 2 stalwarts was one of the best compliments i could receive.
indeed TOK was closely examined by a television major but then the fad for mythologicals had faded off by then
my greatest desire for TOK was to translate it into english. " the dacoit and the dancer" should request pavithra to do it when she's not as busy as i hear she is now.
Is Chandilyan a 'stalwart'? Dont' mean to annoy his fans here but most of his works long works especially are exceptionally boring, Kadal Pura a record in writing a long boring novel. Dont' get me wrong even Tolstoy has been dubbed boring for his War and Peace and Anna Karenina, some people regard him as a classic.
Venkat's TOK is a very well written novel, very good material for movie/tv serial. Venkat I'd be more than happy to translate for you if Pavithra cannot, although I think it has to look like its own novel and not a liteeral translation.
'Even SS' can make it to the big screen? SS has huge scope for dance drama which holds lot of potential even with young generation who learn dance. Besides from a purely literary point of view SS is a very nicely knit neat novel with no loose ends and therefore does deserve more crediblity than PS.
I am talking the filmy groove that has potent in these novels. Unless we have the funds and the convept (as it Lord of Rings or Harry or so on where we can produce sequels - prequels) PS cannot hit the big screen.
These novels have simple yet interesting plots with quick dramatization at places which makes it quite an interesting unit to move ahead.
I have talked to many guys with $ and some movie makers, no one seems to have a serious intent to take such films though. It is dissapointing.
To change this, there must be an elaborate strategy to launch these movies. Hopefully, the future has something in store.
Note: Venkat, I strongly recommend that you write the story in english yourself, I am sure some of us, incl me can help at places if needed. Its your mind, your vision, no one can reproduce your mind as accurately as yourself.
For boys: Male characters from PS - with all swords and war instruments. For girls: Lady characters from PS - the ability to dress them up in different clothes, hair dressing, lipstick etc etc.
I believe the concept of story telling which in many ways was introduced to the world by our culture is sadly dying out, while we are focusing on the media to take its place - there is nothing that can substitute an active story teller especially in stories like PS!
In US we have story telling festivals for children and grown ups. A big space like a ground is rented, there are fires around which people sit, small shops selling food and various knick knacks and pepole bring their kids. There are small camps annoncing type of stories - history, horror, mystery, fantasy and so on. The story teller can use small props like puppets or sometimes even have couple of children come up and do an improptu acting of a scene.Parents and children listen with avid interest. These events sometimes go on into the night. Big novels are often split into small incidents and ther are even people selling the rest of the novel as books. People with good story telling skills are screened and allowed to participate. I have told two jataka tales and got phenomenal response.
These thigns do not cost much money. But involvement from public is very important - and lack of cynicism among adults which I have seen is huge problem in our culture. Perhaps PS committee can consider a Story telling festival next year - we have lots of great story tellers here!!