Senior Vanambadi poet Puviyarasu of Coimbatore, at one time, experimented with his creativity in fiction and poured out his anger through his first Tamil novel Kanmani Sofia - A painting of poet Puviarasu by city-based eminent artist V.Jeevananthan.
The only piece of writing to enjoy the prose of nature poet William Wordsworth was his preface to the Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems co-authored by him and his poetry peer Samuel Taylor Coleridge in1798. And so is Kanmani Sofia, the first Tamil novel by the 92-year-old, city-based poet Puviarasu, who is an author of over 106 books and a two-time recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award.
Though Puviarasu translated many literary works such as The Brothers Karamazov, Macbeth, The Book of Mirdad, and many more, Kanmani Sofia is his first work of fiction. Well known in the literary world as a poet, playwright, film critic, and actor, the nonagenarian even once decided that he should no longer take up writing prose after he experienced a severe swelling of his knuckles while he was translating Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov into Tamil, which came out in two volumes running for 1480 pages.
A poet is a man, who thinks and writes for the prospects of society. However, he is forced to observe the brutalities in the modern world and is helpless to accept the injustices meted out to the innocent. Being one such poet, Puviarasu, at one time, experimented with his creativity in fiction and poured out his anger through Kanmani Sofia, the protagonist of his novel. The girl, whom the reader discovers as a robot in the final chapters of the book, avenges the culprits, who brutally raped innocent children and girls and escaped safely through the loopholes of the law.
“Kanmani Sofia, my first Tamil novel, is the expression of my anger on the coldblooded criminals, who escaped from punishment despite committing the heinous crimes of raping innocent children and girls. I dedicate this novel to the rape victims of the world as Nirubhaya, Nandhini and others” says Puviyarasu.
What’s more, in the novel, a gang of six persons attempted to ‘rape’ even Kanmani Sofia, for the gang had never a chance to doubt Kanmani as a robot.
Scientist Charles Devanathan, who created Kanmani in the US and left her in Chennai, reveals this in the novel in his conversation with Elango, his brother-in-law and friend of Kanmani. It reads thus:
“You know, Kanmani Sofia has no genitals. So, the culprits, who attempted to rape her, must have run away with injuries”
The protagonist Kanmani Sofia is the apple of the eye of Arunachalam, a retired history professor, and his wife Annapoorani. The childless couple, who are residing in Coimbatore, had met Kanmani for the first time on a train journey. Inspired by her character, the couple accepted her as their daughter. Though Kanmani does not stay at the home of Arunachalam and Annapurani, she visits them occasionally, browses through the books, and sometimes even engages in debates and discussions with Arunachalam.
However, Arunachalam and Annapurani, who appear in the first few scenes of the novel, do not discover their ‘daughter ‘as a robot. But, in a world where secrets can hardly be hidden, Devanathan receives a message from the US government at the end of the novel that he has been transferred to the Pentagon with new perks and salary, and he must create five more robots like Kanmani Sofia.