Domestic violence is shown on TV and comes with graphic images into homes with both spouse and child abuse. The immediacy of the horror stays in the mind and also motivates the viewer to copy the abusive behaviour...

Read full article: 'Serial Killers by Padmini Natarajan'

In the Indian tradition, any disciple paying respect to his elders through Abhivandan introduced himself not as his father's son, but as belonging to so and so Gurukul...

Read full article: 'Guru-shishya Parampara by Padmini Natarajan'

A screech / A bang, a crunch / Wrenching shriek


You can read all of Padmini's previous works here

Read full article: 'Sacrifice by Padmini Natarajan'

An introduction should be precisely that what it specifies. An introduction.

It should not be an essay or a treatise on the subject matter. So I shall try and be brief and not meander all over the place as I am wont to, keep my sentences short and my paragraphs brief, with minimum punctuation and quotes and get on to the business. Oof! That took a deep breath, didn't it?

The most enjoyable discovery of my life has been the talent - I call it, you may not - to communicate. I have always been a voracious reader. The classics, the Enid Blytons and mystery novels of Christie, Mason and others were left behind in my bed-ridden-for-the-most-part childhood. My teens was spent rushing through three Mills & Boons a day, Gone with The Wind in three days and Tom Jones in a week's time along with getting the necessary graduate and post graduate qualifications. Uris, Shute, Slaughter, Wallace and others of their ilk were my companions for many years. After my marriage I discovered the women writers or it is possible that they came into the forefront at that time. So, I discovered many worlds, peoples, characters and situations set in a myriad landscapes through books.

I used to sit at my portable Japanese typewriter, peck away at the keys and try to put down the vagrant and ephemeral thoughts that flitted through my mind. I was first praised for my skills as a letter writer. The power of the language came through my sentences and my husband began to goad me to write.

The Personal Computer and the wonders of Word followed by WordPerfect were the magic keys to a kingdom of the world of a writer. I began with poetry and stories and gradually graduated to writing on anything and everything. The Internet in its turn, allowed me to dump my three-bit opinions on an audience who were gullible enough to read what I wrote on matters, This and That.

A word about my in-house Editor and my reviewing readers. Yes, my husband was a stringent yardstick by whom I had to pass what I wrote as he had, as we say in Tamil, dissolved and drunk from cover to cover the gems of Wren and Martin. My offspring were the first readers who passed or failed me in the final test. My Editor was sweetness personified. She never rejected anything I wrote and has continued to support and give me more challenging assignments.

So, this column is my soapbox in the corner of Hyde park as it were - Zine5 in reality. I shall wax and wane, grumble and groan, cheer and cry as my arm is very skillfully being twisted by the new Editor under whose thumb I now squirm.

Ciao!

~*~

Padmini Natarajan is Editor and provides content for EZ Vidya. She writes creative and first person accounts regularly for Chennai-based Eve's Touch, SitaGita.com and Madras Musings. She is also involved in volunteer work with organizations like CanStop, a Cancer Support group and the Ramakrishna Home. She is currently taking Vedic Heritage classes for primary school children as a volunteer. Involved with the Tamil and English stage in Chennai for over a decade, Padmini has also done some cameo roles in films and television. She has a post-graduate degree in Literature and teaching experience at University level. She has lived abroad and travelled widely all over the word.

Write to Padmini at padmini@zine5.com