Daiva

 

Spirits and totems, their worship, divine possession, ritual dances and songs to venerate spirits - different regions of India, even different countries of the world boast of a huge repertoire of stories on these subjects. Hari Kumar’s Daiva explores the above in a small region called Tulunadu extending from Udupi in Karnataka to Kasaragod in Kerala in Southwest India, the land of his ancestors. There is no doubt the movie Kantara that popularized ‘Bhutakola’ in most Indian households is a big reason for my picking the book, with my experience of watching ‘Theyyam’ as a child in my maternal grandmother’s village in North Kerala being a bigger force.

With a clear disclaimer that the book is not an academic treatise or a critical analysis, the author neither a practicing expert nor a scholar on the subject, the first part of the book is dedicated to understanding the pulse of Tulunadu - the myth behind the land's creation, the cultural practices, languages spoken in this verdant green, bountiful land. Keeping it simple to start with by defining kola, the ritual dance used to express reverence to spirit deities (Satyolu) and seek counsel from them ; paaddanas, a manifestation of the folk song genre transmitted orally down generations, the author adds bulk defining myriad Tulu terms like nema, daiva, bhuta (not Hindi term Bhoot meaning ghosts), nudi. He explains a bhutakola in great detail- the attire, headgear, mask of the artist, preparations before a kola commences, how it begins, progresses and ends etc.

 
The second part of the book compiles folklore surrounding these spirit deities, stories of the immensely popular Panjruli daiva, sibling deities - Kallurti and Kalkuda, valorous warrior spirits Koti Chennaya, Pilichandi (the tiger spirit), Siri, the spirit for women, fierce Guliga & more. For every spirit deity, the daiva araadhane or the kola is different and thanks to the world connected via web, there are videos of each bhutakola to enhance the understanding of the written word here. When we read the folktales of these spirit deities with minor variations due to the different local flavours, we see women getting married at the young age of 7 and several instances where caste practices strictly adhered to. Though these may invite the reader's contempt for the society being archaic and orthodox, just a little scratching beneath the superficial details will reveal how most of the venerated deities are women or lower caste folks who have risen above the oppression they faced.

Sharing some favourite lines from the book - 

"Circumstances sometimes turn believers into non-believers and non-believers into staunch believers. Let it be. In the end, we truly do not know where we are heading. Not even the most commercial spiritual leader can give you the right answer without hiding behind the veil of faith. But what impresses me most about daiva aaradhane is the fact that people, whether working in air-conditioned cubicles in top tech companies or hustling in the humid lanes of faraway cities, every year, thousands of them flock to their native places in Tulu Nadu to witness traditional jaatre, aarat, kola, nema, etc. Such traditions have kept the otherwise divided society bound by the ethereal thread of faith."

The author's passion, devotion and fascination for the subject is evident not only in the introduction where he discusses how the book happened but shines all along. Tighter editing and more structure in the contents would have enriched the reading experience. What may just seem like skimming the top layer of information for a Tuluva reader may be pretty cumbersome for a person who doesn't have a connect with the culture. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, it is said; how this book works varies for a believer & for a skeptic, but for both, it clearly has lots to offer.

Books Read in Nov 2024

November came along with a good number of hashtags that helped me read a little more than usual. The past few months have been really stressful, emotionally draining and books have become more essential than ever to preserve my sanity and health. 

Stress reading is just as real as stress eating. I don't think one should feel jealous at the appetite of a person who binge eats due to stress, and likewise, this little space with books that I share, to help me stay sane in really hard times shouldn't evoke envy, I feel. Stress has worked both ways for me - either I haven't read at all or I have read lots, but at the end of the day, it's a fact that I have looked up to books as extremely reliable, very faithful and silent companions that absorb a lot of my stress and leave me with a sense of calm. They have helped me in ways that human beings cannot. This preface before proceeding to the list of reads, I felt, is important, I hope it will help cut some negativity.

List of Reads for the month of November

Short Story Singles (in the order I liked, from most to least) 

• Half Truths and Semi Miracles by Anne Tyler 
• The Tale of the Unknown Island by Jose Saramago, tr from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
• The Cathedral by Raymond Carver 
• The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman, tr from Swedish by Elizabeth DeNoma
• The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman

Novellas 

• Unmoored by Ramachandran Usha, tr from Tamil by Krupa Ge 
• Hidden Treasure by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, tr from Bengali by Ipsa S 
• The Hour between Dog and Wolf by Silke Scheuermann, tr from German by Lucy Jones

The last one is a title I read for #germanlitmonth. I was happy to learn about #novellanovember hashtag as well.

Novels

• The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin, tr from Korean by Clare Richards
• The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, tr from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood
• Sixty is the New Assassin by Shesh (I read a crime mystery after a long time) 

For #NonfictionNovember 

• Daiva by K.Hari Kumar 

For #graphicnovelreadlong 

• The Lighthouse by Paco Roca, tr from Spanish by Jeff Whitman
• The House by Paco Roca, tr from Spanish by Andrea Rosenberg

Books Read in Oct 2024

 

Books read in Oct 2024 

1. The Go-Between and other stories, by Ghanshyam Desai, tr from Gujarati by Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal 

2. Bhava by UR Ananthamurthy, tr from Kannada by Judith Kroll with the author 

3. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood 

4. The Music of Life / A Life's Music by Andreï Makine , tr from French by Geoffrey Strachan

5. The Door to Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn, tr from German by Melody Shaw 

6. Cold nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü,  tr from Turkish by Maureen Freely 

7. Pink Slime by Fernanda Trías, tr from Spanish by Heather Cleary 

8. Lootaloot by Baburao Bagul, tr from Marathi by Manav Kambli

The Go-Between and Other Stories

 

The go-between and other stories by Ghanshyam Desai, translated from Gujarati by Aban Mukharji and Tulsi Vatsal is a collection of 21 stories taken from the author's collections - Tolu and Bandh Barna, spanning years 1964-2005. 

In most stories, the men lead frustrated lives, they are unable to take a firm stand and blame themselves for being cowardly. Some suspect their wives, their envy and suspicion gnaw at their insides and push them to either murderous thoughts or suicidal. Stories ‘Revenge’, ‘Yet Again’ , ‘Between Two Breaths’ and ‘God's Good Man’ are some stories based on this subject. The element of irony is pronounced in stories ‘Home of One's Own’ and ‘Our Beloved has Come ..’. Violence has a prominent place in many stories here, the first story ‘Plugging the Leak’ portrays domestic violence from which a woman has no escape. In ‘The Chameleon’ and ‘The Crow’, the writing unleashes violence potently, not directly but by using metaphor. 

Most stories end in a finite set of possibilities, popping a what-if question. Emotions of opposite kinds collide, a faint smile plays on lips even when the eyes are wet with tears, a man wishes to scream after losing his beloved wife but his young children stifle his screams and sobs and force him to laugh out loud. Somehow, this reminded me of how we are told to add a tiny pinch of salt to sweet dishes and a little sprinkle of sugar to any salty/spicy dish while cooking.

Most characters are trapped in their past, in memories/ dreaming about happy times, while their present is dreadful and the future bleak. The spectrum of emotions covered is largely dark and negative which intrigued me, made me to learn more about the author. But not much is known about him except that he was a modernist, experimental short story writer, the editor of Navneet Samarpan magazine and his children’s story collection received the Gujarati Sahitya Akademi Award. The translation allowed a smooth reading experience. Enjoyed reading this collection.

A Post for the International Translation Day

 

“How is the translation?”, is a question we are routinely asked when we finish a work of translated literature. Books translated into English from non-Indian languages enjoy a sort of ‘diplomatic immunity’ from this scrutiny that books translated from Indian languages cannot escape. This oft-asked question made me want to do a small exercise in reading a book in the original (in the Indian language it is written in) and comparing it with its English translation. I am equipped to do this only in Hindi, a language I can read, write and speak well. 

Though Tamil is my mother tongue, my choice of languages during school days robbed me off an opportunity to learn how to read/write in it. Malayalam is another language that I can speak well but cannot read/write. When I read an English translation from any of these 3 languages, if the book speaks back to me in my head in the source language, I am content. Author Jahnavi Barua mentions this as a yardstick to assess the translation quality in her introduction to the book Taniya by Arupa Patangia Kalita, tr from Assamese by Meenaxi Barkotoki. With an overflowing list of books waiting to be read and inertia from not having read a sizeable text in Hindi for more than a decade, I stayed away from this exercise I intended to do. But when my son's school lessons gave me a little chance, I readily grabbed it. 

I read Mahadevi Varma’s Mera Parivaar, tr from Hindi by Ruth Vanita two years back and a chapter on Neelu, the dog features in my son's Hindi textbook. I found the translation wholesome and extremely faithful to the original text, barring only a minor instance where the translator has taken creative liberty to add an extra line. 

Local terms or imprint of a dialect cannot be efficiently or flawlessly transposed into English, yet undeterred by skepticism/criticism that's inevitably attached with the process of translation, the efforts of translators to build sustainable bridges between languages deserves accolades. May we have more literature from across the world available in translation, may the names of translators feature prominently on book covers. Happy reading! 

Some thoughts on #internationaltranslationday :)

Books Read in Sep 2024

 

Books read in September 2024

1. Termush by Sven Holm, translated from Danish by Sylvia Clayton

2. Chinese Whiskers by Pallavi Aiyar

3. A Bouquet of Dead Flowers : stories by Swadesh Deepak, translated from Hindi by Pratik Kanjilal, Nirupama Dutt, Sukant Deepak and Jerry Pinto

4. Iconic Trees of India by S Natesh, illustrated by Sagar Bhowmick

Books read in August 2024

 

August was a very bad month on personal (health) front but I am glad that books worked as a source of solace and distraction in really tough times. Below are the titles I read during the month - 

1. Won't You Stay, Radhika? by Usha Priyamvada, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell.

2. Hellfire by Leesa Gazi translated from Bengali by Shabnam Nadiya

3. Not a River by Selva Almada, translated from Spanish by Annie McDermott

4. Reunion by Fred Uhlman

5. A Melody in Mysore by Shruthi Rao

6. Glass Bottom by Sonali Prasad

7. The Blight and seven short stories by Bitan Chakraborty, translated from Bengali by Malathi Mukherjee

Books Read in July 2024

 

Books I read in July 2024 

1. A Person is a Prayer by Ammar Kalia

2. Dukhi Dadiba and the Irony of Fate by Dadi Edulji Taraporewala, translated from Gujarati by Tulsi Vatsal and Aban Mukherji

 

3. The Eighteenth Parallel by Ashokamitran, translated from Tamil by Gomathi Narayanan

4. Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, translated from German by Joel Rotenberg

 

5.What does Israel fear from Palestine? by Raja Shehadeh

6. Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari

7. Vaadivaasal by CS Chellappa, translated from Tamil by N Kalyan Raman

8. Global (a graphic novel) by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin , illustrated by Giovanni Rigano

Chronicle of An Hour and A Half

 

A fictional village in Kerala, an illicit affair where the man (Burhan) is 15 years younger than the woman (Reyhana), salacious village gossip that stokes wild action and raw emotion on WhatsApp, a crowd that turns into a frenzied mob intent on punishing and setting the ‘wrong’ right - this roughly summarizes Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari’s Chronicle of an Hour and a Half; not just a chronicle of mass hysteria and mob lynching but a searing account of the world/times we live in - one that defies Newton's Third Law - where first the reaction is decided upon and readied and then the action is fabricated/blown out of proportion to match the reaction, a world that avenges something that never happened, a world where imagined hurt (more often than real hurt) rules emotions, seeks solace and demands action from/on the Internet, a world full of self-righteous sinners.

Before you dismiss this work as a bleak portrayal of our world in the name of glorifying reality, let me tell you that the author sheds light on many aspects of our life through his sizeable array of characters. Very few portray women and their problems with a clarity as sharp and fierce as the author. Reyhana terms her husband as an uxorious leech at the start, and the ‘why’ sinks in, in the final chapter. Nabeesumma, Burhan's mother can be hailed as a powerful woman for all she endures over years since her marriage but the author meekly points out that calling such women strong is only as farcical as hailing people stepping out to work a day after floods or terrorist attacks ravage a city as resilient, because do they even have a ‘choice’?

If the author openly shows what plagues women in our society, he shows the problems men face in a quiet, understated fashion. In a book that liberally gives space to Chinnan and Ashraf who ‘see’ problematic things, even to their wives and kids, the author doesn't leave a single chapter in Burhan’s name, the man who is mangled to death by the mob. This deliberate omission of voice spells clearly how gender stereotypes and social conventions not just affect women but men too. While Burhan faces an acute punishment, Reyhana suffers chronically, her honour besmirched for life for the same trouble they idly walked into. Now when both women and men suffer in different ways, the debate on whose suffering is ‘greater’ only seems pointless. Through Shahid and his conversations with his father, the author lends space to men who sacrificed a decent married life for toiling away in the Gulf countries and the widely accepted definition of ‘masculinity’. Through Najeeb Maash, the writer airs views, easily tagged as blasphemous in parts of the world. Through Funny, his son, he shows how mobile phones can aid, if not bowel movement, moral depravity. For all the love that North Kerala harbours for communism, Che Guevara and Argentinian & Brazilian soccer, a clear Latin American influence can be felt in the writing - it’s raw, graphic and reeks of violence.

I read this ‘much praised’ book a week back even though I got a copy of it right after its release. I loved discussing it with Bhavna with whom both planned and impromptu buddy reads have been special and fun. Taking time to pick the book, I thought, will rid me of a hyper critical eye. With a fair exposure to literature from Kerala, about 80 pages in, the vast array of characters, an illicit affair at the heart of the plot, men objectifying women, it all felt formulaic even though the writing and atmosphere build-up were top notch. But as I progressed, I quietly concluded that the book deserves all the praise and attention heaped on it, I was left with no other option.

Books Read in June 2024

 

Books I read in June 2024 - 

1. The Many Lives of Pauloma Chattopadhyay by Devangi Bhatt, translated from Gujarati by Mudra Joshi
2. In the Cafe of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano, translated from French by Chris Clarke
3. Mahasena by Kala Krishnan
4. Theivanai by Kala Krishnan (both books 3 and 4 are part 1 and 2 of The Murugan Trilogy)
5. A Speck of Coal Dust by Rohit Manchanda
6. Nocturne Pondicherry : Stories by Ari Gautier, translated from French by Roopam Singh

Books Read in May 2024

 

I began my reading for the month of May with a collection of short stories not aware that May is popular as the Short Story month. I always love short stories, they always help me to keep some reading going on. They helped me more than ever in May which was messy, super busy, broadly a month with more lows than highs and happy days.

Below are the books I read - 

Short Stories Collections:

•  Selected short stories of Jainendra Kumar, compiled by Pradeep Kumar, translated from Hindi by Ravi Nandan Sinha 
• The Keeper of Desolation: Stories by Chandan Pandey, translated from Hindi by Sayari Debnath

I also finished reading half of the collection (first five of total ten) Kuttiedathi and other Stories by MT Vasudevan Nair, translated from Malayalam by V Abdulla. I re-read two stories from one of my favorite collections - Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanishk Tharoor. 

Novels

• Roots by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan, translated from Malayalam by V Abdulla
• The Moon and the Bonfires by Cesare Pavese, translated from Italian by Tim Parks
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Non Fiction 

• Hold on to your Dreams - A Letter to Young Friends by Ruskin Bond.

The Keeper of Desolation : Stories

 

The Keeper of Desolation by Chandan Pandey, translated from Hindi by Sayari Debnath is a collection of 9 stories, stories that reveal a yawning gap between the rich and poor, those who wield power/authority and the common man, between dreams and reality, what's spoken and unspoken. And, it does this leaving a slim gap between fact and fiction, the surreal feels almost real.

For instance, in ‘Wound’, we are reminded of many instances where shoes have been hurled at politicians/eminent persons by frustrated commoners. In this story, an illustrator working for a magazine has his intentions and actions questioned by the top management for drawing pictures of shoes. ‘The Junction’ germinates from a mob lynching and a death in train when a man refuses to make space for another. For the intense farmer strikes that rocked the nation, farmers’ woes find a place in 'The Mathematics of Necessity’ where a farmer writes a letter to the PM of India requesting him to provide a more humane formula for calculating interest over loans. While this story feels light with wit and mild sarcasm, the staggeringly high interest rates that leave people in debt hanging from a precipice is dealt with in a deeply affecting fashion in ‘The Alphabet of Grass’. The starkly disproportionate power play (not the powerplay of cricket) unfolds in the titular story and this feels like a farce. Interrogation of some sort features in a couple of stories here - but a very menacing one in the story ‘The Land was Ours’ leaves a deep impact.

It is said that short stories are small windows to the outside world. What when these windows are shape-shifters, what when we readers have been pushing these windows for a view of the world only to realize that they should be pulled in to open. Chandan Pandey's stories present a knotty affair at many places that we readers learn to disentangle. The writing here is clever, convoluted. The translation by Sayari Debnath, so fine and erudite, makes the reading wholesome. In fact, there are many places where we wonder how the original lines in Hindi would have been. For instance, an entire paragraph in the story 'The Keeper of Desolation' that begins like this - "This town survived on a mountain of information. For example, B knew A well, and although B's relationship with C was tenuous, C was convinced for this reason ... E took D to F. F and D were on their way .."

In these stories, the socio-political issues are juxtaposed with personal strife, tender with brutal and stark with subtle. The corrupt who turn a lie into truth by repeating it a thousand times straight-faced and vice versa propel many stories here. The ideas of freedom and democracy are only a joke under despotic rulers, only silently buckling under the weight of very real 'oppressor -oppressed' existence. 

That the author portrays women as ethereally beautiful objects meant for man’s desire and lust irked me at times, but this isn’t unrealistic. A woman's waist chain pattern comes under close scrutiny in one story and in another, a man feels like kissing the pomegranate shaped, red mouth of a lady DM officer who's questioning him. 

The Harper Perennial editions usually have an 'insights' section at the book's end, I am a little disappointed that it’s absent here. These minor niggles aside, The Keeper of Desolation unravels truths we have lived with for years, some that we have even turned a blind eye to, thanks to our privilege.

A wonderful collection of very immersive and essential, thought-provoking stories!

Sharing some favorite lines from the stories below-

“The powerful want just this to happen, for shoes to be rained on them. And that is why we should not hit them with real shoes. The day the police and criminals bigger than them come over to your side, you may but anyone you want with shoes without any fear.”

“After all, one way of fighting life was to arrest the present in the neat cages of calendar dates"

(From the story Wound)

“What were the heights to which we could soar or the depths to which we could sink in our wonderful lives? We were not targeting the bullseye. We were so caught up in the pettiness of everyday existence that the real wonders of life were passing us by - and we were acutely aware of this loss.” (From the story The Junction)

"When I visited him (him referring to the editor of a newspaper), I found him writing two articles, one with each hand. With his left hand he was writing about the necessity of land grabbing, and with the other one, a condemnation of the act. Wah, I thought, what an intellectual!" (from the story - The Mathematics of Necessity)

Books Read in April 2024

 

Books I read in April 2024 - 

1. Where God Began by Appadurai Muttulingam, translated from Tamil by Kavitha Muralidharan 

2. An Island by Karen Jennings 

3. Water by John Boyne 

4. Life Was Here Somewhere ; Stories by Ajeet Cour, translated from Punjabi by the author & Minoo Manocha 

5. Fool Bahadur by Jayanath Pati, translated from Magahi by Abhay K

(Also, a Short Story single - Tiger King by Kalki, tr from Tamil by Gowri Ramnarayan)

Fool Bahadur

Fool Bahadur, a classic, a novella by Jayanath Pati, translated from Magahi by Abhay K was my last read for the month of April. Yes, this is the first book translated from the Magahi language. Spoken in about 9 districts of Bihar that lie to the south of Ganges & east of river Son, in Jharkhand and West Bengal too, Magahi revered as the sacred language of Buddhism, the official language of Maurya and Gupta empires, quietly slipped into an oblivion over time despite its 20 million speakers.

Fool Bahadur is a satirical take on the rampant corruption in every tier of bureaucracy/judiciary, on people in positions of power demanding favours of all kinds, people mollycoddling their superiors so that they can climb up the hierarchy or receive awards. Set during the British Raj in India, the book begins in 1911 at a railway station where Babu Samlal, a mukhtar (a legal practitioner in a lower court in India during the British Raj), is waiting to receive Maulavi Mojjafer Nawab, the new SDO of Bihar Sharif, the capital of Bihar then. Samlal yearns to get the title of ‘Rai Bahadur’. He knows he doesn't merit it, thus has a plan to coax the SDO into bestowing the honour upon him. The local courtesan Naseeban is a major instrument in his plans. But the circle officer, Haldar Singh who treats Naseeban as his mistress is an impediment. Does Samlal manage to get the coveted title of Rai Bahadur or does his plan go kaput?

In an unscrupulous world, one where corruption and exploitation is rife in corridors of power, Fool Bahadur is a timeless classic. But, in detailing the bureaucratic structure, sections of law, the officers/their roles during the British Raj, it feels restricted, like a period-piece.

The very insightful introductory note (40 pages long) on Magahi language and its literature, on Magadha region in Bihar and its rich history and cultural heritage, penned by the translator Abhay K amply reveals his zeal for his mother tongue. He reminded me of ‘The Man who Talked to Walls’ to preserve his mother tongue from dying in a story by Appadurai Muttulingam. 

Notes:

The first edition of the book Fool Bahadur, the second novel of the author Jayanath Pati, was published on April 1, 1928 , the April Fool's day. This day has significance in the story too. The cover of the first edition had an image of the joker dressed in a western suit with a bell in his right hand and a paper cut out in his left hand. The cut out had the book title in large font on it and below it was written - not meant for women and children, which only meant that women and children were not permitted to read novels at that time. Coincidentally, the calendar image for April at my home had an image of a joker on it and I found it fit to click a pic with the book. The cover of this book is designed by Ahlawat Gunjan.

(A copy of the book was obtained from the publisher in exchange for a review)

Books Read in March 2024

 

Two books for young readers, four novels and four short stories collections - these make my tally for March 2024 reads, definitely more than what I thought I would manage at the start of the month. March was 'messy' with my parents' health issues that have been surfacing quite often now, a bad bout of flu that left me weak. The last month of my kid's academic year meant end-year projects and exams lined up, demanding more of my time and attention. A more rigorous routine meant more sincere intent to read :) 

I am happy that a good chunk of these are translated literature (from Kannada, Telugu, Arabic, German and Swedish). 

Short Stories Collections 

1. Mayadevi's London Yatra - New and selected stories by Bulbul Sharma 

2. Instruments of Torture by Aparna Sanyal

3. The Hippo Girl and other stories by Shah Tazrian Ashrafi

4. Cracked Glass jar and other stories by Chandralata, translated from Telugu by CLL Jayaprada

Novels

1. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, tr from German by Charlotte Collins 

2.The Old woman and the River by Ismail Fahd Ismail, tr from Arabic by Sophia Vasalou

3, Sakina's Kiss by Vivek Shanbagh, tr from Kannada by Srinath Perur

4. The Singularity by Balsam Karam, tr from Swedish by Saskia Vogel

Books for Young Readers 

1. Stitch by Padraig Kenny

2. Mehar's World of Colours by Arti Sonthalia

Sakina's Kiss

 

“Who knew what unsaid things deep inside found expression in a vote?” 

With the 2024 Indian general election in sight, reading Sakina’s Kiss by Vivek Shanbhag, translated from Kannada by Srinath Perur felt well-timed.

Venkat and Viji’s comfortable, rather ‘ordinary’ life as their college-going daughter Rekha calls it with disinterest, is ruffled up when Rekha goes missing when returning home from a visit to Venkat’s village. Her college mates (males) and local goons visiting her house, insisting they talk to her urgently prior to the news of her disappearance spikes worries. Rekha comes back home safe but Venkat, like us readers, has a lot to decode and mull about.

A crisp picture of today’s society, centered about an urban nuclear family, Sakina’s Kiss in the guise of a thriller touches upon many issues - moral righteousness, misogyny, patriarchy, insurmountable challenges of parenting, ‘women empowerment’ that is easier to preach but hard to practice, its interpretation that many women feel begins by taming the men at home.

For its myriad topics, it isn’t ‘ghachar ghochar’ (meaning messy) for it is well written (translated) and taut with the exception of the last two chapters where it felt languorous. Pegged between Venkat’s father who is annoyed when his wife’s younger brother writes all his letters addressed to her, ‘How will anyone know who Sundari is?’ he smirks and Venkat’s wife who openly threatens to leave him if he casts his vote for a misogynistic politician, the narrative flows revealing how times have changed, at least in some ways.

Sakina’s Kiss upset me with its characters. Venkat irked me, either with his complacence or cowardice. The only time he felt he reined in was during his honeymoon and this gave me creeps. Rekha is a wild child who believes anarchy is synonymous with freedom. Most daughters and mothers share a special bond but Viji, ganging up with Rekha & ousting Venkat every single time, felt toxic. Venkat elicits a little pity, then I remember it’s all his POV and doubt if my reaction is unwarranted. 

Important messages but tepid characters - that is my one line summary for the book.

Books Read in February 2024

 

My February reading began with a graphic novel, The Pig Flip by Joshy Benedict, translated from Malayalam by KK Muralidharan. An Indian graphic novel, translated from an Indian language makes it one of a kind. I added two more illustrated books, specially meant for young readers to my kitty - The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Sophie Blackall and Paper Boat Paper Bird by David Almond, illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman. Also, added two more, very slim picture books- Shelter by Celine Claire, illustrated by Qin Leng and Olwen finds her wings by Nora Surojegin, illustrated by Pirkko Surojegin.

Other reads for the month include - 

Silk by Alessandro Baricco, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein

The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay, tr from French by Sheila Fischman (for February in France)

The Secret of the Blue Glass by Tomiko Inui, tr from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori

Under the Bakul Tree by Mrinal Kalita, tr from Assamese by Partha Pratim Goswami

The Patient in Bed Number 12 by Rajkamal Jha 

Eden Abandoned : The Story of Lilith by Shinie Antony

Postcard from the Lushai Brigade by Hannah Lalhlanpuii

And cannot end the month's reading without a collection of short stories - Stories for winter : and Nights by the Fire (British Library Women Writers)

A wholesome reading month where I earnestly set aside a lot of my time to read as much as possible, knowing fully well that March is exam time for kid at school , April and May, the summer holiday months will have really spare or nil reading too.

Eden Abandoned - The Story of Lilith

 

“I am Lilith. Made not with commonplace, pedestrian sperm and egg, but by God’s own hand. I am the very first woman, before even Eve’s time.” Eden Abandoned by Shinie Antony is the story of Lilith, the putative first wife of the first man on the Earth (Adam) who left Eden as curiosity was her biggest vice, her inability to nod ‘yes’, her biggest defect. 

Crafted by God himself, she asserted she came second but wasn’t secondary, she wasn’t going to take anything lying down. A fallen wife, an OG rebel, a seductress and stealer of sperms, a baby killer, if Lilith stood for unrestrained rage, desire and promiscuity, Eve who replaces her, crafted from Adam’s rib embodied prudery, piety. If Eve loved to walk in Adam’s shadow, Lilith loved to hold a mirror to Adam.

“In order to make one man unspecial, you must make many men special” and Lilith does everything egregious to rip Adam off her life, but does she manage to? She earns the tag of a historic villainess, she’s omitted from the Bible and Torah, neither the Aramaic nor the Tower of Babel mention her, can she be resurrected as a modern day heroine? Read this slim book, just about the size of a smartphone, and brainstorm!

In Eden Abandoned, the gravitas is in the words. Shinie Antony’s raw, unbridled power in writing fits Lilith well like a glove that you sit back and wonder who fuels who. For instance, Lilith's love for the colour red is beautifully conveyed in lines below - 

"Red was going to be my colour. The red of my times was different from yours. Our red came from stone sparking stone, from fireworks trapped in uncut rubies, from trees blossoming in menstrual hues, from the evening brocade the sun sews around Earth, from the last light of a dying star."

There are little nuggets of wisdom too - " A good partner I tell you is the yeast in your bread loaves". "Happiness is nowhere as melodramatic as dawning of sense, rebuilding yourself one sinew at a time. Happiness is so damn quiet that the happy often don’t know they are happy until they are unhappy." 

But this linguistic sleight of hand gets arduous at places, especially in the last few chapters where things slow down and we begin to ruminate if Lilith is weighed down by guilt, loneliness, repentance before it is proved we are entirely wrong in the last page of the book.

There is no denying that Eden Abandoned takes patriarchy head on but as with any ‘-ism’, it espouses rebelling just for the sake of rebelling, trashes contentment as a flaw and bashes those who don't align, as in this instance - “What a pathetic woman a wife is. Seeking shade in her husband’s shadow. Doomed to be in awe of him ..”

Women who have questioned/refused to bow to male agency have always had it tough. Their fiery independence is seen as heresy by many. Lilith’s journey is no different. From a person of flesh and blood to becoming a memory erased, as chapters countdown from 13 to 0, this mini firecracker of a book goes bang!, quite loud & clear.

Rating 3.75 stars - As a feminist mythological retelling of a character hitherto unknown to most of us, I liked reading this book. I would rate it 4 stars because I believe one needs to tread a middle path between supporting extremes -complete, unadulterated independence/anarchy and servility. The final rating falls shorter for the writing feels arduous at places to navigate despite being potent. 

(A copy of the book was obtained from the publisher in return for a honest review)

Books read in January 2024

 

Below are the books/titles I read in January 2024 - 

For January in Japan, a hashtag, a beautiful initiative on Instagram, (I have been reading for the last few years), I read the four titles below this time -

Mountains, Radio Waves and a Love Letter- Days of Adventure on the Evergreen Ranch by Shinji Yoshikawa 

The Forest Brims Over by Maru Ayase, translated from Japanese by Haydn Trowell 

Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa, translated from Japanese by Alison Watts 

The Three Cornered World by Natsume Soseki, translated from Japanese by Alan Turney

Other novels read include -

I read a book translated from language Afrikaans for the first time - A Good Night for Shooting Zombies by Jaco Jacobs, translated by Obus Geldenhuys, illustrated by Jim Tierney. 

Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil left a deep impression. 

I cannot have a month without a fair share of short stories. I read a collection of stories, two short story singles available on Amazon Free Prime reading and four singles from Mint Lounge - lounge fiction special. 

Short Stories

A Fine Thread by B Jeyamohan, translated from Tamil by Jegadeesh Kumar 

Amazon Original Stories -

A Planned Occasion by Angie Kim 

Days Before Us by Sejal Badani 

From Mint Lounge - 

The Bleeding Flowers - Linthoi Chanu 

Paper Boat - Manoj Rupda, translated from Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Unni Nair and Sumathi by Manu Bhattathiri

Just Friends by Shastri Akella

Maria, Just Maria

 

“It's not a question of belief, Appacha. It's a question of belonging. It's about being with people we know, in a place we are familiar with. A place where we belong because of who we are, no matter what we do in our lives”. For Maria who thinks real life is boring and madness might add a bit of interest to it, does such a place exist in real life or is it only in dreams?

Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary, translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil begins at a psychiatric hospital where Maria is being treated. From a sensitive, precocious & innocent child to an adult in 30s, struggling to live, Maria's journey unfolds in a non-linear fashion for the scatterbrain she is.

The youngest of four children, Maria is cast aside as an avoidable extra. She grows up at Kottarathil Veedu, her ancestral house. Geevarghese, her maternal grandfather (Appachan) who equals her in craziness is her best buddy. 

“What is the point in living without knowing the history of your own family and your ancestors?” says Appachan and we are regaled with stories of a plethora of colorful characters who sprawl like a banyan. Of ancestors, uncles and aunts, of an ancestor who was an outstanding magician, of Appachan's grandmother who aced prophesying, of Appachan's father whose temptation of finding a place in heaven superseded all other temptations, Appachan's own life story about his friends, his wife, his children and even of a saint who inspired his name, the stories here are aplenty. Chandi, the dog and Ammini, the parrot add an interesting anthropomorphic element.

Largely from Maria and her Appachan’s POV, through foibles of characters here, the author holds a mirror to our world that cannot think beyond binaries - haves & have nots, First world & Third world, normal-abnormal; a digital world that runs only on 0s & 1s, one that kneads, stretches and snips people to fit them into readymade moulds. Even though this sounds heavy, the author writes in an unshowy, funny manner balancing tragedy and comedy. If Maria's conversations with Karthav (Christ) are hilarious, her situation when she eventually moves in with her parents & siblings tears our heart asunder. The vast array of characters may leave us readers complaining, but the author makes sure that she enables our understanding of Maria, our becoming more tolerant to those who are widely different from us.

In a discussion between the author and the translator shared in the insights section at the end of the novel, the translator quotes Edith Grossman - “A translation can be faithful to tone and intention, to meaning. It can rarely be faithful to words or syntax, for these are peculiar to specific languages and are not transferable.” Jayasree Kalathil’s translation does this for there’s a little something that shifts in us at the end of the novel. Maria’s declension, her simple options for a happily ever after which feel hard to attain in this world moves us to tears. An activist-researcher in the field of mental health and human rights, author of ‘The Sackcloth Man’, there’s no one more fitting than Jayasree Kalathil who can translate this work. Fighting standard definitions of who’s a success and who’s a wastrel, or even wondering who discovered time is a thing to be used, this pretty unique novel instills in us, if not empathy, a restraint in terming someone struggling to live as mad. The cover design by Aashim Raj and the cover illustration by Nupur Panemangalore do complete justice to the story. 

Can't this world be a little more inclusive? This is the question we are left with at the end of this moving novel, the story of Maria who misplaced a few years of her life, or should we just say, the story of Maria, Just Maria.

A Fine Thread and Other Stories

 

A collection of sixteen stories, A Fine Thread and other stories by Tamil author Jeyamohan, translated by Jegadeesh Kumar, stands as a testament to the author's opinion that a writer shouldn't have a single political/ideological stand, for many stories in this collection feature a fierce clash of opposing perspectives. Debating on what's real and what’s an illusion, what's reverent and blasphemous, packed with accessorial information that make the reader think beyond the plot and the characters, Jeyamohan's stories pulsate with energy.

Though the collection has a somber start with ‘Ocean’s Nearby’ , it hits a crescendo with ‘Bubbles’, where a wife intends to get a breast augmentation surgery done against her husband's wishes. What happens when Mahatma Gandhi meets the Pulayar leader, Ayyankali for the first time, their imagined conversation makes up the story ‘A Fine Thread’. Curse/sin and atonement are at the center of stories ‘Shadow Crow’ and ‘Brother's Shadow’. While the former is light in tone with a man atoning for his grandfather’s mistake, the latter holds you by the scruff of your neck, sends a chill down your spine where a man suffering from schizophrenia fails to atone for a grave sin he committed. ‘The Angel’ traces a story in pre-independence Nigeria and subtly superimposes it over India at the end. What happens at the foot of Mt Yasur volcano almost over a century after the artist Charles Frazer witnessed a cannibal feast here has our complete attention in the story ‘The Volcanic Torch’.

A machine that erases a select portion of history, an attar seller from Maraikayyar community whose fortunes rose and ebbed like tides, a young man who turns jubilant when the girl he silently adores for three years comes up and talks to him; from small towns and quaint villages near Kanyakumari and Nagercoil in India to Nigeria, then to Russia in 1917 and to the Tanna island in South Pacific Ocean in Vanuatu Republic; from portrayal of casual misogyny at workplace to how injustice and oppression foments violence, how scientific research is stifled by mediocre top level officials - in themes, in locales, in emotions evoked and thoughts left behind in the end, the range in these stories is spectacular and breathtaking. A whirlwind of a collection!

Endnotes on Author and Translator - 

The author's body of work includes more than 300 short stories, volumes of literary criticism, travelogues, landmark novels like Venmurasu, Kotravai, Vishnupuram, Pinthodarum Nizhalin Kural (from which three excerpts feature in this collection). The writer of dialogues in Tamil for Mani Ratnam's movies PS 1 and PS 2 is another  feather to his cap. I usually tend to think of probable lines in the original when I read works translated from Tamil (my mother tongue). When a translation allows me this, I am content. For many stories here, I was fully involved in absorbing the arguments presented by the author. The supplementary details packed in these stories also sent me on mini Google search assignments that I skipped this thinking back in Tamil exercise, Jegadeesh Kumar's translation never once impeded my reading process. Thanks to his translation effort, these stories are now available to readers across the world. 

Some Thoughts After Reading Kalki's Works

 

Kalki R Krishnamurthy wrote Parthiban Kanavu (Parthiban's Dream in translation), the sequel to Sivakamiyin Sabatham (Sivakami's Vow in English) first. Serialized in his magazine in 1941, Parthiban Kanavu was a stupendous success. Sivakamiyin Sabatham was serialized later between 1944-46. It is noteworthy that in Nandini Vijayaraghavan’s translation, Parthiban's Dream saw the light of the day first. And staying faithful to the chronological order, I read the sequel work first.

Sivakami's Vow published by Penguin India, the entire novel is split into four volumes

A page from Parthiban's Dream, the sequel to Sivakami's Vow.
Published by Ratna Books, this book boasts of beautiful, monochromatic illustrations by Gopulu Sir,
a popular cartoonist for many Tamil weekly. These illustrations clearly elevate the reading experience.

Both these novels amply highlight the adverse impact of war, the toll it takes on lives and environment for generations, a much needed reminder in today's world. That religion and politics make a highly inflammable combination is another area of focus. Kalki brought to life the reign of Pallavas, Cholas and Chalukyas, even Cheras and Pandyas, in his works at a time when the Internet didn't exist. His descriptions compelled people to visit or dream about Mamallapuram, Kanchi, Ajanta caves and Badami. Top notch characterization, portrayal of romance with an old world charm, a multitude of twists involving shrewd spies, able military commanders, masquerading kings, valorous common men, many promises to keep - these two works share many similarities between them. However, it one difference between them that stood out for me and will stay with me. Even when we adore our parents for the way they brought us up and mostly agree with their approach, there’s a part of us that refuses to be like them when we become a parent ourselves. We consciously steer away from how they would have thought or acted, vowing to make a change for our children.

At the end of Sivakami's Vow, it's the fate of two star-crossed lovers - Narasimha Pallavar and Sivakami, her unrequited love that leaves us teary eyed. When I finished reading the book last December, I grasped entirely why emperor Narasimha Pallavar did everything he did in Parthiban's Dream, quite unlike his father and predecessor Mahendra Pallavar, to aid the fruition of his dear daughter Kundavai's dream. In getting Kundavai married to her lover Vikraman, may be Narasimha Pallavar healed a little part of his broken self. First as a father who wants his daughter to be happy, and then a dutiful monarch, he won my heart many times over in Parthiban's Dream.