Sujatha
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Sujatha (b. May 3, 1935) is the pseudonym of the Tamil writer S. Rangarajan, author of over 100 novels, 250 short stories, ten books on science, ten stage plays, and a slim volume of poems. He is one of the most popular writers in Tamil literature. He is also a contributor to topical columns in Tamil periodicals such as Ananda Vikatan, Kumudam and Kalki. He has a wide readership, served for a brief period as the editor of Kumudam, and has also written screenplays and dialogues for several Tamil movies.
An engineer by profession, he supervised the design and production of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) during his tenure in Bharat Electronics which is currently used in elections throughout India.
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[edit] Biography
Sujatha (Rangarajan) was born in Triplicane, Chennai but spent his childhood in Srirangam near Tiruchirapalli under the care of his paternal grandmother owing to the frequent transfers of his father in his job.
[edit] Education
His schooling was in Srirangam. He attened St.Joseph's College, Trichy, where he was classmate with Abdul Kalam (who later became the President of India). Sujatha graduated in the 1954 class with a B.Sc in Physics (1952-54) and masters degree in electronics from the Madras Institute of Technology. His writing interests were largely inspired by the short stories and serials published in popular Tamil magazines.
[edit] Early Writings
Sriranganthu Devathigal (Angels of Srirangam) is a series of short stories based on incidents unfolded in that part of the world in 1940's and 50's. Sivaji, a minor magazine from Trichy published a story during his student days. His first short story was published in Kumudam magazine in 1962.
[edit] Engineering career
He worked first in Civil Aviation Department of Government of India and later for Bharat Electronics in Bangalore, India before his retirement to Chennai, India, where he lives today. As an engineer, he was a forward thinker and enabled many engineers to think ahead of times. He enabled the development of advanced word processing before the days of personal computers. Many of the engineers who worked under him are leaders in companies around the globe.[citation needed]
[edit] Awards
Sujatha received an award from Govt of India's National Council for Science and Technology in 1993 for making science accessible to the public through his books, magazine contributions and other media[citation needed].
[edit] Style and influence:
Sujatha is a versatile Tamil writer, with several short stories, novels, poems, plays, screenplays for movies, articles in popular science other non-fiction articles, to his credit. Sujatha has written a number of science fiction stories in Tamil and has sought to explain science in very simple terms to a layman. He routinely used to answer science questions in magazines like Junior Vikatan. His science FAQ has been released as separate books called En, Etharku, Eppadi and Athisaya Ulagam by Vikatan publications.
[edit] Interests
His interests include archeology, astrophysics, Biotechnology, neurosciences, Karnatic music, Tamil literature, sociology.
Critisicm
He had a career in Indian government scientific arena,besides he maintained a writing career were he wrote some novels inspired from hollywood movies,English novels.His question and answers appeared in magazines were mostly from internet articles.Especially he maintains double standards,lack of clarity on his stand and belief of god.He is said to be iyenger caste fanatic.Some of his scientific articles were written after superficial reading of books,and not been reliable.
[edit] Contribution to Films
Apart from being an author, he has also extended his writing skills and expertise on science to movies. Notably Kamal Hassan's VIKRAM, which was written by him. In recent times he has been associated with big wig movie makers like MANI RATNAM (for IRUVAR, KANNATHIL MUTHAMITTAL etc) and with SHANKAR (BOYS, INDIAN, ANNIYAN, SIVAJI). He is also a co-producer for the banner MEDIAWORKS which went on to produce critically acclaimed bio-pic, BHARATHI, of the great Tamil poet Bhaarathiyaar.
Criticism
He had a career in Indian government scientific arena,besides he maintained a writing career were he wrote some novels inspired from hollywood movies,English novels.His question and answers appeared in magazines were mostly from internet articles.Especially he maintains double standards,lack of clarity on his stand and belief of god.He is said to be iyenger caste fanatic.Some of his scientific articles were written after superficial reading of books,and not been reliable.
