[Ayathurai Santhan, a bilingual writer from Sri Lanka authored 19 books in Tamil and 6 in English. Santhan received Sri Lankan State Literary Award twice for his Tamil and English works in 1975 and 2000 respectively. His works have found places in various reputed journals and anthologies in English and in Tamil, from Sri Lanka as well as India and his stories have been translated into Sinhala, Hindi and Russian. ]

1. Your journey as a writer... 
My ardent reading from very young days tempted me to write in my mother tongue, Tamil, and my first collection of stories got published while I was a student at the Ceylon College of Technology. This was followed by about 20 books up to now, collections of stories, novel, and travelogues etc, published in Sri Lanka and in India. Since the 1990s, I started trying my hand in English -simply because to let the outside world hear a true to life voice of a commoner from the North of Sri Lanka who underwent all trauma and the hardships for more than three decades- and got published 3 collections of stories, 2 novels and a collection of poems.
 
2. Tell us about "Rails Run Parallel" 
 
The novel was based on 1977 anti-Tamil riots of Sri Lanka and the couple of years that followed immediately after. It tells about the different ‘parallels’ we come across in our lives. What we think as the opposites are indeed pairs and one cannot exist without the other, like the rails! Love and hatred, understanding and misunderstanding, the good and the bad, harmony and discord run parallel in our lives; even the past and the present and Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka! 
 
3. I see that you have written stories, essays, poems, travelogues,  and novels, which form of writing attracts you the most? 
 
Even though I enjoy writing in all these genres, the fiction, especially the long one, seems to give me more pleasure simply because it provides me an opportunity to relive the whole life what I have been writing.
 
4. Tell us about your participation at International Writer's Conference 2016. 

I eagerly look forward taking part in it. Apart from having the opportunity of meeting and listening to eminent writers and poets from India and other countries, it offers the chance of visiting the wonderful historic city of Udaipur, as well.