Rajesh Kumar (60 ) is short statured bush-shirt clad spectacled man based in Coimbatore. He worked full time on a job, and still found time to write novels–almost 5 novels a month .Each book sold more than a lac copies. He started this journey in 1968, when he was a student at a college studying Botany. His first contribution was to the college magazine. It was a short story. He has written so far more than 1500 novels. His novels consist of 100-150 pages. It costs just Rs. 25 today. In the 1980s it used to cost Rs. 2. So far he has not diversified into screenplay writing. Libraries charge Rs. 2 as rental for reading a Kumar novel. The retail shops in Tamilnadu hang books along with the shampoo sachets. That is a matter of pride.

The other pulp fiction writers are Suresh and Balkrishnan. There are 10-12 pulp publishers. They also issue reprints of the old novels. On an average these authors earn Rs. 30000 per month, and an established author like Kumar even more.

Kumar has slowed down now. Even then he writes 10-12 pages everyday in longhand. He completes a novel in a month at this pace. His previous works dwelt at length on events and nature. There were lengthy descriptions. These days he straightway jumps into the action. He aspired to be a Guiness Book record  holder as the world’s most prolific author.

His books can be called short novels or novellas. These novels are the companions of people when they travel in buses and trains.

He used to travel to his office on a scooter. Once the scooter broke down and a shepherd boy directed him to the nearby mechanics, assuring him that he would take care of the machine while he fetched them to fix the scooter. From a distance, Kumar could identify the novel he was reading sitting near the scooter. It was written by him.