Smt. H. Subhalakshmi Narayanan, known as Shubha to her friends and colleagues, is a student of Literature. She had a career spanning four decades as a Civil Servant and also as an International Civil Servant. Her hobbies include theatre activities, writing essays, plays, poetry and fiction in three languages, painting on canvas and stones, making rangolis. and dress designing.
She holds double postgraduate degrees, one in Sanskrit Literature (University of Delhi) and the other in Financial Management (University of Bombay). An avid debater representing the Lady Shri Ram College, directing and participating in numerous plays and stage theatre, writing for and editing the College magazines. doing paintings in water, acrylic and oil colors, she was also a University Rank holder and a topper. She was awarded the LSR Gold Medal for All-Round Excellence. She received an accolade from the Dean of Colleges, who formally certified her as a "versatile genius."
She was appointed as a Lecturer in the University of Delhi in 1974 at the age of 21. She joined the Indian Audit and Accounts Service in 1977 and became a State Accountant General in 1993. She reached the grade of Principal Accountant General in 2006. In 2011 her batch reached the rank of Dy. Comptroller and Auditor General. The Government of India sponsored her in 1994 for a Certificate Course in Computing. Auditing and Financial Management in the Universities of Hull, Birmingham, and Herriot-Watt, U.K. She attended another Certificate Course in 2002 in Strategic Management in the University of Oxford, U.K. She retired in 2014 as Chief of Administration and Finance from an international organization under the UN Common System.
Her translation of Kalki's six-volume magnum opus, Ponniyin Selvan (Son of Ponii:) wy. published in 2016. Her translation of Kalki's Sahitya ,,ka,emi winning novel Alai Osai (Sound of Waves) was pi„,,,cd in 2017. Translation of Kalki's classic Sivakaamiyin Sapatham (Sivakaami's Vow) is her third one in the Kalki series.
Her debut Anthology of poems, 'The Equal Footing' was published in 2017. She has also authored a set of three books, the Poornakala Series, on Tam- Bram cuisine. Her debut novel 'Nirupama' was published in 2017. Her series on 'What is Progress?' (Edhu Munnetram?) was published every week for about three years in a popular Tamil weekly between 1994-1997. She has many published articles and essays in Tamil.
The full moon was pouring down the nectar of rays from the blue firmament. The earth was immersed under the infatuating moon in a peaceful trance. In the By of Bengal that spread without boundaries, the moon's rays played magic. On the shore small waves fell with a gentle sound, as though they did not wish to disrupt the peace.
We sat on the white sands on the sea-shore. I was with Rasikamani Shree T.K. Chidambaranatha Mudaliar and two more friends. No humans or animals were visible as far as the eye could gaze.
It was the beach in Mamallapuram. This happened twelve years back. Rasikamani was as usual discussing poetry.
`Vidhiyin ezhutthai kizhichaachu!-Munbu Villa kurai vandu thottaachu! '
'The script of Fate has been torn! the past Unfinished deed has arrived and touched now! '
I le was explaining the above song written by Shree Gopalakrishna Bharathiyaar.
The lines 'the past unfinished deed has touched now!' mesmerised me like a powerful mantra. I felt as though I have been sitting on that beach under the moonlight in the past also many times. I also felt that some past unfinished deed of my earlier lives had made me sit on this beach today.
Suddenly thousands of ships and boats appeared on the sea. Men and women danced on the shores in several groups. At a distance Bull flags and Lion flags fluttered merrily at a height. Music emanating from melodious musical instruments pervaded all around and intoxicated the atmosphere. On every rock that the eyes could sec, sculptors were working with stone hammers. One could feel that somewhere someone was dancing with anklets jingling on their feet.
Soon those images became clearer. The faces and forms could be identified.
Aayanar, Sivakaami, Mahendra Pallava, Maamalla, Parthiban, Vikranian,
Arulmozhi, Kundavi, Ponnan, Valli, Kannan, Kamali, Pulikesi, and Naaganandi walked around in my mind's eye. Walking around thus, they took abode in my heart.
We stayed in Maamallapuram for two days. We saw the wonderful sculpted rocks. We saw the temples and turrets sculpted out of hillocks. Each rock told a story. Each sculpture presented a history. The more one looked, the more one was amazed; the more one heard, the more one was exhilarated. When one wondered whether the great sculptors used their stone hammers as magical wands and created such superb creations, one felt like paying obeisance to them; the devotion that arose for them made the head automatically bow in reverence.
The readers who are holding the book titled `Sivakaamiyin Sapatham' acquired by them by some means may immediately come to the conclusion that it is a wonderful book. After all it contains more than thousand pages! So it must have proportionate weight also!
I was carrying all this weight for approximately twelve years in my heart. Only after I wrote 'The End' after writing the last line of the last chapter of the last part of ' Sivakaamiyin Sapatham' did the weight that I was carrying disappeared.
Mahendra, Maamalla, Aayanar, Sivakaami, Paranjothi, Parthiban, Vikraman, Kundavi and many other characters got out of my heart and bid farewell to me with great fondness.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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