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A blend of tenderness and steeliness
By Malathy Sunderam
March 07, 2008

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For those in the know, the name Stella Bruce conjures up the name of a music band. Maybe Rammohan (that was his real name) was a music lover - we don't know! but he was unconsciously probing and analyzing the Paranadham(celestial music) that runs as an undercurrent through the ideal man-woman relationships of our culture. His writing could not be

Stella Bruce

called very nature-oriented or descriptive. For him Nature was just a necessary backdrop for subtle human interactions. He was very, very people- centered. As he himself had revealed in one of his forewords, he took a conscious decision not to play upon the conventions and attitudes of any one particular community quite early in his writing career. His desire was that his writing should reflect the foibles, passions and aspirations of all human kind. His characters are universal in the sense that they constantly and effortlessly highlight the very deeply embedded, age-old chauvinistic tendencies of people we see everywhere. His characters could be slotted anywhere.

Surprisingly, his southern roots showed up (at least in language) rather cutely in two of his novels, if I remember right—Panangaattu Annaachchi and Maya Nadhigal.The former is a tragic-comic story of a village bigwig Paandi Annaachchi, who taken in by the misleading words of a soothsayer, marries again late in life just for 'Vaarisu'! The subtle development of rivalry between the two wives is traced so humorously through the story. Stella Bruce is quite unapologetic when he exposes the frail male ego in its various shocking colours repeatedly through the course of this novel and in Aayiram Kadhavugal Thirakkattum. There is an equally dispassionate projection of the protagonist Ulaganadhan in his highly acclaimed novel Maya Nadhigal. The agonies and complexes that play havoc with the life of an old man after he marries a young woman just for the sake of pride and for parading her as a trophy through the village are so delightfully brought out in this novel which, by his own admission, was very dear to him!

He loved and respected women. Many of them were a blend of tenderness and steeliness—be it Anarkali (Adhu Veru Mazhiakkaalam) Parameswari (Maya Nadhigal) or Sugandha (Meendum Andha Nyaabagangal). When you read his novels, you realize something---that he was intensely aware that both man and woman were a complex mix of the good and the bad and that he longed for them to accept them each other as they were, and to explore realms of harmony from there.

Maybe he found his ideal mate in his wife Hema. It seems such a pity that someone who was so adept at analyzing layers of interpersonal relationships in his stories could not bring himself to co-exist with the world after his wife's passing away. When Ananda Vikatan carried an article about his wife's illness sometime early last year, it was clear to the reader that the man was already depressed. Now his end leaves you wondering why the literary fraternity did not take the effort of reaching out to him in time!

May this tortured soul rest in abundant Peace now.

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