The Eighteenth Parallel

Ashokamitran (1931-2017), a towering figure in modern Tamil literature, was born in Nizam-ruled Secunderabad.

In his writing he often draws on his experiences of growing up there after the fall of the Nizam in the wake of Independence, as he does in his award-winning novel Padinettavadu Atchakodu(1977), The Eighteenth Parallel.

One of Ashokamitran's finest works, the story revolves around Chandru, adolescent, vulnerable and guileless, growing up through the turbulence before and after 1947, when Hyderabad was the State of Nizam.

This forms the charged political backdrop, closely interwoven with Chandru's life at home, at college, and his coming of age in the streets of Hyderabad.

Chandru, whose father works for the Nizam's Railway, is crazy about cricket and cinema, perplexed by his budding interest in girls, loves his buffalo, and can sing.

His disarmingly unaffected yet riveting first-person narrative.