'Ln an Agricultural Be an Island.'

Malnadfimes Mordanttlmes An image of the ancestral home of one of Karnataka's foremost litterateurs is amongthe highlights of a newbookof photographs, saysJaideepSen. t, # & ..:fl 9:, r" Shadowsinthereiglt Arjun Sutarninatlnrt (ilret) s\enth,aotears sltootittgimages of lifeit Maltnd of Malnad, which the book seeks to capture. by a forest." Ananthamurthy's father was a The picture, taken in a hamlet cal1ed Melige, shanbag (a village officer) and was often near the town of Thirthahalli in Shimoga required to travel; forcing his family to move Arj un Swamin athan' s M ah a d Tim e s tsbased district, is of the writer UR Ananthamurthy's with him to various other towns in the area, on a series of images that the photographer ancestral home. As the photographer such as Kudoor and Begoli, said the writer. clicked in the region of Malnad, or Malenadu, discovered, the sprawling abode, where along the inclines of the Sahyadri Mountains Ananthamurthy's cousins now 1ive, bears a of the Western Ghats. Swaminathan spent handful of jarring tokens of an urban life that, 'ln an agricultural two years, befween 2008 and 2010, collecting even today, is yet to grip most of Malnad. A scenes of areca nut and coffee plantations, satellite dish protrudes from atop a roof, community nobodycan forests and paddy fields, and documenting electric lines droop overhead, and an be an people engaged in activities such as peeling unpretentious sweetshop, lined with jars of island.' nuts and jackfruit, rolling papads, crushing assorted confectionary, stands beside a sugarcane to make jaggery, attending payphone booth, wedged into the faqade. The images of everyday life in Malnad that cowsheds, and decorating basavas, or bu11s, But that isn't how Ananthamurthl, Swaminathan captures are rife with chapras to be taken from door to door to seek alms. remembershisfirsthome. "Whenllivedthere, or granaries, charakas or homemade spindles. However, it is the image of a large country it had a thatch roof," he said. "We lived in kambalikoppe cloaks, and adike hale topis, or house in the region, which would later come to different parts - some less forested, some caps made of dried areca leaves, which become a significant marker in Karnataka's more forested, like in Kudoor, where our farmers here wear. He even tracks down a feri- literary map that exemplifies the impression house was the only one in an area surrounded typical events, like a local wedding, and the 14 www.timeoutbenglaluru.net Februa ry 4- L7 2077 Malnadlimes Nutty Efriliies Suambnthatt descibes his experiences in Malnad as quite like being in a lime warp hulivesha, a tiger dance ceremony. The times, the British eighteenth century, girls, who are very beautiful. I began to book also features ancient forts in ruins industrialisation times; there are several see the other reality." The prejudices have and centuries-old but well-preserved layers of consciousness." The untroubled, changed in recent times, but not entirely, "There are still traces mansions, apart from a drama rehearsal at the self-sustained manner of life in these parts added Ananthamurthy. Ninasam school of theatre at Heggodu, near was something to treasure, he added. ofthepast." thetownofSagar. "Everyone finds food, and even medicines, in For Swaminathan, who was born and For Ananthamurthy, a large part of his their backyards. I don't want those things to raised in Basavanagudi, and studied work was built around those early memories be lost in evolution." engineering before playing bit roles in and eventually taking up a from Malnad. "Clip Joint", one of his older Swaminathan explained that he'd chosen to Kannada theatre short stories, for instance, has a character in shoot Ananthamurthy's home over more camera, his first brush with life in this sleepy SoHo often thinking of an uncle back in popular fixtures on Malnad's map, such as of Malnad, he pointed out. Incidents from his the home and even the grave of Kuvempu 'The untouchable own schooldays inparticular, ataplace called (he died in 1994, and r,vas buried in Kuppalli). Dooravasapuram, fuelled many of his tales, "I don't mean any disrespect, but those places wassuch evenwhen he "of tigers, cowherds telling stories, and people are visited by a lot of people," said the travelling to buy and sell things", said the photographer. "The idea behind this fbook] had bathed.' writer. "There were no money transactions was that a lot of people don't even know that then. My mother would give them some areca people live such a kind of life." poignant as nut, and they would exchange goods." Ananthamurthy, who put together a bunch region was haunting, if not as The photograph of his home in Melige, of notes and personal anecdotes to Ananthamurthy's recollections.'1 was meanwhile, was "very meaningful", said the accompany the pichres in Malnad Times, shooting in Chickmagalur District, following writer, "becauseit'sacycle-thereareallthese also recounted some of the caste the history of the Hoysala kingdom, and spot, but they remind me practices observed in some of these places; one morning I slipped into Agumbe [in changes in the same "It of the place where I was bom." His maternal practices that he briefly makes note of in the Shimoga]," the photographer recounted. uncle had, at some point, begun running a book. "In an agricultural community, was a January morning, very foggy, and small hotel inside their home, said nobody can be an island," he said. fantastic. I could see these characters coming Ananthamurthy, the kind to which "workers "You need the services of every caste for out of the fog - a milkman, a newspaperman, a would come from the fields to have a dosa or a something or the other. Over the years, lady going towards a temple, somebody meal". His uncle was in fact the first person to we evolved a certain respect for each cycling towards a bus stop. Life there felt like bring a gas light to Melige, he added. "Even caste. For instance, a barber had an itwasinatimewarp." The people he met in Malnad were "open the village sahukar for zamindar] didn't have important role - when there is a death, of his camera, one, and this was much brighter than all the he is as important as a priest. He had his and excited" about thepresence other lights around then. That was the time own role to play [to tonsure the heads said Swaminathan. Even if "older generations younger we changed the roof to country tiles, and then of the bereavedl." His first encounters always have complaints about the lot passing much later, to Mangalore tiles." with Dalit folk had affected him deeply, coming in, the o1d order is to make Modern life creeping inmightbe inevitable, the writer added. "l had an awakening way for the new", he added, citing the instance but Ananthamurthy said he wished that seeingthat the Dalits were the least respected, of a police station from the British era, which Malnad would stay ciear of "plastic that they were untouchables and all the he'd come across in a town featured in the modernity". "When you accept modernity, others were touchable." book, named Jayapura. The station was there are several kinds of modernities," he "Being untouchable also had several recently brought down to make room for a said. "But the plastic things that come along layers," continued the writer. '1 was new building. "The policemen are sad, but represent the modernity of consumption. And untouchable to my mother when she had there's nothing much one can do." that is undesirable." In many ways, Malnad bathed and I had not. Whereas the For limited edition copi.es ofMalnad "exemplified a coexistence of cenhries", he untouchable was such even when he had Times,publishedby the Coffee Day Co and said. "I have different centuries that exist in bathed. My awakening was about the The Serai Fine Art Coll,ection, write to my consciousness too medieval and modern beautiful people among them - like the [email protected]. February 4 - 77 2O7! www.timeoutbengialuru.net 15.

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