The Middlemen of Vedapura: Indira Parthsarathy's Tamil Novel

About the Book: This work originally written in Tamil as a novel has now been translated into English. It is a political satire. It parodies lampoons and caricatures political figures of Indian politicians past and equally relating to the present. A vivacious young lady Apurva an immigrant-American arrives in a fictional country Vedapura in search of her ancestral and cultural roots. Travelling around trying to gather authentic content for a novel she intends to write she encounters Nanjundan -- a high-powered influential political middleman -- who promises to provide her with rich material for her work. Her relationship with him plunges her however into a near-Kafkaesque la la land where she must confront a dangerous vortex of political intrigue corruption manipulation… and consequent disillusionment… The well-known “Sahitya Akademi” and “Padma Shri Awards” winner for Literature Indira Parthasarathy wrote this 1995 novel in Tamil. Employing biting wit humour irony absurdity and exaggeration to critique the State's socio-political… and socio-pathological … landscape he depicted starkly the complex interplay of power corruption and caste dynamics shaping regional politics in India peopled as it is with eccentric politicians and powerless citizens. His novel was awarded the Bharathiya Bhasha Parishad Award (an All-India award). About the Author: M.K.Sudarshan is a graduate of the Madras University from Loyola College Chennai and a qualified Chartered Accountant. After a 35+ year-old-long and successful international career in corporate finance he now lives with his wife in Chennai India pursuing wider interests in Indian philosophy world history and comparative religious literature studies and writing. His related interests are classical South Indian music the history of Hindu temples in India and travelling worldwide. Sudarshan is the author four published books on Religion & Spirituality three of which form a trilogy. All of his works have earned critical and popular acclaim worldwide:“Unusual Essays of an Unknown Sri Vaishnava” ; “The Nondescript God: Abstraction or Paragon?” ; A Tale of Two Cities: The Decline and Fall of the Ubaya-Vedantins: An outline of the history of Sri Vaishnavas of Tamil Nadu that never was written; The Epistles of a Prolific Pontiff. This book is his first English translation of an important work in Tamil fiction genre.