ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020

AESTHETICS OF PLACE: EXPLORING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SPACE, TIME, CHARACTER AND READER IN SELECT NOVELS

Jayalekshmi . J

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Mannam Memorial NSS College, Kottiyam,

E-mail: [email protected]

Received: 14 March 2020 Revised and Accepted: 8 July 2020

ABSTRACT: The singularity of literature to dramatize fictional narrators‟ and characters‟ attempts to understand, accommodate, and finally perhaps resign themselves to the complexities of space and time. The ways in which a writer represent, defamiliarize, deconstruct or fantasise a place leaves a remarkable impact on the readers throughout the reading and conception of the text, and they tend to sympathize or empathize with the attempts of narrators and characters to come to terms of with these problems, because they echo their own pangs and pathos and their own struggles to reconcile with their circumstances. Although the relationship between narrators and characters on the one hand, and space and time on the other, can assume a variety of forms, this study will argue that the narrative presentations of space in the novels under consideration are interestingly related to each other, thus indicating significant points of connection between the narrator, characters, and readers and establish their life as a continuum of time and space. This article excavates how the writers like MT Vasudevan Nair, , Thakazhi, Malayatoor Ramakrishnan and M Mukundan have transported their readers to an unheard or unseen land of beauty, charm, myth, fantasy, and horror, a world of their own imagination and familiarize their readers with a locale that lingers in their mind for ever as a character and not as a backdrop of events.

KEYWORDS: space, time, desire, love, nostalgia, chaos

I. INTRODUCTION

The article “Des espaces autres” by Michel Foucault claimed that a historical viewpoint had dominated the nineteenth century but that the twentieth century would be the century of space (752). His prediction has adequately been fulfilled: the end of the twentieth century witnessed a spectacular “spatial turn” in humanities. This may perhaps partly be ascribed to the sensibilities of scholars in an age of ever increasing globalisation. The important notion of space as „lived‟, that is to say as experienced and valued by the narrator or (one of the) characters in an ideological, emotional, experiential relation to society and power, not as a number of coordinates on a geographical map. The inner space of the house, the outer space in the city (or village), the private space of females, experienced as peaceful and intimate, the latter is the public space of men, experienced as dangerous and threatening. Literature replicates not just an author's observation or experience about a locale as a background but sometimes it foregrounds the characters and leaves an impression in the mind of the readers and hauntingly fascinating for them even after reading the literary work. Sometimes it reflects the textuality of space as something that is created a fantastic world of imagination outside the Text. But sometimes it brings the reader to enjoy a locale as a real world he has not seen, enjoyed or experienced in his life.

Literature cannot reflect life experiences of the characters without throwing ample light on the significance of the place. Place, as has been suggested, is a central feature of literature in so far as it sets a writer's work within a specific location or milieu without which he cannot echo his character's excitement, emotional turbulence or psychological trauma and cannot evoke his readers curiosity to visualize a place. William Zinsser takes a Similar position when he states that "every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that' somewhere' is (88). Some examples of the use of place in literature are novels. biographies, narratives, and short stories. Place serves as a channel or as a catalyst to transport the reader to somewhere the writer intends him or her to be mentally, and often gives the reader some insight into the history, the terrain, the people, the customs of a community, and so forth. From Milton‟s Pandemonium in Paradise lost, Kafka's

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Metamorphosis to Zora Neale Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine, from John Niehardt‟s Black Elk Speaks to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, readers are aware of the writer's task in creating a land of their own imagination to meet the purpose. If anyone has read Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine, the writer transports him or her to life on southern plantations and at work camps, to churches, and to social events in a manner that brings the reader to the specific locations through written communication.

The place can also evoke an emotional response in the readers as Louise Rosenblatt's thesis states that literature should "arouse the reader's response" (42). The emotional response of the reader cannot be elicited without the writer's use of language in a specific manner and flavour. Richard Wright seems to make this point when he notes that he "strove to master words to make them disappear, to make them important by making them new, to make them melt into a rising spiral of emotional stimuli. . . " (22). Most of the gems in Indian Literature are published in regional languages and that regional flavour and narrative add the real charm to these works. Today regional language authors from diverse backgrounds, writers from rural areas, oppressed castes, minority religion, eco-activists and women are all coming into Indian Literature in a big way, telling new stories from innovative perspective.

Locale and the language of a text have an intricate and intimate connection. It is necessary to examine the use of language and literary tropes in order to discuss the locale of a literary work because the author‟s intent in using certain words or tropes to describe the settings is indicative of a lot of other interpretations. These descriptions say much about the settings and / or the characters who inhabit them. Kerala has carved itself a niche position in the literary circles with its profound contribution to lndian Literature with works that often reflect deep introspection through its unprecedented storylines and ingenious narrative styles. From unsophisticated works of legendary Vaikom Muhammad Basheer to microcosmic narratives of O.V. Vijayan and literatures of present- day writers like K.R. Meera and Benyamin, the novelists have never failed to fascinate both readers and critics alike with their talent of constructing extraordinary fictions. The locale of a literary formation also plays a pivotal role as it is not just a background to narrate the events or actions to take place in the life of the characters but has immense contribution to the development of the plot, theme and characters, it may have a direct effect on a character‟s motivation, it may be directly linked to the mood or meaning of the dialogues and the events, it can create an atmosphere that affects the reader‟s response to the work. Therefore, as amply proved by the innumerable examples from the works of M T Vasudevan Nair, Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai, Malayatoor Ramakrishnan , Benyamin, M Mukundan - locale has its own merit and significance in the world of literature.

II. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR A SUSTAINABLE LIVING

Thakazhi, through brings out the raw life of people who share their entire livelihood with the sea whom they worship as Katalamma. Chemmeen (translated as „Shrimp‟) was published in 1956, and became the first to win the Sahitya Akademi prize. Chemeen delineates the ordinary life of characters through an exquisite panorama of space and time. In fact, the narrative offers a vivid glimpse of the multi- faceted life of the people residing in the villages and small towns of . It shows how their life is guided by the ritualistic thinking and traditional beliefs. However, there are people who challenge the prevalent socio- economic and cultural practices of the place and time to new inaugurate new thinking. Chemmeen captures the cultural canvas of deep south in the coastal region of Travancore. Chemmeen narrates the story of star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of a fishing hamlet in Kerala‟s Alappuzha district. The theme of the novel is a myth among the fisherman communities along the coastal Kerala state in Southern India. The romance between two people of different communities, the breaking of social traditions and how the fishermen community perceives life through long cherished superstitious beliefs are all encapsulated astonishingly in this novel. The events in the gradually developing plot are set in the huts of the fisherfolk who inhabit the Ambalappuzha- Trikkunnapuzha area of coastal Travancore, and the actors are those incredibly brave children of the sea who risk every moment of their lives for a precarious living. The fishing community is a typical group of people geographically located in the coastal areas and have their own distinctive occupational methods. The people belonging to northern Malabar pursue different practices in fishing in comparison to the people belonging to central Kerala.

In fact, towards the southernmost part of the coast, occupational methods of the fishing community still vary. But one thing which is common amidst all the regional differences is the holiness attributed to the sea. To everyone, the sea goddess is Kadalamma. Drawing life fuel from this sea-deity, they love and fear its mysterious depths, where lives the goddess of the sea. She is known as an all-seeing arbiter of their destinies. Her bounty goes to the good; however, for the faithless, she unleashes her ferocious wrath to destroy. The plot of Chemmeen

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020 is built upon one of a myth pertaining to chastity. If the married fisherwoman proves to be unfaithful when her husband goes to sea, the sea Goddess (Kadalamma literally means Mother Sea) will snatch his life. The novel confirms this by showing the tragedy that happens to the two central characters Karuthamma and Pareekutty who are shown to transgress the deep- rooted community beliefs. The story can be reduced to the Karuthamma- Pareekutty- Palani love triangle which is set against the myth of the Kadalamma („goddess of the sea‟) who is Preserver and Destroyer. She is beneficent to the fisherman who leads a life of moral purity; even on the stormiest seas, she guards the fisherman whose wife remains chaste and prays for his safe return while he is at sea. It is not only the man‟s life, but the life of the community as well that hangs upon the moral purity of the woman. The land, or in this context, the seashore, is identified with the woman‟s body because local lore depicts a chaste woman who succeeds in bringing her man back from the jaws of impending death. Chakki reminds her daughter of the unfair yet strict standards to which women are held in their community. The below quote exemplifies the deep-rooted community belief. Chakki states:

In this vast sea, there is much to fear, my daughter, my magale. All of which determines whether a man who goes out to sea will return. And the only thing we can do as women is keep them safe with true minds and bodies. Otherwise, they and their boats will be swallowed up by the undertow. The life of the man who goes out to sea rests in the hands of his woman on the shore. (8)

Chemmeen expresses the aspirations, struggle and grief in the lives of the fisherman of Kerala. The novel pictures the traditions of the fishing village underscoring the fact that when people are abided by certain traditions and customs, peace as well as harmony prevails is preserved. But, when these traditional laws are broken, there ensues discord and danger. Thakazhi uses the fisherman dialect of Malayalam language in Chemmeen. The language used is not even familiar to the ordinary Malayalam speakers.

Thakazhi points out that these local inhabitants are children of the sea known as Arayan, Valakkaran, Mukkavan, Marakkan, and a fifth caste of no particular name. If the sea is happy, she offers wealth in amplitude to everyone. These folks are capable of reading signs from nature. When Karuthamma enters the seashore of Palani, her husband, the entire shore appears strange to her. The hue of the sea differs from her side “Beneath the waves lay a swirl causing treacherous whirlpools. The sands too were coloured differently” (125). Karuthamma bids farewell to her seashore as her father has given her hand to a sturdy and workaholic man Palani. The moment is full of anticipation and apprehension.

Grinding his teeth, Chembankunju roared, „she isn‟t my daughter!” A sobbing Panchami called out, „chechi‟. Nallapennu and Kalikunju stayed with Chakki. Karuthamma walked into her future. Who knew what it would be like? Had she really escaped danger and temptation? No one prayed for her. And so Karuthamma left her familiar shores. Would that song echo on that shore again? Who knows? But there wouldn‟t be anyone to hear it” (121)

At the end of the novel, some sea snakes move on the seashore and the waves come as far as the doorsteps of some houses. This happens after the reunion of the lovers Karuthamma and Pareekutty. This act of betrayal takes about Palani‟s death as well as the death of two lovers. Although Pareekutty is outlawed from entering into wedlock with Karuthamma, he loves her so much that he gives her father all money which he kept to purchase his own boats and nets. Money, wealth and material possessions are of trivial value for Pareekutty if he cannot be with his beloved. Chemmeen has the features of a fable in which everyday living, superstitions, inner beliefs, various traditions and the sufferings of the community of fishermen are portrayed as a way of life with a deep and significant moral. They are indigenous people whose relationship with nature is based on an overpowering spiritual interdependence. It enables them to employ reverence, humility and reciprocity. Their culture conglomerates with nature and they adore Kadalamma, the sea goddess who is considered their food provider and ruling deity. This belief prevents them from the overexploitation of the marine life, thus creating a beautiful balance between nature and man.

III. THE EXTENDED WINTER OF LONELINESS

M.T. Vasudevan Nair, a distinguished presence in the cultural and literary scenario of Kerala is a mastermind who outshines in diverse genres of writing. He is a creative and versatile writer in contemporary Malayalam

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020 literature, and is unique of the masters of post-independence Indian literature. His novella Mist is set in the hill station of Nainital and upholds a melodic note across its narration. The bond between person and place is the most prominent motifs of the novella. With minimal characters and few conversations, the novella narrates the story of Vimala, a school teacher. Her life, and family background, emotional set up etc. are well imprinted. M.T. has diverged from the usual setting of his writings and could wing out from the confines of tharawad into a wonderfully portrayed the picturesque beauty of mist, lake, mountains and Kumaon hills. MT's Nainital has crafted a diverse experience for the readers and they are fascinated by the locale in myriad forms like the lake, the haze and the Kumaon hills and they dreamt to visit the place. Silence and solitude play a very important role in the novella. The novelist remarks that silence does not mean the absence of sounds but the presence of even the minutest sound.

For each time Nainital appears to be fresh, an apt mileu for the lovers with a romantic ambiance. But it is contrasted with Vimala's disgusting experience in her own home where she spent her childhood. She leaves the place soon after her father's cremation to Nainital, seeking a solace to shed off her sorrows. As she says in Mist:

When the bus started to move she felt relieved. She was returning to her own world. Her own world. She could listen to the footsteps of the traveller from the dry parched earth far away, who rushed to her world hungry for the hills, mists, valleys and lakes. Footsteps around her tomb (42).

She later refers to her pathetic plight as a loner when she says, "Here is a prisoner of the years caught in the tomb of the hills (50). Here the place Nainital is intricately interwoven in the minds of the characters. For Vimala it is the place where she first met her lover even though memories of her love haunt her and the pangs of unfulfilled love and desire torture her. It is Nainital's romantic ambiance that evokes the memories of her lover in Vimala and she wants to hide herself in the vague flimsy clouds of mist that floated about like the long- forgotten fragment of a day dream above the lake and the city. For Buddhu the white mist laden Nainital is a reminder of his father, a white man, whereas the cool mist of Nainital reminds the cold numbness of death in Sardarji. Buddhu cannot leave but wait till the arrival of his father. So, the place Nainital itself is a character in the novel where the readers are invited to share the character‟s thoughts about their life, death, frustration and hope.

MT leaves the place Nainital as a character that it lingers in the mind of the readers and is so intimate to them, that they cannot resist but love. The mystic beauty of the place Nainital and the sensuous feeling and solace it offers to the characters through Vimala when she says “As winter faded, the days touched that fantastic world of silver and green with change. In the end some stray patches of snow would be left here and there like flakes of fallen clouds. Faint memories of another winter (22). She is transported to a mystic world where she enjoys “the cool breeze rushed in excitedly to caress her and lingered on in the room” (5). For the readers and the critics Vimala is serving as a container of memories about a locale which she carefully pours to the readers ' mind and moulds them to enjoy the locale with the help of her own experience. The sense of security and comfort that Nainital offers to Vimala is contrasted with the insecurity and discomfort that she suffers in her home. Through this MT exhorts that it is not just a matter of place and persons associated with it that matter but the undefinable impact of the place on human psyche is what really matters. Vimala keeps aloof from her family and homeland as she doesn‟t want to be a witness of her mother's illegal relationship with Alfred Gomaz and that creates an aversion for the place.

MT has explicitly portrayed that in one of the scenes where Vimala looking into the dirty water in a ditch when she sees her mother talking to her lover Alfred Gomaz. That place creates an aversion in the mind of the readers and they also craves for the escape of the character from that place. But they enjoy the beauty of the place Nainital when Sardarji and Vimala foregrounds it in their walking tours. Sardarji visits that place to enjoy the beauty of the locale which he enjoyed once with his beloved before succumb to death and this showcases how the impact of a locale is intricately interwoven in the mind of the characters and thereby leaves a lasting impression in the readers. Sardarji has depicted his intimacy with the place when he says: “l am touring the places l visited before, like the chief accountant of the headquarters checking the year-ending stock! (45)” Vimala looks at Sardarji with awe and wonder, when he tries to climb up the hill without any hesitation, ignoring his disease with fortitude for hugging the mist floated to the abyss below the rocks like a blue veil. Sardarji with an unquenching desire to enjoy the place says: “Let me go up once". She wanted to prevent him. It was risky for a weak man to go on the top of it. But she didn‟t not say anything. He was struggling to climb up. She could see the blood rushing to his cheeks and the beads of sweat on his brow even in the biting cold.

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Standing on the pointed end he looked down. His long loose pants fluttered in the wind. She feared that before her very eyes he would be swept away by the wind like a feathery seed (46).”

Here Vimala showcases the philosophy that a character's mind is intricately bound to the living or lived spaciality which he or she has enjoyed or has entrapped in. Nainital sets a romantic milieu for Vimala to ruminate the bliss of being with Sudhir Kumar Misra which she cannot resist but accept as a reminder or witness of their union. But for the disappointed lovers it is the easy way to death. MT here epitomises that a literary text cannot be interpreted without analysing the subjective side of the objective geography. It is explicitly expressed in Mist when Sardarji asked to Vimala “Why should anybody select a place fit for suicide as a spot for rendezvous? Perhaps the spot where life bloomed must be the one for its destruction too! May be that's it. (45).” It also evokes a sense of beauty and fear together in their mind leaving for a purgation of these emotions

Vimala, Sardarji, and Buddhu is not able to bid farewell to Nainital in Mist as their lives are entangled in the inevitable and irresistible influence of the spaciality on human psyche. Buddhu waits in vain for his white father, who once deserted his mother, hoping that he will come back to that place during the season. When Vimala consoles Buddhu by saying that" He liked your mother, didn't he? He would like this place too. So, he will come back . . . come back." As Lawrence Buell aptly defines "ecocriticism as a study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to the environmental praxis ". MT has deliberately achieved unity of spaciality and temperality in Mist. Time stands still and sometimes it navigates the characters across the borders of spaciality and temporarily in Mist as when Vimala heard the music of Sardarji's iktara she was dragged back to the good old days and enjoys the bliss of being with Sudhir Kumar Misra but suddenly taken aback by the reality and is haunted by the memories of the past. Bakhtin‟s Chronotope theory has envinced that time and space has bound to each other: the way time is employed influences the spatial presentation and vice versa. The space of the present can be represented in relation to memory or functioning as lieu de memorie. The place Nainital also awakes a sense of loss in the mind of the readers and they are also experiencing the trauma of losing someone whom they had loved and lost once. But when she heard somewhere the sounds of laughter, drums and pipes, she imagines a marriage procession and thinks about the bride who is waiting for the bride groom. Here the reader is also transported from the present to the past by shifting the temporality to future in an imaginary world of hope. Here MT has portrayed literature as a part and parcel of human life spent in a continuum of time and space.

Vimala felt her eyes moisten when she hears the sobs of the iktara. Here MT transports the readers to the emotional universe that he has created for the characters. In Mist when Vimala says " the voice of the forgotten girl in the faraway village still echoed in her ears (33)”, MT delineates the philosophy of love and sorrow that can navigate the boarders of time and space. When the unfulfilled dreams of Buddhu and Vimala anxiously hovers over Nainital for their expected persons, the place itself foregrounds to be a character in the mind of the readers rather than a background. It throws ample light on the deliberate attempt of the writer leaving a space for the critic to explore the intricate character-space relationship delicately interwoven in the plot significant in the contours of time and space. Here the delineation of the place remains the task of literary criticism. M.T. Vasudevan Nair has beautifully pictured a moving tale of love and longing in Mist. He offers an excellent reading experience wherein the readers would get the feeling of mist enveloping them, throughout the reading process. The title, Mist complements the plot, theme as well as the setting of the novel. The phenomenon of mist, partially limits the sight of people and makes it unable to see beyond a specific point.

IV. THE POSTCOLONIAL RHYTHMS OF MAYYAZHI

M.Mukundan popularly known in Kerala as Mayyazhiyude Kathakaaran („The storyteller of Mayyazhi‟), is one of the stalwarts of contemporary . His novels, short stories and essays were instrumental in ushering in an interest in modernity in the Malayali academic scenario. Mukundan‟s works are set in Mahe, or Mayyazhi, an erstwhile French colony in Kerala (now a part of the Union Territory of Puducherry) where he grew up. His works demonstrate a preoccupation with colonialism and its aftermath in Mahe. It is not just the colonial situation or the freedom struggle that he engages with. His stories are as much about the colonizers as they are about the colonized. The representation of the socio- political situation prevailing in India after independence is a significant facet of all his novels. The locus of Mukundan‟s novels is not the nation as a whole, but rather, the individual and his everyday life in the turbulent sphere of the nation. The everyday negotiations the postcolonial subject undertakes with the politico-jural domain make for a significant theme in his novels. The configurations of the domestic as the „inner‟ realm of colonial experience feature as central motifs. His protagonists are representatives of the postcolonial nation, entrapped in the machinations of the larger socio-political order which functions in tandem with and at times, in conflict with the domestic. Their

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ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020 everyday negotiations with the domestic as well as the nation form the crux of Mukundan‟s novels. The characters are portrayed as the carriers of the burden of coloniality and the hopes of the new nation, rendering them tragic heroes of colonial and postcolonial modernity.

Mayyazhippuzhayude Theerangalil (On the Banks of the Mayyazhi) delineates the political and social scenario of Mahe, the former French colony with a moving and unique narrative and portrays the veil of darkness as fine as human that lingers the town after the departure of the French in the mind of the natives. The novel and the characters hovers in the mind of the readers, and transverse with an aura of fascination for the banks of Mazhayyi . lt still echoes the unsaid mysterious stories of a land after French invasion to the readers in a subtle and sober way. A wave of nationalism lashed on the banks of Mayyazhi, when a group of determined men decides to release Mayyazhi from the clutches of the French invasion. The hero is a young man called Dasan who was born in French Mahe and educated in Pondicherry. Despite the fact that he was extended to an employment opportunity in the French administration and assistance for higher education in Paris, he rather joins the freedom movement led by Gandhian Kanaran, and is fascinated by communist ideology. A girl called Chandrika falls in love with him, however he can't to promise her a married life because of his commitment to the revolution. A French court sentences Dasan to 12 years of imprisonment, but Dasan away from imprisonment by walking across to the Indian Union. Very soon he returns to Mahe leading a gathering of volunteers and liberates Mahé from foreign rule. The French national flag is taken out and the Indian national flag is hoisted on government buildings. In spite of being a local hero, he struggles for his livelihood as he refuses to accept regular employment and join the mainstream lifestyle. His girlfriend is constrained by her parents to marry another man, so she commits suicide. Dasan also follows her way to reach the abode of the soul on the Velliyamkallu island on the Mahe coast.

The movement gained momentum when Dasan, the promising young man denies his opportunity for higher studies for the renunciation of his homeland Mayyazhi and his sense of nationalism reached its heights when he declares that his pain will be relieved only when Mayyazhi is relieved of its pain and Mayyazhi's fortune is his real fortune. The novel ends leaving the soul of Dasan hovering over the velliyan rock in the sea as a dragon fly as in the folklore waiting for the renunciation of Mayyazhi, his homeland. As Cresswell (1996) points out, “place is now understood to be a universal and trans- historical part of human condition. Mukundan in a seductive melange of native myth and legend unravels the story of Mayyazhi through a poignant narrative and he exports the readers to a magic land where wine flows through the streets like the streets in The Tale of Two Cities and a fascinating land where horses drawn carriages speed by day and night. Mayyazhi is not just the story of a handful of characters but the story of a land its pangs and pathos, its unfulfilled dreams and unquenching thirst for freedom in the wide canvas of a novel.

V. PALIMPSESTS OF THE EXILED IDENTITIES

Benyamin Daniels's Malayalam bestseller Aadu Jeevitham, (2008) translated to English by Joseph Koyippally as was published in the year 2012. Benyamin's novel surpasses many Indian diasporic writings in shedding light on the atrocities faced by labor migrants who journey from India to Gulf countries in search of better employment and monetary avenues. Aadujeevitham, which is based on a real incident, narrates the tale of Najeeb, an economic migrant who reaches the gulf in hopes of supporting his family back in Kerala and is tricked into being a slave of a cruel farm owner, whom he calls Arbab. He is made to spend his days with the animals whom he must bathe, graze and feed. While coming to terms with the heinous conditions at the place, Najeeb realizes that much like his predecessor at the farm, he had indeed lost his humanity and had become “a horrendous animal” (139). Benyamin Goat days is shaped into a poignant narrative of flesh and blood when he met the victim Najeeb and by constantly churning out the dreadful memories of his desert life, “the goat life”, which he relectuntly narrates to the writer out of compulsion. Benyamin carefully narrates the real story of Najeeb without any attempt to sugarcoat or to fluff it up to please the readers. He probes deep into the trauma that the character Najeeb Muhammed and his friend Hakeem experience when they migrate from their homeland to a far-off place called Arabia. The novel portrays the psychological impact of time and space in the lives of characters. Time and space are fundamentally defining elements of existence. Najeeb Muhammed in Goat days nostalgically ruminates his good old days in the home land as an utter contrast to his beastly existence in Arabia, his work place. He poignantly says: I was somewhat aware of the situation I had ended up, and about the nature of my job. I shuddered for a second thinking about becoming a scary figure (62).

When spaciality and temporarily changes, the life and perception of characters also changes, along with the circumstances leaving an inevitable compulsion to compromise. Najeeb who was lavishly wasting water in his home land compromises his cleanliness with a stone after defecation. Benyamin delineates the immense 3387

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020 possibilities of human psyche to compromise is deeply connected with his spaciality through Najeeb Muhammed when he says: I got up, feeling very uneasy had never faced such a predicament in my life. It was almost as if I lived in a river. Without water, nothing happened in my life. Cleanliness had been my ideology. I would get annoyed when Sainu didn‟t bathe twice a day. And I was always in water! But the breaking of all my habits began that day, didn‟t it? The harshest for me was this ban on sanitation. (78).

Thus, the novel Goat days unravels before the readers, the mystery of life that changes with the time and space continuum with compromise evoking a sense of purgation in the readers. Najeeb Muhammed is passionately preserves the nostalgic feelings about his home land that deeply imprinted in his mind. When his homeland stretches as a mirage of solace for him, his work place evokes a sense of undefinable horror in his mind which he cannot subside but suffer and haunts him even after escaping from that place and also evokes a sense of fear and traumatic purgation in the readers. The desert of Arabia leaves a terrific image of the death of his friend Hakeem and it haunts him like a nightmare. It transforms him from a human being to a beast as he says: I ate the wheat with salt . . . I sleep in the masara with goats By then l had indeed become a goat (150). The place Arabia for Najeeb is not a land of beauty but a desert of heat and horror. The poignant narrative also drags the readers to a world of trauma and fear and is different from the land that Sainu has dreamed of when she says "Why Ikka, you are going to a land where everything is available in plenty (41). Aadujeevitham speaks of the oft- unspoken aspect of migrant life, where one is forced to shed all his humanity and self-respect, in order to provide support and sustenance with his family back home.

VI. THE RECREATION OF HERITAGE THROUGH RECOLLECTION

Verukal is a celebrated novel by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan, one of the acclaimed icons of Malayalam literature, originally written in Malayalam in 1966 and translated into English by V. Abdulla as Roots. As the novel is considered as semi-autobiographical, the life and thoughts of the protagonist Raghu, an IAS officer, much resembles that of the author. Roots moves between the two worlds, the past and present lives of the characters. The novel revolves around the protagonist Raghu‟s reminiscence of the past and his mental struggles to take a crucial decision to sell his ancestral property. The story moves forward with Raghu's visit to sell his ancestral property. Like the author he also comes from a Tamil speaking Brahmin family settled in Kerala. The book depicts Raghu‟s journey to his hometown with the intention of selling his ancestral house and property to finance building a colossal mansion in Thiruvananthapuram where he works. He sets about this reluctantly, under pressure from his shrewish and domineering wife, Geetha. There is a transformation within him when he realizes that the native village carries the souls of his grandparents and family and that is the only one thing in this whole world which will never come back if he lost it once and he could never even replace. As Gaston Bachelard says, “in a new house, when memories of other places we have lived in come back to us…comfort ourselves by relieving memories of protection “(6).

His childlike happiness returned when he picked out the rib from the leaf of a coconut palm and started threading it through the flowers which he picked from the ground. His emotional frailty is unveiled when he came across the stalk of the mango tree which was cut down for the cremation of his father. He thinks he does not even have a picture of his father to show his children Ajayan and Suma a picture of their grandfather. Raghu feels his whole body tingled when his brother-in-law tells him about the „gowli pathra‟ coconut tree which he had planted is now yielding fruits in abundance. He could still feel the taste of honey sweet “thenvarkka” jackfruit, sweetness of Saporta which he had stolen when he was in the senior intermediate and sobbed at the silk cotton where he had buried his favorite parrot. When he bathes in the Muvattupuzha river, the stream absorbs fatigue and tensions. He feels the land as not just an item of property, a home and a compound, but an entire tradition. The locale is so intimate to his sister Ammulu, that it creates an emotional turbulence and chaos in her mind. It is a great shock for his sister Lakshmi, as she and her family reside there without giving rent. Malayatoor here depicts the intimacy of the characters with the ancestral home in one way or other. Raghu who, was so adamant in the beginning changed his mind when he realized that the ancestral home is one's own roots and one cannot exist without it. As, Reghu rightly comments “He had an inalienable accord with every grain of sand on that land call it loves, call it affection or attachment. One could formulate any number of intellectual and logical reasons for selling that property. But there was something called emotion! (14).

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Malayatoor has rightly depicted the undefinable intimacy that lies hidden in our veins with the locale where we spend our childhood. When he walked through the home land, a rain of memories rushed to his mind which he cannot resist but welcome and each and every corner of the land evokes a nostalgic feeling in his mind. The memories of those who have died and lived there criticised him and in an apocalyptic moment he finds his roots and decides to build a house in his homeland. The novel gained momentum when Raghu declares: "I'm convinced that this earth is mine, it is the ground in which I have roots (136).” The novel exhorts the unquenched desire of a man or woman to come back to the lap of one's own home land. It evokes a sense of nostalgia and love of homeland in the readers and unravels the mystery of special and temporal relations of human life. Raghu‟s decision to construct the house in the village is the result of his nostalgia about his lineages. He thinks if his dream come true, his wife Geetha could breathe the unpolluted air around Periyar compared to the polluted air around Adyar and his kids Ajayan and Suma would grow up without masks. Malayatoor's Roots establishes a dialogic between the human self and his locale or surrounding. makes us realize not to forget our roots in any way. Roots are the only origin. It is the only answer for our existence in the world as Raghu says: “like the tree, Man‟s self also lives and rests in the roots” (164). The central idea of this novel is that the roots of humans are in our soil and we need to flourish upon it.

VII. CONCLUSION

Thakazhi has transported the readers of the world wide to a narrow space through the wide canvas of a novel Chammeen to witness the love between Karuthamma and Pareekutty that lashed in the shores of Purakkadu beach and unravelled the myth that reigns the life of araya community in that place. The novel transverses beyond the seas and the waves still reverberates in the minds of lovers across the world when it is translated to almost all the lndian and European languages. The sea is the apt milieu that reflects the emotions of the characters with the ups and downs of the tides. MT has hauntingly narrated the story of Mist with the mountain mist as a metaphor of the characters‟ emotions that weave in and out of their lives and the mountain lake with water that lay imprisoned like the time that stands still in the lives of the characters and exports the readers to the land called Nainital which they cannot resist but follow the writer to enjoy the charm of the Kumaon hills with mist laden rocks like a blue veil and to feel the cool numbness of the water imprisoned in the mountain lake like the entangled lives of the characters in Nainital and to hear the echo of the bells of the Naini devi temple that offers a solace and promise to the characters. Mukundan's on the banks of Mayyazhi invites the readers to a land which intoxicate the readers with Karumbi's snuff and enchants them with the myth of Velliyankallu, where the soul‟s hovers like dragons flies for rebirth and echoes in their ears the pangs and pathos of a land after French invasion. Benyamin portrayed two lands in Goat days that had become a part and parcel of the life of the character Najeeb ,one a land of awe and wonder, propelled by a series of hazardous grim and absurd incidents where he had a slave like existence in masara under his inhuman arbab herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert and another his intimate homeland with exquisite landscapes and a loving family .The traumatic experience of Najeeb in the desert evokes a sense of horrific stress and emotional turbulence in the readers and leads to a purgation of these emotions. In Goat days Benyamin places Najeeb perplexed amidst rows of goats undulating like a sea and delineates how the life of the characters transform to complex and sombre set of episodes of compromise and compulsion with a change in space and time. The horror and fear that the desert evoke in the characters when they attempt a hazardous escape from the desert, is portrayed through the flying chameleons, like djinns or ghosts, poisonous snakes, giant tortoises, big lizards, vultures and the readers also experience the horror and fear that the characters suffer in the desert. Malayatoor's Roots transverse to the mystic beauty of the outskirts of Palakkadu and explores the unseen telepathy of a place with its inhabitants. The beauty and virtue of Reghu's village leaves an everlasting bond in the readers with the place and they long to visit or experience the calm and serene rustic life there.

VIII. REFERENCES

Primary Sources

[1] Daniels, Benyamin. Aadujeevitham – Goat days, Translated by Joy Gosney, Penguin Books, 2012. [2] Ramakrishnan, Malayattoor. Verukal, Roots Translated by V. Abdulla, D C Books, 2002. [3] Mukundan, M. Mayyazhippuzhaude Theerangalil - On the banks of Mayyazhi , Translated by Gita Krishnankutty Manas, D C Books, 1974. [4] Sivasankara Pillai, Thakazhi. Chemmeen, Translated by Narayana Menon. Jaico, 2005. [5] Vasudevan Nair, Mist and Creature of Darkness. Orient Longman Limited, 1974.

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Secondary Sources

[6] Bachelard,Gaston. The Poetics of Space, Beacon Press,1994. [7] Cresswell, Tim,In Place/ Out of Place: Geography, ldeology and Transgrassion, U of Minnesota press, 1996. [8] Tuan,Y, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, U of Minneapolis, 1993. [9] Rosenblatt. Louise M. Literature as ExplorationNoble and Noble Publishers, 1968. [10] Wright, Richard. American Hunger. Harper & Row Publishers, 1977 [11] Zinsser. William. On Writing Well. Harper and Row, 1980.

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