udhumaipithan revolutionised the Tamil short story in form, content and language, making it truer to the lived realities of the times. WHAT distinguishes Pudhumaipithan's short stories, written during a short span of 14 years from 1933 to 1947, from the works of others? This might be a difficult question to answer. Not because one cannot find a suitable answer but because there are likely to be far too many answers, shaded according to each individual reader's literary perspective. An understanding of the term "realism" as used in fiction will be a good entry point to the discussion. Each writer can weave a story differently. For example, there are fairy tales that depict spirits, gnomes, goblins and ghosts of various kinds. This might create an illusory world of horror and conflicts followed by bloodshed that might generate a ripple of psychological response in the readers. Some argue that such stories carry a moral, depicting the conflict between the Good and the Bad. Some stories might bring in Divinity, thereby giving the fable an allegorical significance. There are also the genres of horror and science fiction. The focus in all these stories is a shift away from representing reality towards pure imagination.- By VRIDHACHALEMPILLAY SUBRAMANIAM for Frontline-January 23, 2015