Read the following biographical extract on Sujatha Rangarajan, a Science-fiction writer, and answer the questions that follow.
1. Sujatha is the allonym of the Tamil author S. Rangarajan and it is this name that is recognised at Once by the Tamil Sci-Fi reading community. You might have heard of Chitti and his extraordinary exhibition of different qualities in an incredible manner. The robot could excel a human being in any act beyond one’s imagination. Jeeno, a robotic dog which appeared in Sujatha’s science fiction novel “En Iniya Iyandhira” (My Dear Robot) formed the basis of Chitti’s character. Like Chitti, Jeeno was an all-rounder who could cook, clean and fight.
Very high tech computer technology terms are used in the story. Jeeno, a pet robot, plays an important role throughout the story. As the story proceeds, it behaves and starts to think on its own like-a human and instructs Nila, a human being, on how to carry on further.
2. In the preface of ‘En Iniya Iyandhira’ ,the writer states the reason for his attraction to the genre: “Science gives us the wonderful freedom to analyse thousands and thousands of alternative possibilities. While using it, and while playing with its new games, a writer needs to be cautious only about one thing. The story should draw some parallels or association from the emotions and desires of the present humankind. Only then it becomes interesting. Jeeno, the robot dog, was intelligent.
But the character became popular only because of the robot’s frequently displayed human tendencies. It is no wonder that his works echo these words about him and will reflect in the minds of the readers who enjoy reading his novels to have a lifetime experience.
3. It was Sujatha, who set the trend in sci-fi stories. He had tracked the origin from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein to his short stories. He has written 50 sci-fi short stories published in various Tamil magazines.
His stories have inspired many readers to extend their reading to English sci-fi writers like Isaac Asimov. The themes were bold even if there was a dependence on very well – established characterisation of English fiction. Sujatha opened up a new world to us with his writings on holograms, computers and works like ‘En Iniya Iyanthira’ , inspire many to study computer science.
4. He has been a great writer for more than four decades. He combined reasoning and science in his writings. Being a multifaceted hi-fi and sci-fi humanistic author, he expressed his views distinctively. He was the one who took Tamil novels to the next level. As an MIT alumnus and an engineer at BHEL, he was very good at technology. So, he narrated sci-fi stories, impressively. His readers always enjoyed reading all his detective and sci-fi novels which featured the most famous duo Ganesh and Vasanth.
5. Sujatha has played a crucial role as a playwright for various Tamil movies which have fascinated movie lovers. Hence, it is fathomable that the writer’s perspective of future India enthuses every reader and paves a new way to reading sci-fi stories in English.
(i) How was Jeeno different from other robots?
(ii) What precaution should one take while writing Science fiction stories?
(iii) What inspired Sujatha’s themes?
(iv) Why were Sujatha’s sci-fi stories impressive?
