Blackened, by Vinoy Thomas, translated from Malayalam
by Nandakumar K, the story of one man's fervent efforts to discover his roots
and solve his identity crisis is also a fine study of history and anthropology.
It details how ‘migration’ not only changed the circumstances in which human
beings thrived but changed them as well, shaping our history. It highlights how the
journey, a constant and a long one, added labels to us making us overlook the
basic fact that we are all Homo sapiens, who evolved from apes, roamed lands as
hunters and food gatherers before settling down to till the land.
The Adhikarathil family in Malabar, Kerala, a prosperous and venerated Christian family boasts of a rich history. Its origin traced to the union of a Persian man and an upper-caste Namboodri woman lent it an air of superiority and an honour that had to be safeguarded, apart from leaving its members fair-skinned. And, born into this family, Eranimose, the dark-skinned one, sticks out like a sore thumb. The humiliation he suffers due to his skin colour makes him suspect his parentage, wonder about his caste and sends him to Karikkottakkary (inhabited by dark-skinned, lower caste people/Pulayas newly converted to Christianity) for answers. On an arduous quest, he learns that ‘history is a collection of conjectures and beliefs’ before secrets his family hid from him to avoid shame are revealed.
Over the past few days, I have been mulling about how meaningless or hollow is the pride we take in our cultural identity and roots, our faith/religion, our caste identity, our complexion/racial superiority when we forget the primeval trait - humanity that defines and unifies us. There couldn't have been a better time to read this book, one that shows how a chain of migration, wave of conversion redefines who we are over years.
Sharing some lines from the book that will stay with me -
“What am I? Who is my God? Forefathers whose thirst is slaked by the blood of black fowl split on the sacrificial rock ? Or the taste of flour that dissolves on my tongue in the shape of a sanctified white disc, who is my God? Why this life? Offspring of an illicit relationship. Living as a parasite in a noble family, uncounted as a member of any clan, humiliated, how far was this life going to drag me on?” (from chapter 9)
“In the nights, as I lay beneath the mango tree, I had visions of the past, as vast and infinite as the sky. Like the stars, the lighted spots were few and far between. It was filled with darkness. Darkness was the truth-the moans and laments and clanking of the chains of those overlooked in the dark underbelly of history.” (From chapter 7)
A slim but dense read, Blackened packs a lot
of Kerala’s social and political history, caste hierarchy and its belief
systems. The traditions followed during the holy week starting from Palm Sunday
to Easter, recipe for INRI appam, hunting fish in the Chaitra Vahini stream, hunting boars in hills of Sulya, the beauty of the land with its fauna and flora are all detailed with an astonishing clarity that the text doesn't feel
like a translation. There’s a sizeable character set, each one with a role to
play. There is free flow of sex and lust, some of it helps steer the story forward,
some clearly feels unnecessary. The foreword by author S Hareesh is
enlightening.
A thought-provoking read that highlights how one's past helps understand his/her present, a book that is as much about history as about the contemporary, Blackened deserves a wide readership and the translation so brilliantly done by Nandakumar K ensures just that.
