u/mayilacries

Me, My wife and 5 month old toddler are planning a Rajasthan trip. We haven't gone via an agency because our girl is quite unpredictable and we can't plan anything really.. if her mood is good we plan to take a cab to cover one place after another. We reach there by 3rd September. We plan to stay in jaipur for 5 days and then we have booked a train to jodhpur. After that Udaipur. Then flight back to Chennai.

Nothing else has been planned. Taking cabs, autos is feasible in these locations? Or is it advisable to take a car with a driver. I can drive but I prefer not to because my wife can't deal with my daughter alone in the car. She's quite jumpy, active and someone who needs constant attention.

Are there any services that will drive us around if that's the better option? We also want to go to Abhaneri. Online cabs are quite high for that. So we haven't planned anything at the micro level yet. Give suggestions, tips, must visit places if you don't mind.

Just hoping at least 1-2 will pick up 1-2 Tamil books from this list.

Raja Vanthirukirar – Ki. Rajanarayanan's trademark short stories. Man how relevant most of them were! Loved the ambitious god stories as well. Can't believe they were written in the 50s 10/10

Mathilugal – Basheer's beautiful prison love story. Honestly my favourite non Tamil writer. Brilliant and insanely funny 10/10

Computer Gramam – Sujatha's one of good popular fiction novels. Not great not bad as well. Breezy read. 5/10

Sanjaram – A journey through music, people and culture. Honestly expected more on caste angle but disappointed. one of S. Ramakrishnan's most famous works but not a fan 6.5/10

Kathaanayagi – Jeyamohan's insane man. He literally took one novel and made another one with it. Unique. 9/10

Agnaadi – Poomani's monumental historical novel; probably the most ambitious book I read this year. It is in my top 5 Tamil novels ever. 15/10

Iravu – A quieter, philosophical Jeyamohan work . Idk what he tried but except for some parts it was meh 6/10

Oru Puliyamarathin Kathai – Sundara Ramaswamy's classic. 7/10

Anna Karenina – My first Tolstory. 9/10. Didn't hit as much as Dostoevsky did.

Enbathukalin Tamil Cinema – Stalin Rajangam's insightful look at the politics and culture of 1980s Tamil cinema. 8/10.

Thamirabaraniyil Kollapadathavarkal – I've always maintained Mari Selvaraj is one of the greatest talents we have seen. His movies are not even 10% of what his writing convey 9/10

Nanmaran Kottai Kathai – Imayam. Great read. Small collection. Made me want more. Less depressing than his novels I heard 9/10

Needful Things – Stephen King's story of greed, temptation and chaos in a small town 6/10

Story of Madras – Racist stuff aside, a good work 7/10

Poiman Karadu – Kalki's popular fiction. Meh 5/10

Sivappu Kazhuthudan Pachai Paravai – Ambai's powerful stories. A good collection. Huge fan of her stories. 9/10

Pattumavin Aadu – Basheer at his funniest 10/10

Vasanth Vasanth – Sujatha's trademark one evening read. 6/10

Kaadu – One of the most memorable books I read this year; kind of something that rekindled my interest in books. It's the first work I read this year. Truly truly insane read. After reading this work I listened to an interview of JeMo and he said something that unlocked the reader in me again - "There is no shortage of world class literature in Tamil. Only difference is there is no one to read"

Aalavayan – I've read 7-8 Perumal Murugan works and he still continues to impress me. 9/10

Koola Madhari - this is probably Perumal Murugan's best work. 10/10

I've been wanting to visit the Moore market for a while. Finally I did. Went via two wheeler. First things first it was easily accessible. There are n number of busses, metro and what not.There are plenty of books available. And kids books especially were incredibly cheaper. We got about 25+ board books for like 1500 odd.

However the primary reason I wanted to visit was to buy some tamil novels. It was really sad to find just very few shops selling but none of them had any serious literature or even heard of contemporary writers.

They had Murakami, Rowling, almost every popular and serious english literature but in the capital of tn to not find even one shop that sells Jeyamohan, S Raa, Perumal Murugan, A Muthulingam or TS Chokkalingam translations of Russian lit. No one has heard of Ki Raa or Karichan Kunju or Mouni.

All they had was Indira soundarajan and some ramani chandran. Everyone asked if I had wanted Kalki books. Leaving serious literature,they didn't even have Sujatha novels or the likes of Balakumaran.

I genuinely wish more Tamil ppl would take up Tamil serious literature. And like Jeyamoha says we have written literature that has a similar stature of great english and russian literature.