J. M. Sali

 

A Man of Letters

 

Chennai-born writer J.M. Sali’s literary output is nothing short of prodigious—400 short stories, 80 plays, 30 novels, 200 articles and counting. In a career spanning over 60 years, he has become one of the most prolific authors in Tamil literature.

 

Seventy-six year old J.M. Sali is celebrating the 60th anniversary of his writing career. Just this year, he has already translated three of his works into English—a collection of Singapore short stories That Day, children's novel Two Eyes and love story The Sound of Waves. He wrote his first short story for Kannan, a children’s magazine in India, when he was 15 and a high-school student. He was paid five rupees. He realised then that he could earn money by writing and was inspired to continue. The magazine editor saw his potential and decided to mentor him. Thus, a friendship was born between the editor, an upper-caste Hindu, and Sali, a Muslim. Though the two never met, they bonded through mail.

Their friendship inspired Sali to write his first children’s novel, Iru Kankal (Two Eyes), about the friendship between a Muslim, a Hindu and a Christian. In 1961, the magazine Kannan awarded it the Best Children’s Book Prize in Tamil Nadu. After graduating from Chennai State College with a Master of Arts, Sali worked in the Accountant-General’s Office but kept an eye on openings in publishing. In 1964, when he was offered the assistant editor’s post in Singapore’s Tamil Murasu newspaper, he grabbed it and moved to Singapore.

The chief editor, Thamizhavel G. Sarangapani, trained Sali in all aspects of the newspaper. For eight years, Sali worked alongside Sarangapani before returning to India. There, he worked at a magazine, Ananda Vikatan, and met celebrities like Muhammad Ali whom he later wrote about. He came back to Singapore in early 1983 to resume the post of assistant editor at Tamil Murasu, and later that year became a senior broadcast journalist at the then-Singapore Broadcasting Corporation for 17 years. There, he wrote news bulletins and plays for television and radio. In a 2012 The Straits Times interview, Sali said, “As a news editor, we had more information in those days. Now, of course, you can get the information for free off the Internet. But back then, it was different. These books were very popular and the sales were very helpful to me.” So popular were his books that they have been translated into English, Hindi, Urdu and Sinhalese.

Sali’s works have also been prescribed as textbooks in India and Singapore. One of his novels, Alaikal Pesukinrana (The Sound of Waves), which is a story about a man from India who fell in love with a woman in Singapore, is a literature text for students at UniSIM, Singapore. Through Sali’s stories, which were published in 1977, the woman managed to draw public support for her divorce. Sali’s extensive contribution to Tamil literature earned him the Thamizhavel Literary Award from the Association of Singapore Tamil Writers in 2001—one of many literary awards he has received from India and Singapore. Asked which form—novels, short stories and essays—he enjoyed writing most, Sali said he has no preference, as it depends on who the audience is. In 2012, Sali was awarded the Cultural Medallion. Typically a man of few words, Sali heaped gratitude on his mentor,
T. G. Sarangapani, during his speech and added that it was in Singapore where he had received opportunities to hone his craft and publish books. At the award ceremony, Sali said that his mastery of the Tamil language was due to him having learnt his mother tongue well and he encouraged young Singaporeans to follow suit. Sali, who became a Singapore citizen in 1990, retired from journalism in 2000 to focus on his writing and has been helping various agencies like the Civil Service College, Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, National Heritage Board and National Archives with Tamil-language translations. Religion has always been important to Sali—he has woven his ideas about Islam into his stories. Wanting to fulfil what he said was the “fifth duty of Muslims”, Sali spent 28 days in 1994 on the Hajj to Mecca. Between religious and ethnic identity, Sali identifies himself primarily as a Tamil. “People refer to us in our village in Tamil Nadu as ‘the ones who came to Islam’. But for me, I only know the past three generations who came before me. And based on that I strongly feel I am a Tamil first. Other things come later,” Sali told the English-language Indian newspaper
The Hindu.

References

“A success story,” The Hindu, May 10, 2013.

J.M. Sali, “Words of Appreciation,” Cultural Medallion 2012, NAC,
https://www.nac.gov.sg/docs/cmyaa/jm-sali.pdf

Adeline Chia, “Winners’ Circle,” The Straits Times, October 18, 2012.

Stella Danker, “Telling the Singapore story,” Singapore International Foundation,
http://singaporemagazine.sif.org.sg/telling-the-singapore-story

Interview with J.M. Sali in March 2015.

 

 

J. M. Sali
India, b.1939