Currently, he is penning a serial novel for an online Tamil journal. Kumar says he has just floated his own publishing house, through which he plans to bring out quality editions of his books and also English translations. Once a reader from another district came home, when I asked him how he knew the route, he said he had learned the topography of the city through my stories," says Kumar. "This popularised Coimbatore to readers across the state. When Tamil stories were set only in Chennai and other big cities, he set his tales at localities in Coimbatore. Another radical shift that Kumar brought in was his settings. "Earlier there was no internet, so I would go in search of surgeons and scientists to learn medical terms and scientific concepts," says the writer who is particular about substantiating all the scientific elements in his stories. Even before they had become popular, he had used ideas such as organ transplants and gene therapy in his stories. Kumar says he takes extra care to keep his style and subject fresh. Today he is dubbed the ‘king of crime thrillers’, and enjoys readers not only in the state, but also among the Tamil diaspora. Till date, Kumar has written around 1,200 crime novels, 2,000 short stories and 300 books of non-ficton. It was then that S A P decided to make me write a novel at a time when only established writers ruled the scene," he says.
The porter had also forgone customers just to finish the story. "S A P Annamalai had seen a porter on a platform at Egmore Railway Station engrossed in one of my stories. In 1980, S A P Annamalai, the editor of Tamil weekly Kumudam, made him write his first novel in ‘Maalai Madhi’, a sister publication. Before long, he was churning out stories for dailies and weeklies. Born and raised in Coimbatore, he first worked as a teacher and then as a sales executive, when his first short story was published in 1969 in a Tamil daily. His ‘success formula’ is, he says, being up to date with current affairs and technological advancements, which he incorporates in his stories. With a simple yet sprightly style, his pocket novels were once a rage and still command a following. From daily wage workers to IT professionals, his readership is vast and varied. After hanging up, he says: "What bigger award can a writer aspire for?" Very few popular writers have managed to capture the masses as widely as Rajesh Kumar. She had called to congratulate him on learning he was recently felicitated for completing 50 years in writing. She is a 95-year-old woman who has lost her vision, but makes her granddaughter read his books to her.
Chennai: On Wednesday morning at his home in Vadavalli, writer Rajesh Kumar gets a call from a fan.
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