Writer Sujatha

(May 3, 1935- Feb 28, 2008) was the writer of over 100 novels, 200 short stories, essays stage plays, and popular articles and Q&A on science His real name is S. Rangarajan. As a well-known contemporary Tamil writer. Sujatha is still considered the best in his field.

He was a well known columnist, most notably his "Kadaisi Pakkam" (last page) in Kanaiyazhi magazine, and "Katradhum... Petrathum..." (Learned and acquired...) In Anandha Vikatan magazine had a wide readership. He served for a short time as the editor of Kumudham magazine. He has also written stories, screenplays and dialogues for several Tamil movies. In addition, he has contributed to educational CD-ROMs.

He was the Chief of the team that designed the EVM or the Electronic Voting Machine during his tenure in Bharat Electronics as General Manager of R & D The machine is presently used in elections all over India.

Biography

Sujatha ( S.Rangarajan) was born in Triplicane, Chennai but spent his childhood in Srirangam near Tiruchirapalli under the care of his paternal grandmother owing to his father's frequent transfers in his government job. Rangarajan attended school in Srirangam Boys Highschool. He did his bachelors degree in physics in St.Joseph's College, Trichy where he was the classmate of President Abdul Kalam. Later on, he did his engineering in electronics at the Madras Institute of Technology. His writing interests were largely inspired by the short stories and serials published in popular Tamil magazines and literary magazines... "Sriranganthu Devathigal" (Angels of Srirangam) was a famous series based on life in that town the 50’s. His first short stories appeared in Kumudham “Paalam" (bridge) in Anandha Vikatan attracted reader’s attention.

After his Engineering degree he appeared in a competitive examination and joined the central government in Delhi.After 14 years in government service, he joined Bharat Electronics Bangalore.

In Bharat Electronics he rose to the post of General Manager. After retirement he lived in Chennai.

Sujatha received an award from the India's National Council for Science and Technology in 1993 for making science accessible to the public through popular media. He also received the VASWIK award for Electronic Voting Machine and Kalaimamani award from the Tamilnadu Government.

Theme Style and influence:

Sujatha was undoubtedly the most versatile Tamil writer – ranging from short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, movie dialogues, science essays and general non-fiction.. Sujatha has also pioneered science fiction stories in Tamil. He had the ability to explain science in very simple terms to the lay reader.

Sujatha brought freshness to Tamil writing on diverse topics. His interests include archeology, astrophysics, biotechnology, neuro sciences, music, ancient Tamil literature, sociology and many others.

He was an avid reader and used his columns as a forum to point out good writers, and poets . He was also actively involved in several projects developing software for Tamil.
His wife is a postgaduate in sociology. Both his sons are in software industry.

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