Ularatha Ratham

The title of this blog is a famous title of Rajesh Kumar's tamil novel. Those who are familiar with tamil novels must have heard of Rajesh Kumar. He played a major role in inculcating the reading habit in me. His novels used to be such an attraction. He along with Asokan used to do a monthly named Crime Novel. There used to be a tag on top of each issue saying "India's largest selling monthly novel". The coimbatoorilirindhu trunkcall section through which Rajesh Kumar puts forth his views on general happenings used to be another attraction.

Now going back to the title this was the first book I read by Rajesh Kumar and believe me it made me loose my sleep. I read this novel somewhere between 1985 and 1989.

The story is about a family moving to a new bungalow they have bought recently. It starts off with the family going for the grahapravesam in a car. This family starts to experience some bad things from the first day.

There's a scene where a head comes out of a hole in the ground and starts moving in the night as one person watches it. There is also the famous maligai poo vaasanai accompanied by jal jal salangai sounds. There are dead bodies dug out in usual Rajesh Kumar novel style. If I am right the ever famous Vivek solves the mystery. There is also a scene where a woman is violated by some unknown force.

I remember starting to read this novel during night time and I couldnt stop reading this. After some years I had another chance of reading the same novel. I dont remember if I felt the same way I felt when I read the first time. But, after reading 100's of tamil novels I can remember only few of them and this one tops them all after 20 odd years.

Rajesh Kumar hats off to you for this novel.
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Looks like from today new fares for Autos in chennai comes into effect. Lets hope this brings in some good changes.