Diamonds

Read this short Tamil novel called Vairangal (English: Diamonds) by Sujatha. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14761900

It kept me on the edge, often with a sense of what will happen to Thilagam the wife of a tea shop owner who owns a small parcel of land near palakkad and how the greed of the son of a Pawn broker from Coimbatore destroys their little family.

The inner world of their eight year old Manogari who is speech and hearing impaired and how she becomes the sole reason to trigger a chain of events around mining for diamonds. The innocence of an orphan Kadhar and the apathy of weak people being exploited by greedy masters.

Sujatha’s trademark twist at the end leaves you with the sense of relief that ‘evil did not prevail’.

If some one is looking for a short film to direct, this is a good thriller they can turn into one.

OK, now comes the interesting part.

I was going around in the weekend to buy pots and soil to get a bit of terrace garden done. And when my wife called me for this, I was reading the above novel. It was gripping and I could not leave it. I asked her to figure out the pots and price and stayed back in the car continuing to read the novel. And when the time came to open the boot I did and accidentally put the novel in the trunk along with the pots. I forgot the book when I came home and shifted the pots from the trunk.

Next day I had to accompany my gardener to buy the soil from a nearby nursery. While loading the sacks I found the novel again. And interestingly the gardener works in Bharat Electronics Limited where Sujatha, the author worked. So I showed him his photograph on the novel and told that this guy worked in BEL and he was behind the Electronic Voting Machine and had a little chat around that.

We came back home and as the gardener dug the soil, I continued reading the novel where the characters were digging the soil for diamonds :-)