Wooden Cow

 

Book Review 

‘Almost anything makes me laugh’, says Ammani, the protagonist of Wooden Cow written by T Janakiraman, translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Kannan. Her only laughter-free moments are those she spends in front of a mirror, moments of self-introspection.

Wooden Cow is Ammani’s life journey rendered from her POV. The book comprises of two sections and the first one delineates Ammani's growth from a sensitive, precocious child to a headstrong, confident young woman. She moves from her birthplace, Annavasal to her father’s elder brother’s (Periyappa's) house in Kumbakonam, then to Madras at Gopali’s behest, all in pursuit of higher education. Gopali, an immensely talented Carnatic singer from Ammani’s village, is a philanderer who cares a hoot for moral codes & Ammani is smitten by his extraordinary singing and child-like charm. 

In the 2nd section, Ammani, now well-trained in dance travels worldwide for concerts and leads a hedonistic, comfortable life in Madras under Gopali’s aegis. She flits in and out of many relationships including a serious one with Gopali’s nephew, Pattabhi and even spurns his marriage proposal. It’s baffling when she says, “Would he understand if I were to say that I wish to live with all men in the world like a wife, if only for a moment ?” 

What makes Ammani reject marriage as bourgeois? Why is she stubbornly irreverent, disdainful of social proprieties even in face of censure?  

As reasons unravel, we realize the author gives us a very powerful female protagonist in Ammani who defies every convention on which the edifice of society is built. From her childhood, she is intolerant to injustice and courts a few controversies for being vocal in her protests against it. She's an incarnation of contrasts as revealed beautifully in how she perceives sunlight scattered on the floor- ‘in dots like the hide of a dappled deer and at other times, it growled like the hide of a leopard’. 

Audience everywhere applaud her dance performances but she only wonders 'Why did she dance? Why did people get impressed and give her a standing ovation even when she found her performance jaded? She describes how mundane the art form (maybe life itself) gets over time saying - ''When you dance publicly for the first time it is fear, dancing the second time is courage, dancing the third time is habit , if there is anything new the fourth time , it's entirely one's imagination. The fifth time, it is boring. From then on it's just like an ox going round and round at the oil press. I hate it."

Though Ammani dons a tough exterior, is admired and derided equally by people around her for her life choices, the author reveals her vulnerabilities with sensitivity, portraying a sense of loneliness, a silent fear of ageing gnawing at her with this line - 'On records it is 38, face is 48 and white hair like 78'. The title of the book makes complete sense towards the end of the read through Ammani's ruminations. 

The prose brims with physicality, but is never obscene as the author explores man-woman relationships, both deliciously fleeting and long-lasting ones (the latter through Maragatham and Pachiappan, a married couple who work for Ammani but are like her friends). What's sacred and profane, he lets the readers analyze. He subtly mocks the war-waging rich and powerful nations and armchair communists. He bulldozes orthodox practices of the Tamil Brahmin community, especially ones related to widowhood.  

The narrative working like 'staccato beats' at places attempts to distract us but Ammani's complexity manages to hold our attention.

A brilliant classic from an iconoclastic writer!

About the Author 

T Janakiraman, popularly known as Thi Jaa, belonged to the Manikkodi group of writers that heralded modernist trends in Tamil literature. These writers laid more  emphasis on the psychological exploration of their characters and made mundane everyday existence engaging. 

Thi Jaa focused on everyday lives of middle-class families in small towns of Tamil Nadu, wrote about simple pleasures, tragedies, free-willed and resilient women, lives marked by difficult and uncommon choices, all with complete honesty.  

About the translator and this edition

Wooden Cow originally published as Marappasu was first serialized in the monthly Kanaiyazhi and later published as a book by Meenakshi Puthakalayam in the year 1975. Translated for the first time by Lakshmi Kannan in 1979, a second edition was released in 2021 to mark the author’s birth centenary. Lakshmi Kannan has reworked to ensure the translation in the second edition doesn't feel archaic. 

The edition available on Kindle is the 1979 edition. The second edition (as shown in pictures here) boasts of an introduction by Anita Balakrishnan that provides a astute analysis of the book, better savored at the end of the novel.

Thi Jaa hailed from Thanjavur and knowing many acquaintances from the region, I have to admit that the half spoken innuendos, cultural idioms, subtle mockery and linguistic devices used are pretty impossible to translate into English. Despite best efforts, a loss in translation is inevitable and it is evident too. That said, accolades to the translator who has taken up the daunting task not once but twice just for the sake of us readers, sincere thanks to her for her efforts!