Fiction and History

Last week i and my frnd Santhosh were discussing about Amarar Kalki's "Ponniyin Selvan"...he was of the opinion that it doesn't warrant the hype of a great epic associated with it...though i didn't fully agree with it, i too think that sometimes we give so much hype to certain things which when faced with reality fails short of its expectation..since the topic is something different i will stop digressing...though Ponniyin selvan fell short of the hype the work of Amarar Kalki should be very much appreciated, his research into the topic is very vast and expansive..he had recreated the entire era and had given a very realistic picture of that period in history, which even highly experienced archealogical experts couldn't project!!!!

there are certain writers in the modern times who have this gift of recreating history and enthralling readers with their true account of a particular time/place, for once Fredrick Forsyth's "ICON" was one good read where the author takes you into the heart of Moscow and his "THE DAY OF THE JACKAL" is too good a read.. another stalwart in this area is Ayn Rand..her work "WE THE PEOPLE" gives a true state of Russia during the period of revolution and birth of Communist movement..her account of the travails faced by the Aristocratic families through the eyes of a young and ambitious upper class girl who wants to make it big in Communist Russia is potrayed in a very realistic way..
though these are all works of fiction, the pains the author takes to recreate history and project it in a very realistic way is very much commendable.......