Appadurai Muttulingam (

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

அ. முத்துலிங்கம்) (born 19 January 1937) is a

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Pr ...

author and essayist. His short stories in Tamil have received critical acclaim and won awards in both

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Biography

Muttulingam was born in the village of Kokkuvil in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ) is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most ...

to Appadurai and Rasamma. He was the fifth child in a family of seven. He obtained an undergraduate degree in the sciences from the University of Ceylon, Colombo in 1959. He began writing short stories in the 1960s, with his short story ''Akka'' winning a competition conducted by a Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper in 1961. This story was the title story in his first collection of short stories, ''Akka'' ("Sister"), published in 1964. After this early success, Muttulingam did not publish any stories for the next twenty years. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1965. He left Sri Lanka in 1972, and spent the next eighteen years working in various countries in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

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, including assignments with the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. He began writing again in 1995, and in the next three years published three collections, all of which were critically acclaimed. The first of these was ''Thikatasakkaram'' ("Ten beautiful arms", a reference to the opening verse of the Kanthapuranam, a mediaeval Tamil work), a collection of stories drawn from his youth in Sri Lanka and his time abroad, which won the Lily Devasigamani Award in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. His next collection, ''Vamsaviruththi'' ("Family traits"), came in 1996, and won the Government of Tamil Nadu prize as well as the

State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 49th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the ''Fortune ...

Prize. ''Vatakku vithi'' ("The north road"), the third collection published after his return to writing, won the Cultural Prize of the

Government of Sri Lanka The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය, Śrī Lankā Rajaya; ta, இலங்கை அரசாங்கம்) is a parliamentary system determined by the Sri Lankan Constitution. It administers the is ...

. He has since published another collection of short stories, a collection of essays, and has edited a volume of Tamil translations of contemporary North American writing. Muttulingam currently lives in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada, with his wife Kamalaranjini. He is actively involved in

The Tamil Literary Garden The Tamil Literary Garden, is a Canadian literary organization and charity founded in 2001. The focus of this organization is on supporting translations of Tamil literature, sponsoring lecture series, commissioning publications, launching books ...

, a Toronto-based charitable organization dedicated to the international promotion of

Tamil literature Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...

. Muttulingam's stories are noted for their understatement, reserve and imagery, and focus on moments of small transformation. His stories do not attempt to directly build suspense or dramatic tension, and are instead grounded in realism, particularly in description and characterisation.

Works

* ''Akka'' ("Elder sister") (1964) - short stories. * ''Thikatasakkaram'' ("Ten beautiful arms") (1995) – short stories * ''Vamsaviruththi'' ("Family traits") (1996) – short stories * ''Vadakku veethi'' ("The north road") (1998) – short stories * ''Maharajavin rail vandi'' ("The king's train") (2001) – short stories * ''A.Muttulingam kathaikal'' ("Stories of A. Muttulingam") (2004) - collected stories * ''Ange ippa enna neram'' ("What time is it there?") (2005) – essays * ''Inauspicious times'' (translated from Tamil into English by Padma Narayanan) (2008) - short stories * ''Viyathalum Ilame''(2006) - Interviews * ''Kadikaram Amaithiyaaka Ennikkondirukkirathu'' (2006) - a collection of essays * ''Poomiyin Paathivayathu''("worlds half age") (2007) - essays * ''Unmaikalantha Naatkurippukal'' (2008) - Novel * ''A.Muttulingam kathaikal'' (2008) - audiobook * ''Amerikkakari'' (2009) - short stories * ''Amerikka Ulavaali'' (2010) - essays * ''Onrukkum Uthavathavan''(2011) - essays * ''Kuthiraikkaaran''(2012) - short stories *''Kolunthodu Pidipaen''(2013)- short stories

References

External links

* ''Thikatasakkaram'' ("Ten beautiful arms") (1995)
Tamil etext
* ''Vamsaviruththi'' ("Family traits") (1996

* ''Vadakku veethi'' ("The north road") (1998

* ''Maharajavin rail vandi'' ("The king's train") (2001) �
Tamil etext (pdf)
* ''A.Muttulingam kathaikal'' ("Stories of A. Muttulingam") (2004
Tamil etext (pdf)
* ''Ange ippa enna neram'' ("What time is it there?") (2005

* "Writer Muttulingam's Home Page

* "Thaamarai Pooththa Thadaakam

* "paathukaapillatha mozhi

* ''Tamil Literary Garden awards'' a ‘labour of love�

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muttulingam, Appadurai Tamil-language writers 1937 births Living people Sri Lankan Tamil accountants Sri Lankan Tamil writers Alumni of the University of Ceylon (Colombo)