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Dear Kausalya,
I read your article only yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We started our English lessons only in 1st Form (6th Std), but thankfully my father, being an English teacher, encouraged all of us to read classics. He was particularly fond of English writers (he didn't care much for American writers even if they had won the Nobel prize.) One of the first books I read was Alice in Wonderland followed by Three men in a boat, both of which made a deep impression on me. Your article brought back memories of my first taste of English literature, which I wanted to pursue. But since I got admission in Madras itself in Engineering, the ambition was nipped in the bud, but thankfully, not the interest.
If you haven't read how Charles Dodgson became Lewis Carroll, this para may interest you.
'In 1856, he published his first piece of work under the name that would make him famous. A romantic poem called "Solitude" appeared in The Train under the authorship of "Lewis Carroll". This pseudonym was a play on his real name: Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an Irish surname similar to the Latin name Carolus, from which comes the name Charles. The transition went as follows: "Charles Lutwidge" translated into Latin as "Carolus Ludovicus". This was then translated back into English as "Carroll Lewis" and then reversed to make "Lewis Carroll". This pseudonym was chosen by editor Edmund Yates from a list of four submitted by Dodgson, the others being Edgar Cuthwellis, Edgar U. C. Westhill, and Louis Carroll.'
After reading your article, I was googling about Alice and came across this interesting piece.
Books-like-Alice-in-wonderland
I was wondering whether I should write this letter. Finally I decided to write because 'it doesn't do any harm - or good.'
Bye. Do keep writing.
Parthasarathy
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