ISSN 2319-3263 tIcf k¿°m¿ kmwkvImcn-I-h-Ip∏v tIcf kmlnXy A°m-Zan {]kn-≤o-I-cWw SAHITYALOKAM Vol. 44 Issue.5-6December 2016 Rs. 60/-

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Printed and published by Dr. K.P.Mohanan on behalf of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and printed at Carmel Printers, Thrissur for Santhibhavan Offset Printers, Kannamkulangara, Thrissur, Kerala-680 007 and published at Kerala Sahitya Akademi, P.B. No.501, Thrissur, Kerala-680 020. Editor: Dr. K.P.Mohanan MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY DECEMBER 2016

KERALA SAHITYA AKADEMI Thrissur 680 020, Kerala Malayalam Literary Survey A Quarterly Publication of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur Vol. 36 No. 4. October - December 2016 Single Issue : Rs. 40/- Annual Subscription : Rs. 160/-

Editorial Board Vayshakan - President Dr. K.P. Mohanan - Secretary & Editor V.N. Asokan - Sub editor

Cover Design : Vinaylal Type setting : Macworld, Thrissur Printed and Published by Dr. K.P. Mohanan on behalf of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur 680 020 and Printed at at Carmel Printers, Thrissur for Santhibhavan Press, Kannamkulangara and Published at Thrissur, Thrissur Dist., Kerala State. Editor : Dr. K.P. Mohanan Proof : Soumya Murukesh Reg. No. 29431/77 Phone : 0487-2331069 [email protected] www.keralasahityaakademi.org

Articles published in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. The Editorial Board cannot be held responsible for the views expressed by the writers Editor’s note

Malayalam Literary Survey always brings attention of readers to the current social scenario. This issue is especially dedicated to the representations of contemporary political and social issues in literature. Hence, Anand becomes the major focus of discussion. Anand is one of the eminent writers in Malayalam focusing his attention on the crisis in history and power structures. His works always deals with the questions of individual v/s society and make them a social urgency. Aalkoottam is one such. E.V Ramakrishnan’s article reveals the postmodern trends is Anand’s Fiction. U. A Khadher is a contemporary writer who foregrounds themes from folk tradition especially of northern Kerala and uses them for his works. His expressions in regional and folk language makes his narration unique. Dr. Reeja’s article on his narrative techniques contributes much to the readers. The politics of rituals are rarely a topic of discussion even in the contemporary cultural studies. The literature of Padayani provides a rich stuff yet to be explored. The article of Soumya Murukesh discusses how resistance becomes a thematic tool in one episode of Padayani. The translated literary pieces will touch and awake the aesthetic feelings of the readers and surely be of delight.

Dr. K.P. Mohanan Secretary & Editor

Contents

Ethical Imperatives for an Embattled Nation: A Reading of Anand’s Fiction E.V.Ramakrishnan ...... 7 ‘The History of other Beings’ Book Aymanam John ...... 15 Narration as Resistance in U.A Khadher’s Thrikkottoor Thattakam Dr. Reeja V...... 19 Biriyani Santhosh Aechikkanam ...... 23 Circle P.N. Gopikrishnan ...... 29 Two Poems Lopa ...... 31 Ten Thumb Sized Stories P K Parakkadavu ...... 33 The Colour of Truth Manambur Rajan Babu ...... 36 Rejection, Acceptance and Negotiation in Resistance: The Politics of the Literature of Pulavritam in Padayani Soumya Murukesh ...... 37 Sands of time John Samuel ...... 41 6 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Ethical Imperatives for an Embattled Nation: A Reading of Anand’s Fiction E.V.Ramakrishnan

During the 1960s, Malayalam literature went through a major shift in sensibility. In reinventing itself from a new perspective, the Malayalam novel moved away from the ideological baggage of the earlier Romantic-Progressive phase. The realistic mode that had held sway over the narratives of Malayalam The modernist novelists in novels from the nineteen thirties, now gave Malayalam effected a clean break way to a more subtle and searching style with social realist mode and all that it that probed the complex inner worlds of stood for. They were sensitive to the characters. The massive social changes sweeping the world. By transformations that followed in the wake of 1956, the socialist dreams of a social reforms and subaltern movements in generation were deeply unsettled by the first half of the twentieth century had the revelations of the purges of Stalin lost their immediacy by the time India and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. became independent. The post-colonial India had brought more anxieties than hopes, and in the emerging reality, Gandhian values rooted in asceticism and emancipation of the soul and Nehruvian vision of a modern India were at odds with each other. A new generation of young writers in the 1950s, among whom the prominent ones were M.T.Vasudevan Nair, T.Padmanabhan, N.P.Muhammad and Madhavikutty (Kamala Das for English readers), scripted a new narrative about loss, alienation and disillusionment. Instead of

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 7 representing the society in black and white terms with an accent on social change, they sought the hidden motives behind actions and explored the mindscapes of characters from a non-judgemental perspective. M.T.Vasudevan Nair and Kamala Das were pioneers in psychological realism, and did not subscribe to political stereotypes about social transformation. They were the precursors of the great modernists who stormed into Malayalam fiction with an imaginative sweep and range that stunned the readers. O.V.Vijayan’s Khassakkinte Ithihasam (The Legends of Khassack) published in 1968, was a cultural event that altered the very grammar of narrative in Malayalam fiction. The modernist novelists in Malayalam effected a clean break with social realist mode and all that it stood for. They were sensitive to the changes sweeping the world. By 1956, the socialist dreams of a generation were deeply unsettled by the revelations of the purges of Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Modernist writers were sceptical of ideological positions and found belief writing of the times. Their language was systems on the left and right equally refreshingly free from sentimentality and bankrupt. In most of the modernist works of pretentious verbalism. It often explored the nineteen sixties and seventies we forbidden domains of experience, creating an confront the lonely, disoriented young men ambience that was both innovative and haunted by a sense of the absurd as they experimental. What distinguished these feel trapped in their lives without any exit. The writers was a concern with the human existentialist literature of the post-World War condition in the modern age, and a faith in Europe was a major influence in shaping the ability of art to confront the limits of their attitudes to life and society. But to language and imagination in representing characterise modernist Malayalam fiction as the contingent and the contemporary. In the derivative would not do justice to the genuine remaining part of this paper I would discuss sense of metaphysical unease these writers the works of Anand as a representative figure conveyed regarding the destiny of modern of modernist Malayalam fiction. man. Through emotionally charged P.Satchidanandan who writes under the narratives they opened up the world of name of Anand was born in 1936 in Malayali to horizons of experience that were Irinjalakkuda in central Kerala, in a middle universal and philosophical. Writers such as class family where his father was a school O.V.Vijayan, Anand, M.Mukundan, teacher. After graduating in Engineering, he Kakkanadan, Punathil Kunhabdulla, Sethu served in central services till 1994, which and Methil Radhakrishnan brought included a four year stint in the army. Having Malayalam fiction closer to the international seen the length and breadth of India,

8 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY particularly the Gangetic plains in the years of its turmoil in the post-Nehruvian era, Anand’s major fictional works, set outside Kerala, consistently pursue issues and subjects related to India’s modernity. He is concerned with questions of social justice, limits of freedom, denial of equality and the subterfuges used by the nation-state to conceal its ruthless acts of oppression in the name of democracy. Apart from the novels and short stories he has published many works of essays where he debates Anand’s fictional works are contemporary issues related to characterised by a deep sense of communalism, relevance of Gandhism, history. He has been greatly decline of values in public life and the influenced by the history of the struggle for social justice and equality by Gangetic plains where saints, marginalised sections of society. His role in pilgrims, and travellers traversed clarifying the liberal positions against the land in search of solutions fundamentalism has been seminal in Kerala. while marauding armies laid What sets him apart from modernist writers waste entire stretches of land, of his generation is the consistent intellectual rendering people homeless. strain in his work, with his novels and short stories grappling with questions of profound political and social significance. The novel that launched Anand to the documents a particular phase in the socio- forefront of Malayalam modernist fiction was political history of modern India, when Alkoottam (The Crowd, 1970) which was migration from the rural hinterlands to the widely acclaimed as a path-breaking work. Its cities multiplied and cities became the narrative running to over four hundred pages, epicentres of a new street culture. The crowd set in Bombay which becomes a microcosm of the title sums up Anand’s vision of of India, covers the period between 1957 and modernity as a continuous state of agitation 1962. Through the stories of Sunil, Joseph, and a permanent condition of flux, with no Prem, Sundar, Lalitha, Radha along with redemptive vision regarding man’s ability to many minor characters, Anand portrays the transcend himself through commitment to sense of oppression and aimlessness that ideology or belief system. In this sense, afflict the youth who feel trapped in the city Alkoottam is a statement about the loss of with no exit in sight. Joseph’s love-hate faith in liberal humanist vision that animated relation with his family in Kerala evokes in him much of our literary creation in the first part of a helplessness that we also see in varying the twentieth century. degrees in Sunil and Sundar. Joesph is not Anand’s fictional works are characterised by a able to reciprocate the love of Radha just as deep sense of history. He has been greatly Sunil and Lalita are unable to bond with each influenced by the history of the Gangetic other. The city of Bombay with its plains where saints, pilgrims, and travellers dehumanising environment fills them with a traversed the land in search of solutions while perennial sense of anguish. Nothing in their marauding armies laid waste entire stretches upbringing and culture had equipped them to of land, rendering people homeless. History is cope with its corrosive violence. Anand witness to the endless march of refugees who

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 9 for Pashupati Singh who is influential and Anand’s works have been affluent. Suleiman’s family is paid a meagre characterised by intellectual rigour and sum for his ‘service’ but he is dependent on deep human concern for humanity as that as the only means of survival. The a whole. No writer in recent times has villages around Rambhagarh have not pursued these themes with such changed in centuries. The people are mired consistency. Though he addresses in poverty, wasting diseases and illiteracy. Malayalam readers in his fictional Drought, starvation and migration haunt works, his novels and stories are rarely every generation. Rambhagarh has been in a set in Kerala. Most of his characters permanent sense of siege over centuries. The cannot be traced to any caste or very mention of ‘sarkar’ invokes terror though locality by their names it is meant to enforce law and order. Anand shows how the nation-state has turned into were ordinary people uprooted from their an endless Kafkan labyrinth. Kundan’s homes and habitats. His novel, Abhayarthikal attempts to save some of those trapped (Refugees) is inspired by a panoramic visionof around him, makes him a suspect and history as it unfolded in Northern and North- finally he is forced to flee from the project. By Eastern India. Characters such as Gautaman, this time Suleiman is killed in an accident Suman, Mahesh and Haridas are unable to and Bhola, whom he tried to help, dies in a locate a locus of meaning in the random riot. In the city, Kundan finds that no editor is events of the past. Missing people such as ready to publish the harsh truths about the Suman, Arati and Sandhya were involved in ‘sarkar’. Kundan starts doubting whether he quests for humanity in an oppressed world of is a crusader or a refugee. He cannot find exploitation. Anand shows how ideologies fail any pattern or design in the elaborate human beings who are in search of a hold on subterfuges that have become the hallmarks reality. From Budhism to Gandhism, the of the nation state. He tells himself: teachings of saints have gone largely “Rational minds should know that a big unheeded, as the country drifted across unreason which neutralises all reason lurks anarchy and violence. Anand constantly behind everything, under our chairs, below looks for continuities amidst disruptions of the bed and under our feet.” (Sherrif, p.246). history as he is aware of the vitality of For Kundan, the dream of a nation-state that societies and their ability to reinvent guarantees social justice and liberty turns themselves. into a nightmare, when he learns that blind loyalty is the price one pays for the Anand feels that the moment of the nation- membership in the system. He comments: state reconstitutes the relationship between “Civilization was accountability, Ruth had the appearance and reality in the life of the once told Kundan who had countered it by nation. In his novels like saying that it was mere accounting” (Sherrif, Marubhoomikalundakunnathu (Desert 249). Anand’s portrayal of India is an Shadows, 1989) he confronts a deep division allegorical mapping of post-colonial at the very centre of the nationalist narrative. societies across the world that are unable to The institutions which are created for the create a just social order after getting welfare of the people now turn predatory and independence from colonial powers. oppressive. Kundan is a labour officer at the Rambhagarh Strategic Installations Project As mentioned above, Anand is a thinker who which is shrouded in mystery. He finds that shapes his fictional narratives out of his most of the workers are condemned engagement with the world of ideas. In his prisoners. Suleiman is serving a prison term award-winning book, Jaiva Manushyan

10 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY (Organic Man, 1991), he traces the trajectory of man’s ascent from savagery to culture through many stages of complex social and cultural organisations. In the chapter on “The organic nature of man’s freedom” he argues that man is separate from nature, while being part of it. This is what makes his quest for freedom a condition of his existence as well as an impossibility. Man is able to explore and discover the laws of nature, even as he is part of the very same nature. In this sense, nature becomes aware of itself through man. What distinguishes man is the power of intellect, will and imagination. While other animals could not evolve beyond the state of instinct, man moved beyond the History is witness to the endless savage state of nature through social march of refugees who were organisation and evolved further to another ordinary people uprooted from stage through the creation of culture. This their homes and habitats. His stage of individuality forces him to live in a novel, Abhayarthikal (Refugees) is state of paradox since he is a product of inspired by a panoramic visionof society and cannot completely transcend his history as it unfolded in Northern own social self. In the essay on “The country and North-Eastern India. and the city” he shows how the rise of cities led to division of labour. While villages largely remain static, cities tend to become complex powers of the governments, fills modern man organisations as the seat of human culture with an inertia and passivity bordering on and intellect. Education, art, culture, literature numbness and passivity as he is unable to and entertainment flourish in the cities. When resist their over-arching structures of the contradictions between the villages and authority. Anand feels that the solution will the cities deepen they may lead to revolts emerge only through rational analysis of the and realignment of power centres. There problems and collective will of humanity have been rise and fall of urban civilizations (p.108-113). In Anand’s novelistic many times in history. Anand says that imagination, history is seen as a nightmare modern urban civilization has generated a where human beings are seen as collectives growing gap between the ruling class and of refugees perennially on the move seeking the working class consisting of peasants shelter from repressive regimes and and workers. The ruling class, with the help authoritarian ideologies. Visionaries such as of science and technology imposes a social Buddha and Gandhi did make a difference structure above to sustain its own interests. to their quest but did not create a stable The hierarchical and artificial structure of social order of justice, freedom and equality. power concentrated in the cities is insensitive Anand has repeatedly returned to the riddle to the real needs of the downtrodden and the of the failure of Gandhism in modern India. marginalised. Thus, today man is being For him the inability of Indians to understand oppressed by the very products of his Gandhi and translate his ideas into social intelligence and imagination. The colossal and political reality constitutes the greatest metropolis, as well as the highly centralised tragedy of modern India.

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 11 Govardhante Yatrakal (Govardhan’s Travels, injured and the suffocation of the helpless” 1995) is one of the best known novels of (35). Govardhan’s wife is arrested and the Anand. The quest for justice becomes central daughter is kidnapped. Ali Dost the brother to this complex, self-reflexive narrative which of Govardhan who got separated from him, has for its central character Govardhan, who becomes a tormentor of people, carrying out is taken from Bharatendu Harischandra’s the punishment pronounced by kings and political satire, Andheri Nagari, Chaupat Raja sultans. He tells an old woman later in the (Dark is the county, insane is the king, 1881). novel, “I am only a slave, have no fear of Anand says that he was deeply moved by pap-punya. Even my victims will not hate me” this play which is a farce on the legal system (71). Kamran Mirza, the brother of Humayun of India. In the play Govardhan is sentenced was blinded by him. For Humayun to to death only because the real culprit’s neck ascend the throne, all the contenders of the does not fit the size of the noose. The novel throne had to be executed or banished. This begins when Bharatendu enters the prison struggle for power repeats endlessly in many cell of Govardhan and releases him. forms through history, regardless of the Govardhan appears before Ramachandra suffering caused to the common people. the mathematician to ask him whether Govardhan is the eternal victim who can be whatever is happening is right or wrong. The seen in all ages and countries irrespective of man of logic is taken aback at the the nature of politics or religion. At one point irrationality of injustice and soon leaves his Bharatendu tells Ibn Battuta: “The farces we enquiries into science to pursue moral write turn into tragedies without our own questions of greater urgency. Now knowledge” (58). It is impossible to Govardhan wanders distraught and summarise the complex narrative that desolate, the noose still hanging above his branches out in different directions into head. Among the people he meets in the history, politics and mythology to return novel are Iban Battuta (1304-1368), Galileo repeatedly to the central question of Galilei (1564-1642), Sankaracharya (early 8th liberation of man. These words of Gautama century), Thyagaraja (1767-1847), Humayun may be taken as something of a moment of (1508-1556), and Shah Jahan (1592-1668). All epiphany for Govardhan’s endless agonizing of them give their versions of man quest for quest for justice: “We should search for truth and justice. Govardhan receives no liberation from fear and sorrow. That cannot clear answers for the enigma of injustice in be achieved by rejecting our body or our the world. Still he explores the possibility of neighbours. We have to realize our freedom freedom and justice. There are many others in our own body and our neighbours. We from history, mythology and fiction, such as have to carry the four-limbed cross of our Chitragupta, Mirza Galib, Umrao Jan, existence. We have to be crucified on its Kalidasa, Kepler, Satyakama and Gautama limbs. We have to writhe in pain on the Budha in the digressive narrative. In his cross, before resurrecting ourselves from it. “ wanderings Govrardhan finds cities and (263) Anand writes in his preface to the villages ravaged by atrocities and brutalities novel: “A society which is not inflamed by a and the people condemned to endless passion for justice, will be lost to time” (7). suffering without any respite. In one village, Anand uses the word, ‘poromboke’ to he finds the weavers who had protested suggest those sections of people who are on against colonial oppression by cutting off the margins of society without any access to their thumbs. Ramachandra, the basic needs. Every nation-state produces its mathematician says at one point: “The most own ‘poromboke’. He comments in his important thing is to know the pain of the Marubhoomikal: “ In reality, the state

12 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY A significant work of fiction by Anand that dates back to the 1990s is Vyasanum Vighneswaranum (Vyasa and Vigneshwara, 1996) which is postmodern in its approach to questions of time and history. The two sections of the novella are called “Kriti” (Text) and “Kalam” (Time). Anand comments at the beginning of this book: “When smirthi, what is remembered, and shruthi, what is heard, get subsumed in vismruthi, amnesia or oblivion, and further by mrithi, death, krithi, text alone remains” (Saji Mathew, 21). The central figure that runs through “kriti” is Anand says that modern urban that of Eklavya, the forest dweller who was civilization has generated a punished by Drona, a Brahmin guru for growing gap between the ruling excelling in the art of archery. Drona asked class and the working class him to sacrifice his thumb, as his gift to him, consisting of peasants and and Eklavya obeyed him without protest. workers. The ruling class, with the This helped Arjuna, the great warrior prince help of science and technology of the Mahabharata, to remain invincible in imposes a social structure above the art of archery. However, in the story to sustain its own interests. The narrated by Anand, we come across a text hierarchical and artificial structure called Nishadpurana which recounts a long of power concentrated in the cities conversation between Eklavya and is insensitive to the real needs of Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son. The story recounts the downtrodden and the the author’s search for Nishadpurana through marginalised. many years of his journeys. When he finally chances upon the book in a library in Delhi, he finds that a crucial part of the dialogue functions as an anti-state. An anti-state dealing with Eklavya’s death was missing. constituted by the anti-social within society” The second part of the novel also deals with (Sherrif, p.200). Anand’s novels explore a missing text. The narrator meets an activist those marginal people and their struggle for in one of his long distance railway journeys. survival as they fight the system for a place He is obviously a rebel on the run. They in the sunlight. This is true of his discuss what befell ancient kingdoms such Apariharikkapetta Daivagal ( Stolen Gods, as Vaishali, Kosala and Magadh. He gives 2001) and Vibhajanangal (Partitions, 2006). the author an unfinished play titled Both these novels continue Anand’s Nagaravadhu (The Bride of the City) which is meditations on the contradictions of about Amrapali who is forced to become the contemporary Indian society as seen Nagaravadhu through a democratic process through certain sensitive characters by the wise people of Vaishali. In the words searching for answers in a labyrinthine world of Amarasena we have the central argument of abject powerlessness and destitution. of the story: “Listen, you selfish and greedy Vibhajanagal is more of a travelogue by the people, society is the soil, from which germinate author through various parts of India, fine, dignified people. But you, you fear such highlighting issues and problems that do not people. You mow them to the ground, then you figure in the mainstream media of literary works. make them the pillars that bear weight of the

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 13 edifice of a decadent civilization which you intellectual rigour and deep human concern yourself have constructed” (Saji Mathew, 104-5). for humanity as a whole. No writer in recent Anand shows how knowledge cannot liberate times has pursued these themes with such us as it is mediated through discourses and consistency. Though he addresses institutions that partake of repressive ideologies. Malayalam readers in his fictional works, his This is why Anand quotes from a book called novels and stories are rarely set in Kerala. The History of Torture, towards the end of the Most of his characters cannot be traced to book: “Torture is ubiquitous. At times, it is any caste or locality by their names. His inflicted on the faithful, at other times, on those works transcend narrow boundaries of who question faith, and yet other times, who are region and religion to represent the major neither” (Saji Mathew, 122). socio-political issues of the sub-continent, Anand’s short stories also tend to be creating a framework of ethical imperatives cerebral, presenting an argument and a that critique and evaluate our sensitivity and vision through a human situation. Stories conscience. His thematic range shows a such as “Nalamathe Aani”, “Aaramathe deep sense of history and an equally strong Viral”, “Kabaadi”and “Keetakosham” are commitment to egalitarian values. His outstanding stories leave a deep impression narratives are haunted by a profound sense on the mind with their emotional rigour. A of disquiet. One can dispute his macro-views story such as “Nalamathe Aani” (The Fourth for lack of attention to details, particularly Nail) shows how Anand rewrites an when it comes to his depiction of a internationally known tale about the Romany revisionist view of the past, but there is no blacksmith who forged three nails to crucify gainsaying the fact that he has, over the Christ. Many versions of this story exist, but years, created a body of works that puts the Anand’s version emphasises the relations embattled state of Indian society at the very between society and individual, morality and centre of an imaginative universe. n institutions and religion and justice. Here the soldiers who went in search of a blacksmith Note: Unless otherwise mentioned, the translations in the to forge the four nails for crucifixion article are by the present author. squandered their money on drinks and could References: Malayalam works: not get a blacksmith for what money was left Anand. 1996. Aalkoottam. First published in 1970. Kottayam: with them. Finally they found a gypsy D C Books. blacksmith who would only make three nails Anand. 1994. Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu. First for the amount they gave. The soldiers who publ.1989. D.C.Books. were to crucify Christ found the nails Anand. 1996. Govardhante Yatrakal. First pub. In 1995. D.C insufficient to complete their work and let Books. Christ go. When he returns to his disciples Anand. 1996. Jaiva Manushyan. First publ. 1991. D.C.Books. they do not recognise him. They have no use Anand. 1997. Vyasa and Vigneswara. First publ. 1996. D.C.Books. for a Christ who was not crucified. The Anand. 2001. Apaharikkappetta Daivangal. D.C.Books. blacksmith who had forged the three nails Anand. 2006. Vibhajanangal. D.C.Books. discovered that he was responsible for the crucifixion in an indirect way and had English Translations: become a wanderer with an unsettled mind. Anand. 1994. Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu. Translated by K.M.Sherrif. 1998. Desert Shadows. New Delhi, Christ goes in search of the blacksmith who Penguin. made the three nails for his crucifixion. The Anand. 1996. Vyasanum Vigneswaranum. Transl. By Saji story ends in their meeting, which is charged Mathew. 2000. Vyasa and Vigneswara. New Delhi: with an epiphany of understanding. Katha Publishers. Note: This article has also appeared in the website of the Anand’s works have been characterised by Sahapedia.

14 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story ‘The History of Other Beings’ Book Aymanam John Translated by P N Venugopal

One of these days, while I was reading ‘The History of Human Beings’, I had the strange experience of another book with the name ‘The History of Other Beings’ putting in appearance in another part of my mind, disrupting my reading. (This book will henceforth be referred to as the ‘HOOB Book’ in this story, for the sake of easy reading) The history of human beings was spawning excitement, rapture and thrill in me with the glorious narrations of inventions, triumphs and creations through the ages, when the HOOB Book suddenly entered and destroyed my reading pleasure, describing the tragic experiences of retreating, surrenderring and fleeing for dear life, of other beings that had not a single invention to boast of despite all those eons of existence. Even those who suspected that It was not that I did not try to meet this Nanappan was somewhat utopian, unanticipated challenge raised against my or was rather over-enthusiastic in pleasurable reading, by repeatedly chanting be projecting his reformist vision, a human, be a human, be only a human and relished his earnest bid nonetheless by concentrating on the words in the book. I to awaken renewed interest in the also tried to inspire myself by gloating over the state’s traditional entrepreneurial colour pictures of rockets zooming out into strengths and willingness to take space, mountaineers conquering snow-clad calculated peaks and submarines cruising through the wombs of the ocean. But the HOOB Book turned its pages one by one and showed me the terrifying pictures of the ever-growing deserts, forests gutted in wild fires, melting ice caps due to the earth warming and oceans swallowing lands, making me completely restless.

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 15 I was visualizing the man in the human history book as one who believed that Time was a linear forward march regulated by calendars and who went up the mountain of development step by step. As he went higher and higher, I perceived him growing from strength to strength. On the other hand, the HOOB Book was transmitting into me an altogether different range of experiences: Time was perceived by Other Beings as the mere cyclic transition of seasons or the up and down trajectory of a swing and after every circle completed by the earth, they were going down and down into the netherworld. Just as human history has been divided into Suddenly my fingertips could feel two, by the blood of Christ, HOOB Book too the smoothness of cat fur and had two parts. Before man became the ruler chicken feathers. My eyes recalled of the earth, and after. In the first part, the the faces of the baby goats and earth was as lovely as the Garden of Eden, calves that were once my says the HOOB Book. In those times when playmates, my nostrils recalled the all beings enjoyed life in the universe like a smell of the cowshed and the goat joy ride, the footfalls on earth were like pen. I recalled the mothers who dancing steps and the cooing and chirping used to name goats and cows of birds were the music set for that dance, and babble with hens and the book described. The HOOB Book also crows… the domesticated dogs recalls that when viewed from other planets, that would faithfully follow the earth appeared to glitter like the eyeball of men folk like friends wherever they the sun. went. Memories rushed in and The book laments that like starving locusts culminated in my mother’s words landing on a ripe, radiant field of grain, that as a child, I used to feed ants mankind descended on the earth and crawling all around. gobbled whatever was in sight. In the picture section of the HOOB Book, there is a hair- raising long shot image of today’s earth are no more forests for them to be born; the smouldering like a graveyard. “Our history clamour of massive flocks of birds aimlessly comprises only stories of lost wars”, says flying across oceans with tired wings to the caption of this illustration. There were escape unbearable winter; the panic-stricken also insets depicting many heartrending shudder of young fish born only for getting pictures. Millions of sheep departing the trapped in the deceptive nets spread by earth on being abandoned by shepherds humans… and with the grass lands vanishing, glancing The HOOB Book also had a few highly backward at earth with grief stricken eyes; imaginative abstract drawings. The president herds of thirsty elephants wandering about of the country returns after dedicating a in the drought-hit forests, banging their newly built dam to the nation, when a trunks against the parched earth of dry hornbill that doesn’t know what is a nation, rivulets; tiger cubs half way to the earth flies out from the forest, sits on the parapet returning disappointed on finding that there of the dam and shrieks, seeing the river gone

16 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY dry on the other side. A train carrying prefers to read the history of its race only humans only, derailed and yet running amok backwards.” through thick forests, uprooting trees and Then casting a glance around, the HOOB killing all other beings… Book saw the cat lying under the drumstick Quoting statistical data of the chemicals and tree, probably starving, anguish corroding its poisonous gases man sprinkle on earth, face. The book blurted out the next question: decimating countless number of poor insects “Don’t you remember the beloved cats of and microorganisms, the HOOB Book your childhood days? Those darling cats you smirked at the pictures of Hiroshima and used to pat down to sleep by your side? This Nagasaki in my history book. poor one too belongs to the same lineage. As I could not continue reading due to the And what do you do? Shut the doors and frequent interventions by the HOOB Book I windows ensuring that it doesn’t enter the closed my history book and sat idle for a house! And then you are reading history? while looking out through the window. But Was it not only a moment ago, you were still refusing to disappear, that mammoth basking in the glory of abolishing book started asking questions pointing to untouchability?” live examples right there in the vicinity. Just then I recalled that I was reading the Outside the window, a lone crow was chapter on abolition of untouchability when cleaning and preening its wings perched on the HOOB Book interfered in my reading. the leaf of a plantain. The book pointed to In our small old house, cats and goats and the crow and asked me: hens had the freedom to enter and loiter “Don’t you feel that it is a remnant from the around whenever it pleased them. I realised flock of crows seen in the past?” the HOOB Book is accusing me of having That question was as sharp as an arrow declared them untouchable, banning their head. During my childhood days, the trees entry now that I have built a large, modern that covered our little house like a canopy house. were always full of cawing crows flapping Suddenly my fingertips could feel the around. Indeed, it looked like a leftover of smoothness of cat fur and chicken feathers. those groups of crows. That lone crow, it had My eyes recalled the faces of the baby goats not made any discovery till date, it was as and calves that were once my playmates, nude as it was in the last century, it lived in my nostrils recalled the smell of the cowshed the same habitats as that of yore, perched and the goat pen. I recalled the mothers who on the same plantain leaves, crying caw… used to name goats and cows and babble caw… caw... in the selfsame transcendental with hens and crows… the domesticated voice, listlessly looking into the emptiness dogs that would faithfully follow the men folk ahead. like friends wherever they went. Memories “Down the ages, has that crow had any rushed in and culminated in my mother’s great achievement to highlight as that of its words that as a child, I used to feed ants own race, to compare with the so called crawling all around. historical achievements of your land and Inspired by those memories I wanted to pick your people?” the HOOB Book asked in a up the cat under the drumstick tree, carry it tremulous voice. Finding that I had no into the house and offer it some milk. I also answer, the book said as if in soliloquy: “No. hoped that such an act would free me from In its experience, life on earth is getting more the trial the HOOB Book was putting me and more impoverished daily. That bird through.

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 17 Leaving the book of history on the table, I Then I heard – or I thought I heard – the stepped out of the room. Seeing my shadow HOOB Book bursting out in laughter. And I on the window sill, the crow on the plantain felt that the book got out of me and went leaf was jolted as if by a shock and flew after the cat. away frantically. It was as if I had made a fool of myself. I Just as I stepped out into the front yard, the remained standing in the sun for a while, cat raised its head and stared at me; it was ruminating. not a very friendly gaze. I was looking at a Stepping back into the house, pitch cat face with any intent after a very long darkness covered my eyes and a great void time. Maybe because of that I felt it was enveloped my mind. more a tiger face. As I approached, the cat There was nothing else for me to do other stood up, very alert. I closed in and the cat than take up the book of history and turned about, jumped and ran away as fast resume reading. as it could. After putting in some distance, it stopped and turned back to look at me. However, on getting on to the bed with the Seeing that I was rooted to where I was book, I found each letter in it crooked, standing and that I was not in pursuit, it distorted and unreadable. I flung the book to mewed softly and casually walked away to the corner of the bed in anger, not against vanish in the deserted neighbouring anyone in particular. n compound.

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18 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Narration as Resistance in U.A Khadher’s Thrikkottoor Thattakam Dr. Reeja V Translated by Soumya Murukesh

Myths are stories which have an identity. Myths are expression of life itself. U.A Khadher is a writer who relished in the witness of folk language, which represent the real social conditions. His literary world is actually a harmonical blending of myths, legends, folk arts and lores.Thrikkottoor Thattakam is one of his famous fiction among Thrikkottoor Kathagal. Both the characters and structure of the novel are powerful and pictorial. The narration of the novel is Myths are expression of life itself. U.A unique in its underlying tendency of Khadher is a writer who relished in the resistance. His usage of phrases, dictions witness of folk language, which and even in the selection of words, the represent the real social conditions. His author explores his thought of resistance. literary world is actually a harmonical The novel introduces the major character blending of myths, legends, folk arts Kunjukelukurup as “If you don’t know and lores.Thrikkottoor Thattakam is one Kunjukelukurup, I will introduce him to of his famous fiction among you. He belongs to my own region. He is Thrikkottoor Kathagal. the present ruler or authority of the Meethalathottiparambil chettyarukanditharavadu which is at the west of Gulikanthara near to the grove of chathukutti Daivam. He is a performer of Kalaripayattu at Chingapuram Kalari. He is also famous as a ‘Periyaswami’ who went to Sabarimala 10 times as Malabar don’t have

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 19 enough people for the service of Ayyappa. A in simple sentences. Two or three words are man who has attractive and perfect body enough for him to narrate the intended idea shape. As well as healthy he was and also to explore without losing the beauty of firm as rock and sweet as jaggery”. ( narration. The above depiction is giving Thrikkottoor Thattakam). This is the details of Kurup’s place, Tharavadu, description of Kunjukelukurup who ruled Position, Education, Character and beauty. Thrikkottoor Thattakam. The depiction is The plot of Khadhar is flowered in a word/a going on in a particular rhythmic style. It is style/ a common saying/ proverb/or in a actually a factual narration, but Khadher legend. Anyone can meet him at any time adopted a style which the reader can without consider any other matters. The develop a particular relation with the narrator people can share their agonies with him. He and character. The haste and long will hear all things patiently and find out descriptions in the prose style hurriedly ends solutions. In case, if any one quarreled with him, he could return with a cup of poison. If pleased, he could return with loads of seeds. He decides who should live and who should die at Thrikkottoor Thattakam. He also decides that who married with whom and resides where. He has an important position in all rituals of the region whether it is related to marriage or death. He is a bachelor who own as much of wealth, which cannot be calculated. All his assets are in the name of his managers. He arranged their marriage with the women who likes Kurup. The manager also had to face untimely death. Then Kurup look after the wives and children of died servants. Kurup is the god of Thrikkottoor. “ To us , the people of Paloor Thrikkottoor , Kurup is our life. We obey him blindly. We put our sign where Kurup placed his finger. Thrikkottoor thattakam is Kurup’s thattakam. The phrases used in the novels have special functions. ‘Kurupintte urapp urappu thanne’ is a saying which describes the mental power of Kurup. The people of Thrikkottoor understood his firmness in two different situations of Kurup’s father Chandhukurup and his mother Padmavathi amma had died. The messenger came to convey the

20 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY the death of his father could not change his decision. When he knew, his mother has died, he called one of his managers Hyder and told him, “ Hyder..from today I am definitely alone. I want to have a grand lunch with fish curry. You tell to your wife, I will be there to have lunch. I will send Moitheen Mappila to the Murattu bridge. He will bring good variety of fish from the river. You tell one more thing to your wife. After the lunch I would like to rest for some time so do the arrangement in the upper part of the house. He provoked himself and others to make the death as a celebration, ostentation and self will. U. A Khader does not describe the matter as a revenge to his parents, but as a natural development of the pain of rejection While depicting the life of of parental care and love. Kunjikelukurup, U.A Khader The saying “Poda Pulle…Inna aade thinnu describes the historical, cultural pullu” signifies the attitude of Beeran and political conditions of Mollacka’s daughter Aleema. The women Thrikkotoor. The system of and men of Thrikottoor are living for the regional ruling always kindness of Kurup. They think that it is a concentrates on some interests blessing to them, to arrange a bed for him at or individuals. their home. If Kurup decides to spend a day at their home, they considered it as a blessing. But Aleema did not consider Kurup. Aleema’s family is the only one family which is against to the desire of Kurup. news of the demise of Chandukurup, Kurup Kurup tried to arrange his manager Hasan’s says that “I am going for hunting. So don’t marriage with Aleema. When Hasan came to wait for me. As his nephew is there to lighten Aleema’s home to propose Aleema, Beeran the funeral pyre, let him know and convey Mollacka asked him , this to mother also”. He started his journey by asking “whether we took the gun of What are you doing now Hasan? father?” This is considered as his resistance Slightly perplexed, Hasan replied to the matriarchy. He announces that he “ I don’t have any job now…but I never let don’t want any right of his father’s body, Aleema to starve”. since he don’t have any right in the ancestry and assets of father. That day, the wild “ I don’t give my daughter to you. I never let squirrel, rabbit and wild buffalo died of with her to arrange bed for Kurup” the gun of his father which he got as an As a result, the people witness the dead ancestral asset. They bring the dead animals body Aleena in the Murattu river. That is the to the Chettyarkandi tharavadu, cooked and strength of Kurup. consumed it without sharing to anyone. The is the firmness of Kurup. He decided that he The Jurisdiction never touch the steps of his father’s home, The guard of law in the Thrikkottoor is the when he left the place for the last time. Even rulers or the local chief. The authority

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 21 controls the jurisdiction even the police and The people console themselves, “who will law are there. The ruler of the consider other’s plight as their own in this chettyarukanditharavadu is Kurup. So all will age?” obey him and put their sign when he placed Conversation his finger. If anyone disobeys Kurup, his decayed dead body will appear in the Kurup keeps the proud of a ruler in all Akalapuzha. This is not only the condition of aspects. He acts as a perfect ruler who helps enemies, after a period of time, the condition the villagers and murders his enemies of Kurup’s servants also was the same. simultaneously. U. A Khadher explores Kurup never let anyone to grow beyond a Kurup’s lewdness and strangeness through limit. The Vellichapadu of Perumalpuram his conversations with women. Women have Bagavati temple, Nannu witnessed all deeds enough freedom to say anything to him. Let of Kurup.. He materializes only in the us see a conversation between Kurup and darkness. He never appears in the light. He Pathumma. Pathumma says that “ That is hides himself and witnesses the actions of right to go to the land of west, don’t look at Kurup. If anything reaches in the ear of the upper southern corner of Vellichapadu, it is like that the coconut Thekkandiparambil. If you looks once, the happened to fall in the pond of temple. Only care and nourishments will get to the a minority are against Kurup. so Kurup and coconut tree of there. After a laugh, his people never feel any fear of enemies. Kunjukelukurup enjoyed the joke of Even Mullacka cannot utter a word against Pathumma and says “ Which land else I Kurup, when he witness the death of his have Pathu, as yours, to nourish, to repair, daughter who reached at home from the to peck and to dig and do all other Mosque, after participated in the night ritual. activities? Do you know about any other He says to Kurup “if it is a death or murder, land as much good one as yours in the don’t let the body to scrape out from the Pannoor? I don’t think so? Tell me…. graveyard. I will touch your feet …” .This was Pathumma answerd “Thats ok. I know you the request of Mullacka. When are not a fool who is unaware of the good Seithalimappila died, his wife Khadeejumma lands in the Pannoor? If no land at Pannoor, did not cry. Kurup decided to look after good lands are at Payyolli and Purakkattu, Khadeejumma and provide her the livelihood isn’t it? The conversation is about the land then why did Khadheejumma lament or but its an indirect expression of the sexual become anxious about the dead body of life of the man and woman. Khadher does Seithali which appeared on Akalipuzha one not explore the reality but he keeps the day. She knew there is no use of crying or honour of suggestion in the essence of the lamenting. To whom, she can share her pain reality. as Kurup is her savior. Kurup acts as a While depicting the life of Kunjikelukurup, savior and enemy at the same time. U.A Khader describes the historical, cultural Thrikkottoor people never enquire about the and political conditions of Thrikkotoor. The murders even if it is of manager’s or any system of regional ruling always enemies. Kurup is the Supreme Being who concentrates on some interests or creates, protects and destructs Thrikkotoor. individuals. n

22 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Biriyani Santhosh Aechikkanam Translated by Antony Fernandez

Gopal Yadav has just boarded a bus from Cherkala to Poyinachi with his friend Kadiresan and the three Bengali lads. Even at top speed the ride will take at least twenty minutes. Till then let’s talk about Kalandhan Haji of Thalankara village- the enterprising youth who in his prime had sailed in an uru all the way from Thalankara to Dubai! He completed eighty-six last January but that has made no impression on him because fond memories of all his four wives except As he spoke to Assainarcha, the Kunheebi contnue to excite him even today. ‘ Shukriya ‘ bus braked at the However one thing the whole village will Poyinachi junction and unanimously endorse is his undoubted Kadiresan and the Bengalee capacity to maintain not four but forty wives boys stepped out. Gopal Yadav if he had so desired! was the last one to get out. As His grandson Rizwan, a Cardiac Surgeon in the Bengalis crossed the road America is the son of Rukkiya, his daughter and stood before born of wife Amina. Rizwan’s Nikah took Ramachandran’s shop they place in Bangalore the week before and to were greeted by the latter. They mark the occasion the proud old man has responded with a ‘Namashkar’ decided to throw a lavish Biriyani party to his and were handed three little village folk. Rizwan had to agree to it when packets of the Special stuff that his mother told him it is probably his goes by the name mawa Grandpa’s last wish and it would be sad if crushed with toofan. the patriarch goes with an unfulfilled wish on his mind. Today is the day of the marriage feast- between six and nine in the evening. And preparations are on in full swing in Kalandhan Haji’s house which is no ordinary

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 23 house. It is in fact a massive mansion , took out a pinch of the stuff and carefully almost a palace! An awesome Shamiana placed it in their mouth. Just when they has been raised on its sprawling courtyard to wiped their fingers on their jeans a pick-up seat the guests, around five thousand of van came close to them and stopped. A them! One has to walk quite some distance fatso who came to hire them signaled them from its main gate to reach the house! to get in and drove away towards Periya. Chairs and tables covered in white satin A little later a jeep halted in front of cloth have been laid out for the invitees. The Kadiresan and honked. It was one stage is bedecked with specially ordered Thomatchan who had rung him up the night flowers from abroad and looked splendid. before in connection with a plumbing job. ‘ The whole village will remember this day After Kadiresan too was hired for the day and talk about the stage for a long time to Gopal Yadav was left all alone. The soft come ’, bragged Assainarcha who is a close morning sun that fell on his back slowly got associate of Kalandhan Haji besides being warmer. his trusted business partner in all their real- He had been in Uliyathadukka for the past estate deals. He is a busy man today and is two years where he had Kadiresan’s brother- seen running around ordering his assistants in-law, Annamalai for company. But as work about, giving instructions and so forth. He is grew less and less he couldn’t continue clearly the man in charge. there. And then came this offer from Suddenly remembering something Kadiresan thro’ his brother-in-law Assainarcha fished out his cell phone and Annamalai. He was after all an unskilled made a call to his friend Ramachandran, a labourer and he had no choice but to try his shop-keeper. He has a store in Poyinachi luck in this new place. That’s how he landed where he sells stationery, newspapers, soft in Cherkala. It is a little town next to drinks, cigarettes, pan masala and a whole Vidyanagar on the Kanhangad road. Not a lot of sundry items. It is at a busy junction bad place for work. At least he won’t have to on the Highway and is a fairly well-known sit around and swat flies any more. That was joint where he situates like a mobile tower a promise from Kadiresan who also agreed receiving and transmitting all kinds of to take him under his roof. It is a single-room information. He will get anything done for affair with a make-shift shed at the back you. He can pay the installment on your where Gopal has been given a bench to monthly Chit, get you a torch-light for your sleep on which is okay as long as it doesn’t late-night journey or even supply you Postal rain. Before the monsoon sets in he knows envelopes on request. He knows all about he’ll have to shift, but where to? Room-rents who’s going where and has access to are soaring and to make it worse land-lords secrets which some blokes even hide from are demanding advance deposits close to their wives. five thousand rupees! As he spoke to Assainarcha, the ‘ Shukriya ‘ Gopal Yadav stepped into Ramachandran’s bus braked at the Poyinachi junction and pan-shop and asked for a sweet-pan to Kadiresan and the Bengalee boys stepped chew. As he smoothed the betel-leaf in his out. Gopal Yadav was the last one to get hand Ramachandran asked him in Hindi, out. As the Bengalis crossed the road and ‘ You seem to be new here?’ stood before Ramachandran’s shop they were greeted by the latter. They responded ‘ Yes, bhai. ’ with a ‘Namashkar’ and were handed three ‘And where are you from?’ little packets of the Special stuff that goes by ‘ Bihar.’ the name mawa crushed with toofan. They

24 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Oh! Our Lalooji’s country?’ Gopal smiled exposing his three missing teeth. ‘ How long you’ve been in our state?’ ‘ Seven years.’ ‘ You’ve picked up malayalam?’ He nodded as he chewed. ‘ Okay, Can you do a job for me?’ ‘ Sure.’ He wiped his fingers and reached for his cell phone. He spoke to Assainarchaa at the other end. A little while ago as the bus came he had a call urging him to find a worker for Kalandhan Haji immediately. ‘ Yes’, said Gopal as he rose to his In about half an hour Assainarcha arrived in feet. Sinan gave him a hand and his ‘Fortuner.’ As he got out and stepped into Gopal emerged from the pit. Just the pan shop he plunged a casual hand into then three or four people carried a his trouser pocket and as usual scratched huge green barrel of something and the space between the thigh and scrotum. emptied it into the pit. Tons of biriyani He took just one glance at the middle-aged with meat, bones and all came man standing before him, head bowed and pouring down into the pit like a hands joined and knew by instinct the one landslide. Gopal looked at it, his Ramachandran has found for him. heart pounding. As he watched Assainarcha didn’t even make eye-contact helplessly from a mound as it were, when he spoke to Gopal, another barrel was brought and after a while yet another. More barrels ’ You will be paid two hundred and fifty were brought and they all met with rupees, okay? You ready or not?’ the same fate. Soon he lost count. ‘ Kindly make it three-fifty, saab.’ ‘ Now, let me get this straight! Over here a malayali is paid Rs. 600, a tamilian Rs. 500, a Bengalee 350 and for a Bihari it is only 250. ever served in our village! Is it true that cooks This is what we pay here, okay?. Besides, have landed from Hyderabad and Abu this small job won’t take more than 4 or 5 Dhabi?’ hours. Who will pay you more than 50 rupees an hour. You ready or not? That’s all ‘ Sure, it’s big and it’s going to be the biggest I want to know.’ you will ever see! This Biriyani will be totally different from the cheap stuff prepared by the Assainarcha took out a Wills cigarette from local fellows and supplied to the riff-raff his pocket and lit it. crowd who gather for every marriage. Believe Ramachandran turned to Assainarcha, me man, we’ll be serving genuine ‘ Whatever is going on, Assainarcha? kuzhimanthi biriyani to our guests. And Everywhere people are talking about the between us, let me tell you, one truck-load of marriage feast at Kalandhan Haji’s palace. super-fine Basmati rice has already arrived They say it’s going to be the biggest dinner from Punjab!’

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 25 ‘ One truck load ! ‘ Ramachandran’s eyes ‘ You say fifteen years ago your wages back popped out. home was ten rupees a day which means it ‘ Yeah! Even I couldn’t believe my eyes when can’t be more than a hundred rupees now. the truck came and braked in front of the And here I am offering you Rs. 250! Yet you house. That was last evening! Suddenly the are not happy and you want more?, ’ whole place was filled with the fragrance of Assainarcha growled as he drove the car. blooming jasmines, I tell you. Still the smell Gopal felt bad. How stupid of him to have is clinging to my nostrils. That’s what you told this man his life’s troubles. He call Basmati rice- the genuine stuff!’ remembered the famished face of his only Ramachandran was paid an extra Rs.I00/ child with its slender neck and distended and the car pulled away with Gopal as the belly whom he could never feed enough. So, lone passenger. mad with hunger she filled her stomach with whatever she could lay hands on, even a As the vehicle entered the Pallikkara main handful of earth sometimes before she road Assainarcha opened a conversation. drooped and slept, exhausted! ‘ Gopala, where in Bihar are you from?’ Assainarcha obviously did not have a child ‘ Lal Mathia.’, he answered. like that. ‘What was your job?’ He said to himself, before we share our pain ‘ It was in the Coal mine.’ with someone to lighten our burden we must make sure that person too has suffered in He began to talk about the Rajmahal coal life at least in a small measure. Otherwise it mine. When mining was given up for is better to keep our mouth shut like an whatever reason, certain deserted mines accused and suffer silently rather than be would leave behind lots of low-grade coal laughed at like a clown. which the local people would descend upon to collect though it is legally forbidden. It was He had learnt all this long back. Every time mostly women who were engaged in this the policemen tried to extort from his wages and that was where Gopal had met he used to fall at their feet and cringe for Madhangi. He had to push 250 kg of coal on mercy. But they would shake him off their his bicycle upto Godha, a distance of some feet like some slimy reptile with nothing but 40 km or so. Sometimes he had to trudge contempt for his tears. another 20 km till Bangha. But his daily By then the‘ Fortuner’ reached Kalandhan wages was only ten rupees. Haji’s house and Assainarcha parked it in its ‘ Ten rupees! God Almighty! ’ Assainarcha front-yard. True, the sweet odor of Basmati placed a hand on his head. rice filled the air around! ‘ Actually it’s Rs.150. But then I had to bribe Gopal remembered the first time he saw the police-men and the goondas, change Basmati rice. It was his wife Madhangi who the cycle tube in between and also repair the showed it to him from Shukoor Miya’s ball-bearing. After all these expenses I’ll have grocery store. She was six months pregnant just ten rupees left with me.’ then. When he held a handful of the rice to her nose she loved it and her eye-lids closed ‘ And you are asking me for Rs. 100 more? ‘ in longing. She knew that it was not meant He fumed at Gopal. for people like her but Gopal did what best ‘ When did you leave Bihar? he could do then for his wife. He begged Shukkoor Miya to let him have 50 gms of it ‘ Fifteen years ago. ‘ for his pregnant wife and he obliged.

26 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Madhangi happily chewed the rice out of her ahead. He would need to work till sun-set to hand till they both walked back to their make a man-deep pit. He began his work as house. As she chewed it with abandon, the the youngster badgered him with a few pulpy rice oozed out of the sides of her personal questions which he patiently mouth like cow’s milk. He watched her with a answered. After that Sinan went to Google smile but never let her wipe it. He had gazed and then straight to Lal mathia. into her eyes then as if she were a calf. He turned to Yadav and said, Gopal woke from his reverie when he felt a ‘ There is no such place in Bihar, bhai.’ hand on his back. As he turned he saw a lad around 20 years of age. He smelled strongly Yadav raised his eyes from the pickaxe and of perfume. It was as if a whole bottle of attar said, had been dropped on the floor. He handed ‘ Lal mathia is the name of my village and it him a spade and a pickaxe and said, is in Bihar.’ ‘ Come with me, bhai.’ ‘ Stop joking, man. Lal mathia is in He then inspected his hair-do in the rear-view Jharkhand. See for yourself.’ mirror of a parked car making sure his Sinan showed him the map on his mobile straight hair was in place and looked screen moving his fingers over it as if it were pleased with himself. He is Sinan, the the white cloth on the face of a dead man. grandson of Kalandhan Haji born of his third Gopal thought, oh, Lal mathia! you’ve also wife Fathima. His dad Thaha is Fathima’s left your roots behind like me, never to return. son. He took in a deep breath and sighed heavily He walked in front. The whole area was like he always did at the burial of a dear one. converted into a make-shift parking lot for His heart went out to his native Bihar which the celebration. The grass was mown and he imagined he saw in a damp clod on the the ground kept ready for parking cars. ground. His eyes became moist. He vented After walking for some distance they came his fury as he came down on it heavily with to a coconut grove with grass grown all over. the head of his pickaxe and split it in two- The lad stopped. He turned to Yadav and one Bihar and the other Jharkand! said, He paused and asked himself, ‘ This place will do. You can start digging ‘ In which half am I? ‘He wondered as he here.’ fainted. Yadav knew his mission. He turned to the lad He had no clue as to what happened next.. and asked, Now they are all in a long queue and moving ‘ How deep?’ ponderously in single file one behind the ‘ Your height will do, bhai ‘,said he as he was other- the Yadavas, Koyerias, Santhals, all busy sending a Whatsapp message to Ria pushing their pedal-less bicycles loaded with Rafi, one of his countless lovers. coal bags, weighing 250 kg. each slung on their two handle-bars. The hilly terrain is ‘ How wide?’ perilously steep and narrow. Panting and ‘ Your width should be enough, bhai.’ gasping for breath they plod on. Gopal Yadav drew a line on the earth with his His lungs are now too full. They struggled to pickaxe. He looked up and saw the coconut escape from his rib-cage and burst. He had palms sheilding him from the sun. He was nothing that day except some rice and boiled grateful to the trees as he thought of the task vegetables early that morning. His head

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 27 began to spin. Manji who walked in front felt Gopal raised his foot. On the ground lay his a tremor. Before he could ask what was Basmati, he thought. wrong he fell headlong into the abyss after Sinan yelled in anger, the coal bags tilted out of position and went sliding down the steep hill.. ‘ Step on it hard, bhai !’ Darkness gathered round him. He couldn’t And he did it. He kicked hard right on its guess the time. He was awed by the depth chest. He thought he heard a cry first. Then it of the pit he stood in. He heard the cars pull became a whimper and slowly it faded out. away from the parking lot. The feast must ‘ Okay, now you can cover it with earth’, have been over. Sounds of joy have shouted the lad. subsided. Gopal stood sweating, his feet all messy Gopal Yadav lay on his back in the pit and with the ghee and masala of the biriyani he looked up. A slice of moon gently peeped at had stamped upon. him through the shoots of coconut palms Sinan threw a spadeful of earth to the pit that swayed in the breeze. Sinan too came and clicked a selfie with Gopal by his side. into view. He stood on the freshly- dug earth and asked him, His mission over he looked relaxed and asked Gopal casually, ‘ Finished? ‘ ‘ Bhai! You’ve kids, don’t you?’ ‘ Yes’, said Gopal as he rose to his feet. Sinan gave him a hand and Gopal emerged ‘ Only one girl. ‘ from the pit. Just then three or four people What’s her name?’ carried a huge green barrel of something and ‘ Basmati. ‘ emptied it into the pit. Tons of biriyani with meat, bones and all came pouring down into ‘ Is her nikah over? ‘ the pit like a landslide. Gopal looked at it, his ‘ No. ‘ heart pounding. As he watched helplessly Sinan slipped his cell phone into his pocket from a mound as it were, another barrel was and looked at Yadav in expectation, brought and after a while yet another. More barrels were brought and they all met with ‘ She is studying? ‘ the same fate. Soon he lost count. Finally to ‘ No. ‘ top it all came the last consignment for ‘ Then? ‘ disposal. This one was a huge copper vessel, not even opened. Its dhum or the seal ‘ She is dead.’ of quality was still unbroken. ‘ Dead? ‘ The pit was now brimming over with wasted Sinan was taken aback a little and asked a food. Sinan turned to Gopal and said, bit disappointed, ‘ Okay now you can cover it with earth and ‘ What did she die of? ‘ press it down with your feet.’ ‘ Hunger. ‘ But Gopal stood paralysed on the edge of Gopal shoveled another heap of earth and the pit. threw it on top of the Basmati he had buried. ‘ C’mon man, use your feet and kick it down. Then he took in a long, deep breath as he It’s 11’o’clock already.’ usually did after each burial. n

28 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Circle P.N. Gopikrishnan Translated by Nisha Jijo

My legs are similar to yours The toes pointing ahead The firm role.

The air of breath Is in front of me So as the food. The eyes lead its way forward Yet, how the roads I shaped Had turned into a circle.

Don’t misunderstand It is not me Who kneaded the earth Into a ball And sent it to revolve around the sun, Who built this town With the Ring Road as it’s Centre None of the inventions are mine Neither any structure Nor me myself

The circle of spirit that Hovers over the feet Is not mine Or the circle of anklets Above the sole The spirals of bangles, chains The round neck of churidar Don’t belong to me.

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 29 When I see him Chopping vegetables Make tea Washing own garments Occasionally I used to tell him that He is going through

My spirals. Yet, even if I try what he smokes What he drinks Never ever told anyone that I have touched his lies Nor I felt so myself

I met the dog that once terrified And fled at blasting of cracker On the road

I called it ‘Tiger Tiger’ ‘Be quiet’ He said ‘It would have been returned earlier If it were tiger.’

He doesn’t know that To complete a circle A little to be retreated A little past to be relished

Whether it’s a man or dog. n

30 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem Two Poems Lopa Translated by Sandhya Pai

O Writer Girl

O Writer Girl… the shrieks inside shouldn’t spill out piercing the index finger placed on the lips. When screams resound like echoes of escapes shouldn’t even pretend to listen. When Platonic love wearing no attire parades in majesty, be not that child of yore to shout “naked” in glee! While crushing the peeled words on your own grinding stone fluffed up with added water, serving the whole world the five loaves as vital food, do not be gratified that you have achieved something. Feminist writing, Kiss of Love, Pain and Death… do not allow any of these daredevils enter the courtyard. Filling the pen with heart blood do not menstruate crimson for the martyrs. Like grapes preserved for wine

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 31 lie docile in earthen wares. Turning sour, hot and sweet lie in readiness, processed. Writer girl… do not froth in vain, confine as dregs underneath for someone to tip you to pour out, and laugh.

Strawdoll

No need to strike a fire… a flaming glance would do. Even while when trussed into a sheaf, the topsoil had already been carved off… All those who had seen had teased… “O, too slender”… With tears and blood seeping into the sunlight was dried to tinder. Had lain supine stripped and shaken for him who returned worn after foraging, to chew and revel in abandon. Stuffed into somebody’s shirt, eyes and ears hidden under a clay-hat with hands nailed to a cross, adorned, was declared a holy saint. Was the inky dark mole that conserved one and all to abide without the evil eye at home and in the field. No need to kindle fire… a flaming glance would do… Ignited, had shown ages ago, that I could burn in raw. * And so would burn to cinders in a jiffy, all cavils… and complaints… n *Reference: The burning of Joan of Arc at the stake.

32 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Ten Thumb Sized Stories P K Parakkadavu Translated by K M Ajir Kutty

1. Be Practical We are to uproot our children carefully. Then out the mud and mire from the roots. Let’s get them dried up in the sun. Inject English into them. Don’t forget. They are to be exported abroad.

2. Mother Instead of putting its half-drunk and cold vessel of milk on the table, the child placed it on the mother’s bosom. Soon the milk vessel started to boil over. The mother smiled. Just then all the stars in sky arrived there for the feast.

3. Bread and Wine We baked mud cakes and ate them, then, Today I’m selling you for bread. ‘Not by bread alone man lives’ - she said. ‘By wine as well’, he added.

4. Meaning “What book are you reading now?” - She asked “Myself; and I do not understand anything,” I said As she was looking at me in bewilderment, I returned myself to her. “Taste reading it, will you?” What she has been reading since is life, indeed.

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 33 5. Tears Small earthquakes of quarrels will break dams of grief creating a deluge of tears. And I will drown in it. Therefore, you must bring down the level of tears at least a few feet down.

6. Street Story He was at his writing desk in the small hours of the day when even the perennially shivering leaves of the banyan tree too are asleep He patiently waited for a word. He was sitting in anticipation of the stars falling from the sky onto the sheet of paper..... Suddenly books tumbled down from the shelves and started walking up to him. A Latin American book among them caught him by his throat. The paintings hung on the wall came off and staggered towards him. A Picasso painting among them kicked him from behind. Both books and paintings told him: “Rise and go to streets, guy” Life was waiting for him in the street.

7. One and One Make One As he was putting light to her, nay the wick that she had been made into now, he said: ‘it’s only when you are burning that you are spreading light’. At last when she turned into ashes, he said: ‘There is no space for two in the apartment of love. In fact, you have vanished so that the two of us shall coalesce into one.’

8. That Which is Greater It was after having been fed up with reading day in and day out that the erudite writer took to the street. He saw there a child reading the universe, munching on poverty and loneliness. In the proximity of the universe reading child the scholar turned the size of mustard.

34 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 9. Light More Light Cameras must flash when the last breath is taken. Wasn’t it by saying ‘light, more light’ that Goethe died?! Listening to the words of the Channel crew like music...... in such a fashion like that....like that....

10. I Walking, standing, sitting and lying down, whatever may be posture, the shadow will be there right in the front or at the back. He was bored to the hilt. He said to the shadow: ‘I would like to be left alone - not even without a shadow.’ The shadow said: ‘I must blame myself for being your shadow.’ After a long quarrel he got his freedom. Look, there is no shadow now. Nor is he there. n

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 35 Poem Poem Poem Poem Poem The Colour of Truth Manambur Rajan Babu Translated by T.M. Reghuram

Sighting him from afar, She would shut all doors and run for life. and imagine he used to be air, water, fire, sky and the earth to her! It all began with her respect for his truthfulness. and the craziness of confronting bitter truths. That was how even bitter truths were milk pudding to her. But then, in yesterday’s truth she really blacked out. That was truth about her! n

36 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Rejection, Acceptance and Negotiation in Resistance: The Politics of the Literature of Pulavritam in Padayani Soumya Murukesh

Resistance is a widely discussed critical social concept since 1980s especially in the context of Subaltern and Dalit studies. Resistance can be simply defined as fight off what is threatening to one’s self or existence. Contemporary social, cultural and political discourses explore such vivid expressions of resistance. In literature and other art forms, the resistance can The Pulayapurapad is a be seen mainly in two forms such as dramatic performance which acceptance or negotiation and is developed through the negation of dominated cultural forms. conversation of a Pulayan Udhay Chandra explains the condition and a Spectator. The Pulaya of subaltern resistance in his essay titled comes on the scene by “Rethinking Subaltern Resistance” that wearing a white turkey which subaltern’s intention to resist power/ becomes black because of domination is unclear in subaltern dirt, a cap which is made up consciousness and politics so it creates of the film of the arcanut tree ambiguities and ambivalence in their and a putalu ( an agricultural actions and reactions. Therefore, equipment) on his armpit. resistance was increasingly seen as difficult to represent in the social scenario. The narrowness of resistance apprehend the conditions of one’s subordination to endure or withstand those conditions in everyday life, and to act

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 37 with sufficient intention used. They actually tried and purpose to In one song they describe to break the negotiate power their hardships in their work fundamental taboos of relations from below in and difficulties of not getting society and revealed order to rework them in sufficient wages. They hope the tension between the a more favourable or that land lords will realize their men and women. After emancipatory direction. pains and give proper wages the ritual they accepted According to Michel to them. Pulayas normally get and led their normal life Foucault’s remarkable a small portion of land from as mother, sister, wife or theory of Power, the the land lord to reside. daughter (Schroter 44). Padayani also shows power is co-existensive In one song, one pulaya with resistance, it is such kind of rebellious pleads to lord that don’t give nature. productive that means it such a dreadful place, full of causes positive effects, snakes and wild animals to Pulavritam is only one and it is them. They always ready to episode in Padayani ubiquitous.Power and bow infront of the lords so which deals with the resistance are now please hear their request to culture and caste widely seen as avoid such inhuman problem of Pulaya clan. entangled rather than inhabitation to them. Here the Pulayan raises simply opposed(Balan). so many questions to This revisionist the society at the same perspective necessarily time he accepts the implies “the ambiguity of resistance and power concepts of society. The study tries to the subjective ambivalence of the acts for reveal the ambiguities and ambivalence of those who engage in them” (Chandra 546). the resistance in the context of Pulavritam When power and resistance become positive and how does the rejection and negotiation and generate productive relations, most of take place as forms of resistance in the artistic creations of subaltern become Pulavritam. artifacts of resistance. Padayani is such an The performance of Pulavritam is divided into artistic production of resistance in Kerala. two parts. The first part is in the form of a When one considered the tradition of rituals skit named Pulayapurapad and the second as resistance, James George Frazer would one is a dance performance of variety of be the first one who depicted the rebellious songs. The songs are written in the middle nature of ritual in his text Golden Bough. age Malayalam language which has an Later Max Gluckman developed the concept influence of Tamil. The life style of Pulaya, in his essay titled “Rituals of Rebellion- their methods of agriculture, love for nature, Rebellion as Ritual”. From the quoted worship, love, depressions, revenge, Vedic examples of his text, he tried to say that the thoughts, pains, reliefs, ignorance and rituals of oppressed group resist and act as each and every speculations of their culture a rebellion through adopting or rejecting the is reflected in this episode. monarchy. He gave an example of gender The Pulayapurapad is a dramatic transgression in a ritual of African Zulu clan. performance which is developed through the For opposing the male gender, the female of conversation of a Pulayan and a Spectator. the particular clan adopted the life style, The Pulaya comes on the scene by wearing garment even language of males in a a white turkey which becomes black particular day. For show their resistance because of dirt, a cap which is made up of they used even obscene language as male the film of the arcanut tree and a putalu (

38 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY an agricultural equipment) on his armpit. getting a child to the pulaya, he and his This is considered as a traditional outlook of companions perform a dance named a Pulaya and this reveals how he is Pulavritakali. They perform a primitive way of supposed to be presented infront of the performance for more than fifty songs. The society. When Pulaya appeared in the major themes of the songs are the battle courtyard (performing platform) of the between Kali and Darika, the life of Pulaya, temple one person among the spectators stories from Itihasas etc. come on the scene. He wears a white dhoti The song Darikasuravadam begins with a and has a white piece of turkey on his dreadful dream of a pulaya. He sees his shoulder. This dress code makes clear that ancestors come and take away the cock he belong to a upper caste. Moreover, the and hen from their coop and eat them and Pulaya calls him Thampuran. His questions the pulayan and family have suffering from to the Pulaya reveal the position the Pulaya epidemic, chicken pox. The dream says in the society of that time. The temple and that the ancestors are angry to them and to even the paths towards the temple are ease the ancestors they sing the song Kali- prohibited to the lower caste so the Darika battle. Like other ritual songs, this spectator asked why he comes on the way song also begins with Ganapati and Devi to the temple. When pulaya negates the stuti. But one cannot find intense bakti in spectator’s question and chews the betal these prayer songs. More than bakti, the leaves and spits on the courtyard of the prayer is developing as a normal temple, the spectator scolds him. Then conversation between the god and the Pulaya asks some questions to the devotee. The words of praising are limited spectator about the construction, rituals and here. In the song, Siva is described as a customs of the temple. He asks whether pulaya among ten pulayas come from the the god is a Pulaya? He uses some southern region. The characteristics and obscene words to refer the god. The features are also narrated as similar to a Pulayan asked why the winnowing fan and pulaya. Siva is referred as valiyapulayan. the tail of the street dog are used in the And Parvati is depicted as who has the procession carrying the idol on the elephant. beauty and whiteness of milk. Here gives the ignorance of the low caste man is emphasis to the white colour of a female. In exposed. He misunderstands the chowrie as another song of the same theme, the tail ofa dog and the ornamented fan made up of peacock’s feather as winnowing fan. The spectators tried to correct him by explaining the real things. (Vasudevanpillai 45) And all these matters are resolved as an ignorance of the Pulaya. Actually all these are the secret intentions of the lower caste which could not fulfill in a normal social situation. They want to deconstruct the concept of the temple and other motifs of hierarchy which never give a space to the lower caste people. The Performance of Pulavritakali : After this dramatic performance, for A shot from Karupilla Kavu

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 39 Siva’s name is Vallon and he is the protector as similar to the marriage of the Pulayas. of all mountains. As a daughter of a pulaya, The customs and rituals are almost like Kali is referred as daughter of their clan. But Pulayas and all the invitees are also she resides in a Nalukettu, a traditional Pulayas. There is no reference of home of higher caste. They adopt the Triambakam and the braveness of Rama in concepts of the colour and beauty of the song. In another song female, a better concept of home etc from Indrasadasilekoothu, they tease Indra for his the higher caste. At the same time they are interest towards female. In aware that they never get such things in Vyasolpathi, Satyavati becomes Kali and their life. So they try to fulfill their ambitions Shantanu as a Saint, Munidran. A low caste through their female divine epitomes. The woman’s victory over a saint is celebrated in song gives importance to the rituals like this song. When she explores she belongs Kozhivettu and other sacrifices and vivid to low caste and the relationship with her descriptions of the violent acts of Kali give a will be like to have a bitter seed, Munidra new aesthetic revelation to these songs. says it will be like to have most sweet fruit In the song which describes about the in the world. proceedings of the Padayani, the narration Most of the songs have no specific titles. is developed through the words of a And the language is very peculiar while one spectatorwho sees and enjoys the same compare with the language of such rituals with great awe and wonder. Actually in songs. The usages like Thalla, Pulla etc some contexts, he reveals his identity as a which are considered as mean forms of pulaya and how he is separated from even language are used widely. Most of the the platform of such a ritual. songs are written in Malayalam which has The songs which depict the life of Pulaya an influence of Tamil language and some also give importance to agriculture. The songs also show the influence of Sanskrit history of Pulaya community from the language. And such songs may be added Aadivallon, the relationship and intimacy later. By accepting and negating, they with agriculture, Tamil language etc are the precede their resistance to the hierarchies. In other major themes. Siva is depicted as a some context they try to become almost Vallon. In one song they describe their like the high caste people and in some hardships in their work and difficulties of not context they tried to create their own identity. getting sufficient wages. They hope that They tried to own some of the peculiarities land lords will realize their pains and give of the higher caste people and they know proper wages to them. Pulayas normally that is impossible to them so they impose get a small portion of land from the land such things to their divine concepts. n lord to reside. WORKS CONSULTED In one song, one pulaya pleads to lord Balan, Sergiu. “M. Foucault’s view of Power Relation”. cogito.ucdc.ro. Cogito Open Access Journel, n.d. that don’t give such a dreadful place, full Web 6 August 2015. of snakes and wild animals to them. They Rajarajavarma, Ezhumattoor. Patayanippattum always ready to bow infront of the lords so Nathonnathayum Mattum. Kottayam: Current please hear their request to avoid such Books, 1998. Print. inhuman inhabitation to them. Schroter, Sussane. “Ritual of Rebellion-Rebellion as Ritual: A Theory Reconsidered”. yumpu. Com. Yumpu. Some episodes from Ramayana and Com digital Magazine Publishing, n.d. Web 22 Mahabharata also become themes of their May 2011. songs. In the song Thadakamoksham, the Vasudevanpillai, Kadamanitta. Pateni. Trivandrum: Kerala marriage of Rama and Seetha is depicted Basha Institute, 1993. Print.

40 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Short Story Sands of time John Samuel Translated by Dr. Saramma Varghese

This is for the first time that I’m facing such a difficult situation in my life. Maybe no one can go on in life without facing problems. People might have to go through times when they would even have fears about life coming to an end. It is only by facing such situations and handling them courageously that one could overcome it. It is true that the ability to do so is a rare gift. Life itself is a gift. The important thing is to live it with happiness. I have conveyed this to you many times. Solving problems by being willing to give up, not keeping traces of agony in the mind, by opening up and understanding each other, and by forgiving each other, one should try to find joy in life. We need to transform ourselves for it. The moment I took the decision to make you On an early morning, yes, at that the partner in my life, I had also made very moment when you were lying in another decision. Once I had told you about my stretched hands, I discovered it. It was that I would pay due respect and how I should address you, with love, acceptance to the one who would share my reverence and romance. I life. It was very irritating for me to listen to addressed you in a hush voice and my friends addressing their wives without you felt that the sound had respect. When I asked them why they do so, reverberations in the heavens. I they told me that using such words would called you Koche** (my own sweet). give them the feeling of ownership and that And it was ecstatical for you….. the person addressed would feel more submissive. Somehow, I could never agree to that. Instead I preferred to address you in a romantic vein using intimate notes which would convey that feeling. Once you asked me why I didn’t call you by name. I didn’t give any

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 41 change when a man and woman would start living together. It happened all of a sudden at another moment of time in the middle of a night. The new name got slipped secretly from my tongue Penne(woman), I called you. I am sure you I really do not understand what liked it more than the other. In both names wrong I did. I do admit that there one could find romance, beauty and is some truth in your complaint mutuality. Then it became impossible to that you had to wait for quite leave one name and choose the other. Both some time. The phrase “quite names were equally great and finally you some time”, itself is relative. If we only found a way out. From the hearts, you start recording how time moves said, on this earth, which is just a tiny “When someone hears us, call me the first. dot in this infinite universe, we will In our private moments, use the second have to admit that these “quite one”. long periods of waiting” do not That moment I realized that there was just signify much. one person in this world to love me in this deepest mode. That revelation was also a great surprise to me. answer at that time. I didn’t want to irritate you by telling that Komalavalli,the name Now, I am in a situation where I can’t call which your parents had chosen for you you either of the names. You are behind the didn’t seem to be sweet to me since it carried closed door. And I am waiting outside. It is an artificially applied sense of beauty within. so unbelievable when I reflect on how things turned upside down. I admit that I behaved Still I feel that you shouldn’t have been given in a manner which hurt you. For that should that archaic name. I wanted to call you by a you revolt by closing yourself in a room? romantic name going with the contemporary When I knocked on the door and called you, style. it sounded a bit loud. But it was not my On an early morning, yes, at that very mistake. It is only natural that one starts moment when you were lying in my shouting when one is angry. When one calls stretched hands, I discovered how I should loudly and knocks on the door that also address you, with love, reverence and turns out to be loud. That’s all. It was not romance. I addressed you in a hush voice meant to hurt you deliberately. and you felt that the sound had Look…….. reverberations in the heavens. I called you Koche** (my own sweet). And it was It is a beautiful night. The stars started ecstatical for you….. smiling up in the sky. The branches of the trees dancing in the light breeze appear like Call me again, you murmured. shadows. In a short while the cool rays will I’m not sure whether any great Sultan in the cover the earth. This earth will then turn to world would have addressed his sweetheart be an enchanting wild garden. I ask you, like that. But the joy lay in the fact that I was should we allow ourselves to be deprived of addressing my partner with due acceptance. the charm of this night? At Later on, there came a change in that too. moment how can we be fighting with each One could say that it was quite a natural other and be standing away from each other,

42 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY one inside the closed room and the other convey to me that I am part of your life” one outside? Yes I want to hear from you those intimate What concerns me is that we belong to each words. Instead you are punishing me with other. You belong to me. And I belong to your silence. This closed door conveys it you. It is a very simple equation. effectively that there exists the reality of I remember, so far while we lived together, we inside and outside and we are separated. talked openly and freely. We shared our Between us, there stands this huge wall, views though it differed many times. We which cannot be demolished. It is just like tried to convince or even fought with each the mind that has turned hard. other to win. I really do not understand what wrong I did. Do you think that it should not have I do admit that there is some truth in your happened? Or do you think that we were complaint that you had to wait for quite just babbling to the unseen air? Or to the some time. The phrase “quite some time”, deaf, dark granite separation? Or do you itself is relative. If we start recording how think that I was talking to myself and you to time moves on this earth, which is just a tiny yourself? dot in this infinite universe, we will have to admit that these “quite long periods of Even if you say so, I won’t agree with you. I waiting” do not signify much. It would turn always listen to your words, and give due out to be meaningless to use phrases like “a importance to it. When you insist that it is short period”, “a long period” and so on. not true, who is blinding oneself by closing Depending on each person’s attitude and the eyes? Who is deafening the ears by special likings, there would come changes in pressing them with own fingertips? one’s concepts on time. You owe me an answer. I want to know who The loneliness felt when one is all alone at is responsible for turning things upside home, that too the loneliness of a wife is down. Between us, who is talking, who is understandable. One might forget the fact just pretending to be listening? I know that I that the wife is all alone at home, due to am talking to you. I am just waiting to hear a several reasons. What is wrong in reminding word from you. that through a phone call? Using the latest But no…… smart phone you have, you could have It is because you didn’t say anything. conveyed it smartly. Otherwise you could Refraining from giving reply itself is a reply. have conveyed it through a missed call or You don’t realize to what extent your silence sms. But you were not ready for anything. unsettles me. I can see you couched in that May be you didn’t want to give up your false closed room with your forehead on your pride. knees, stubborn and with an angry posture. I didn’t suffer from any such thoughts. I am It comes to my mind again and again. I am telling you the truth. Twice I had rang up to just waiting outside longing for a few words tell you that I would be late in reaching from you that would be enough for me…. home. You were busy on the phone. I like, thought you were chatting with a friend, and hoped that it would go on for some time. Let “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what you spend some time meaningfully, and I to say. I am really scared and sad. I am all could be a bit late also, I thought. alone. There’s no one with me. Please talk to me. Just a word to convince me that I am You know how deadlines are set for work in needed in your life, a glance which would the office of a Media house (newspaper). Don’t you remember the first time that we

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 43 “The deadline is 8. I can’t stay back anymore. See you tomorrow…” You nodded in consent. Your glance lingered on me, as though you had lost something. The editorial office is a lunatic home between the twilight and the dark. It is the place where people crowd together like mad. On the desk accumulates important and urgent It is because you didn’t say matters without an end. And if one or two anything. Refraining from giving are on leave, the job of others gets doubled. reply itself is a reply. You don’t It is then that it becomes a lunatic asylum. realize to what extent your silence Many people, even you may not have idea unsettles me. I can see you about the editorial room of a media house. couched in that closed room with Many of the stories which get printed seem your forehead on your knees, like amoebas deprived of their cells. A story stubborn and with an angry changes as it is written and edited. There posture. It comes to my mind may come further changes according to the again and again. I am just dictates of the Chief Editor. No doubt, one waiting outside longing for a few will definitely go mad. words from you that would be All this happened naturally. Such things enough for me…. occur in everyone’s life. Please don’t look at this as an error from my side. I will explain to you what had happened. It would be met? It was at an International Seminar on something retold in its order. the Global Economic shifts. Being a I could have reached home by at 8 o’clock, research scholar in economics, you were and I wanted to also. But it was 11 when I part of the organizing committee. And I had reached home. Three hours late. I had come there as a news reporter. The chief completed my work on the regional news guest was an expert in the subject, a Nobel even ahead of the dead line. Then came the laureate. The whole world was waiting for call from the editor requesting me to check if his response to the issue from the Indian the content of the ‘Letters to the Editor’ in the background, and I had to prepare the report leader page goes in line with the policy of the and submit it before the deadline. newspaper. The person responsible was I had reached the premises quite early to away for some urgent need, so I was asked collect the details regarding the programme. to do it. It was 9.30 when that was over. I You were part of the group which was could have got out immediately. But then assigned the job of dealing with the Gopikrishnan – our common friend – came journalists. You were answering my queries, to clear his doubts regarding Saturday’s but suddenly, may be it took only a split of a page. Again, I had to spend half an hour on second for me to arrive at the conclusion that. that you preferred giving the details to just But you hinted that it was a means to avoid one person, only to me. Both of us you and it really hurt me. I always wanted to understood each other at that exiting complete the jobs assigned to me in a very moment. Before the session was over, I satisfactory manner, and also with joy. That hurried back telling, was the reason why I was given more

44 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY responsibilities. I have just one aim in mind when I pursue these. I wanted to climb up the stairs to be on top, and to enjoy life fully, with all its abundance. I never thought of avoiding you in such a life, and I never had the feeling that you wouldn’t be part of my life. I assure you, I could never think of it. And I am really depressed because you didn’t realize it. Love is not just that alone. It is I believe that no one is satisfied with life much more than that. You completely, including you and me. The should definitely realize it, the basic instinct in human being is to fight, I touch of love. First of all love is suspect. Take our own instance. We have patient and kind. Love is not fought with each other and it is as though arrogant or rude. Love does not we are living in two different zones. Yes you insist on its own way. It is not are in a closed room and I stand outside. irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in Were we like this before? the right. Love endures all We had met several times to study deeply things, believes all things, bears the international financial situation. It was all things, hopes everything and not just to make a study report to be hate nothing….. submitted to the world leaders to effect changes in the economic field. Every time we met, we were discovering each other. got into the car and started it. It didn’t move. And every time we discovered each other, we There was some problem with the car. My exchanged vows, promises from the heart, repeated efforts failed. Can you say that I overflowing with emotions. And there was a contrived to create such a situation common line of thought behind all this. A deliberately? Things might turn out to be life together, respecting and caring for each entirely beyond our control at times. other, where one gives then take. The moment I got into the house, you started It is this life that stands apart on either side shouting at me. You were always like that. of the wall, almost dead. For me this wall is This time it got aggravated because the fault not a real solid one. It is an imaginary was on my side. Your reaction used to be the creation, with elements of arrogance added same even when you had committed on to it. It is just imaginary, and stands mistakes. You would shout and throw out confronting the reality. Human life proceeds things that you would get hold of and make through a dark tunnel, which seems endless, attempts to justify yourself. I never took it and we keep moving through it. It is an seriously because I wanted to avoid such inconsistent journey with no fixity or outbursts. You never agreed with me when I regularity, but a journey with the hope that commented that it could be due to hormonal one might discover light at some point of imbalances. When I suggested that we time, somewhere. should consult a doctor, your reaction was Otherwise, why my efforts to reach home at that it is a way of eliminating you, attributing least by 10 and to have dinner with you to you such imbalances. didn’t work out? I wanted to be with you I am not trying to justify myself. I want you before the food that you prepared had turned to know what really happened. Let me cold. I got out of the office exactly at 9.50. I remind you how you also got involved in a

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 45 similar situation. It might help to reduce the marriage as a clash with love as weapons intensity of this situation where I am being thrilled you. More than that, you were enticed crucified. Sometime back you went to a by the phrase “war of love”. I had concluded beauty parlor for doing some facial. You the article saying that there should not be came back late, one and a half hours after fights in the family due to silly reasons, and the expected time. I had already reached that life itself would turn upside down unless home, but waited for you patiently. Even if the small quarrels were not settled at the very you had been late for three hours, I would moment they arose, and as a reader, you not have responded in a mean manner. had congratulated me for my approach. That is love… Think of our situation now. Where have we reached? Just because I was a little late, Love is not just that alone. It is much more just because I could not inform you about it, than that. You should definitely realize it, the and just because the food that you prepared touch of love. First of all love is patient and had turned cold by the time I reached, there kind. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love is this closed door in between us. We stand does not insist on its own way. It is not like aliens on both sides. May be you also irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at think that the situation should have been wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love averted, in the same manner that I do. We endures all things, believes all things, bears are not enemies. One would slam the door all things, hopes everything and hate only on the face of the enemy. nothing….. I believe that this situation could have been Tell me, who amongst us has lost that love? avoided by you, because you used to think Can’t you open the door and come out to in a sensible manner. You are a prolific give an answer? I believe that you are reader of the famous sayings of great listening to me although you remain silent people, and could have overcome this behind the wall. You find fault with me for situation easily. I stress this point. Your best being late, and also for not informing you friend had given you a priceless wedding gift. that I would be late. I congratulated you for receiving such a gift, I am not finding fault with you for this in not the one who gave it. Only an intellectual particular. I don’t want to think of you as a would deserve such a gift, and that is why I quarrelsome woman, or to imagine that we congratulated you. That gift contained ten are fighting with each other. Even if it is true, to fifteen volumes of the great sayings of the I have no reluctance to admit that I am most noble-minded leaders. I was really glad behind all this. You are behind the wall, and that you started your days reading at least you remain silent. Only I keep conversing. one thought from those volumes. You could So even if it is a war between the two of us, have avoided this cold war amongst us, if only I have used the weapon. And you you had one of those thoughts in your mind, haven’t contributed to it. “Do for others, what you want others to do We knew that there would be differences of for you”. opinion, and clashes when one would stick There is no need for arguments and counter- on to one’s own opinion. Like great arguments at this point of time. I present my philosophers, we concluded that those were argument, but the counter argument seems unavoidable realities when two people from to be like a silent spirit. The need of the different backgrounds come together, and in moment is to find a means to open this door fact we found joy in it. You even compelled which remains shut. If it continues to remain me to write an article on the subject. shut for long, the latch would accumulate And I wrote one. The phrase describing rust on it and would never open.

46 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY If the situation would change with my changes, both mental and physical in a confession of guilt, I am ready for it. I believe person. that life is more important than ideas, desires As the mind natures with age, the body or even dreams. One’s life is not just one’s responds in a totally different manner. The own. In order to grasp the meaning of life, colour of the hair would change, and the another person should become part of one’s skin would start getting wrinkles. As age life. The individual connects himself to the advances, one would feel pain in the knees, family, the family to the society and the while stepping forward. The fingers might society to the nation. turn numb. There is no point in pretending Let us reconcile with each other. that you don’t recognize those changes. You I have a few questions for you to answer, don’t have to worry why such things happen. These are inevitable changes. It is just - When did I give you a rose for the first time? meaningless picking up fights on such - When did I gift you the passionate verses of grounds. You need to remember one more Khalil Gibran. thing. Later on, the body might refuse to go - When did I touch your fingertip for the first with the mind. If one could look at it as a time? very natural and curious process, one might enjoy it. In the same manner that you would - When did I murmur first that you belonged forget me, I would forget you also. One fine to me? morning you would get up and look into my I know that you would be overwhelmed by face and exclaim, these questions. You wouldn’t be able to “You look familiar, but I don’t know who you come out of the contentment and joy that are”. these questions might arouse in you. Hearing it, I also would not get upset, Just one more, because I also may not recognize you. The Once I had asked you which place you memory of the International Seminar on would long to stay for a few days forgetting Global Economic changes would recede everything else. You had promised, you will from our minds. The beach in Kovalam where tell me when our busy schedule is over. I am we took our decision to be together in absolutely free now, and am waiting for it. life, and the soothing breeze there also Right now, at this moment, from behind the would disappear from our minds. The image shut door, won’t you tell me where you want of the small house where we started our life us to go? together would also recede. Our likes, My request is that you forget all that dislikes, joys and sorrows, would turn to be happened in the past. I want to tell you one complete strangers to us. thing in particular. You are everything to me. We would tend to forget each other, the two Please do have faith in my words. Believe of us who are sitting on either side of this me fully, I repeat what I used to say before. door. Before that we should go to the place You are the perfect woman, the only person you longed to go. Please do open the door that fulfils my expectations, who comes and just tell me where you want to go. close to the standards set by the man in me. No. You won’t open the door. You won’t tell Recently you seemed hesitant to look at your me where you want to go. You are silent image in the mirror. You were scared to see behind the closed door. It is better that I also the changes that the passing time had go silent. brought in. You were reluctant to accept the reality that as time moves on, there would be Let the door remain closed. n

MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 47 Our Contributors

E.V. Ramakrishnan Nisha Jijo Professor Emeritus, Vice Principal, Central University of Gujarath, Santhinikethan Public School, Gandhi Nagar, Gujarath. Irinjalakkuda Aymanam John Lopa, Pariyath House, Kottarathil, P.O. Aymanam, Cheruthana P.O, Harippad, Kottayam - 686015 Alppuzha - 690517 P.N. Venugopal Dr. Sandhya Pai Vasudha, 28/2859, Department of English, Vikas Nagar, Kochi - 682020 St.Joseph’s College, Alappuzha Dr. Reeja. V. P.K. Parakkadavu Assistant Professor, Mars, Kolathara P.O, Department of Malayalam, Calicut - 673655 Kannur University, Dr. P.K. Rajan K.M. Ajir Kutty Memorial Campus, Nileswaram Mankoottam Thodi, Soumya Murukesh Edava - 695311 Koleth House, North Mazhavannur, Manambur Rajan Babu Valampur, Kolenchery (via), Editor, Innu Monthly, Ernakulam - 686669 Malappuram - 676505 Santhosh Aechikkanam T.M. Raghuram Upahar, Udaya Nagar, Udaya, Melakkam, Ayyanthole P.O, Manjery - 676123 Thrissur - 680003 John Samuel Antony Fernandez Medayil, 16/454/2, Kochanur Road, Paduva Villa, Beach Road, Trivandrum - 695014 Azhiyoor - 673309 Dr. Saramma Varghese P.N. Gopikrishnan Karingattil Puthenveedu, Poovathumkadavil House, Thumpamon P.O, P.O. Thrithalloor, Pathanamthitta - 689502 Thrissur -680619

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Printed and published by Dr. K.P.Mohanan on behalf of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and printed at Carmel Printers, Thrissur for Santhibhavan Offset Printers, Kannamkulangara, Thrissur, Kerala-680 007 and published at Kerala Sahitya Akademi, P.B. No.501, Thrissur, Kerala-680 020. Editor: Dr. K.P.Mohanan