Akkavin Kudai

In print, this volume brings together 19 short stories and 3 novellas written and published by the author Sandeepika (C. V. Rajan) over the past fifty years. Most of the short stories in this collection were originally published between 1976 and 2001 in well-known Tamil magazines such as Ananda Vikatan, Kalki, Kalaimagal, Mangaiyar Malar, and Saavi. The illustrations that accompanied those stories in the magazines are also reproduced here.

These short stories and novellas have also been published separately as individual ebooks under various titles on Amazon Kindle.

This book will help avid readers to appreciate the evolution of a writer shaped by fifty years of literary experience.

Most of the stories revolve around the lives of the middle class-their ethics, moral codes, constraints, joys and sorrows, strengths and weaknesses, and the varied textures of their everyday life.

The influence of Sandeepika's favorite writer, LaSaRa, can be seen to some extent in these stories-though LaSaRa's style, vigor, and wordcraft are of a different kind.

The stories in this collection range widely:

-  from tales of rural Vedic pundit to the story of a young man running a computer software company;

-  from the life of an ascetic who has renounced the world to an intense love story;

-  from humorous and satirical pieces to deeply spiritual narratives and explorations of marital psychology.

All these stories have also been released as audiobooks by Storytel.