Kalki Selected Stories

Kalki Krishnamurthy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: Kalki Selected Stories

Author: Kalki.R.Krishnamurthy

TRANSLATED BY: GOWRI RAMNARAYAN, GRAND DAUGHTER OF KALKI.

THE STORIES I LIKED:

v  THE TIGER KING

Prince Jung Jung Bahadur was born and the astrologers predicted that the child will grow to become a warrior. They also said that the 100th tiger will kill him. The crown Prince, Jung Jung Bahadur grew up and started killing all the tigers. He had killed all the tigers in his kingdom but he had to kill 30 more. He married a young princess of a state with large tiger population. He had killed all the tigers there. He had killed 99 tigers. If he killed 1 more, he could prove that the astrologers were wrong. One day his soldiers got him an old tiger. He aimed a shot at the tiger and the tiger fell to the ground. He went to celebrate. Later, the soldiers found it was not dead and killed it instead of saying it to the king. Soon Jung Jung Bhadur son's birthday arrived. The king presented his son a toy tiger. While playing with his son, the steel went inside the king's hand. Best surgeons from Madras were called but the surgery failed and the king died. The 100th tiger had killed the king.

 v  THE POISON CURE:

This story is about Narayana Iyer, who thinks that untouchables are not equal to his Bhramin caste. He has the skill to draw the poison from snakebites and scorpion stings. He believes that when he says the mantra to draw the poison from the person, the mantra will not work if an untouchable is near him. One day an Inspector sat near him while he drew poison away from a person. After completing his mantra and after the patient was recovered, he told the inspector that the manta wouldn't have worked if an untouchable was near him. The inspector started laughing and replied when he was asked why he was laughing that he himself was an untouchable and the mantra had worked. From then on Narayana Iyer did not mind an untouchable near him.

 v  THE RURAL FANTASY:

This story is about a woman named Sakunthala who made the young women of the Kanaiyazhi educated and asked them to be brave and daring. She made the Kanaiyazhi people clean their village and asked them to keep it clean. She taught them now to read and sing songs. But when Sakunthala returns to Kolkata, they all start littering again. But the women of Kanaiyazhi still follow Sakuthala's advice.

The other stories are:

The letter, Rebirth of Srikanthan, The Governor's visit, The Big swelling sea, S.S.Menaka, Ruined Fort, Veenai Bhavani and Madatevan's spring.

It was an interesting book with nice stories. I enjoyed reading it. It is a must read for people who want to read good books.