Author: Anita Nair
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 316
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143029193
Description
A combination of essays, short stories, poems and extracts from published works both in English and Malayalam-including perennial favourites like Chemmeen and The Legends of Khasak – this anthology affords a tantalizing glimpse into the rich and varied layers of experience that Kerala has to offer.
In this anthology, writers as diverse as Arundhati Roy, Ramachandra Guha, O V Vijayan, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer and Kamala Das combine to bring alive the languid beauty and charged social and political ethos of this tiny state that has been listed as one of the top fifty holiday destinations in the world.
The southernmost part of India was born, it is said, when the mighty Parasurama-sixth avatar of Vishnu – threw his battle axe to carve out the territory that would henceforth be his. And thus begins the story of Kerala, the land of coconut palms (kera), backwaters and lagoons; joyous temple festivals, classical kathakali and ayurvedic healing.
Shashi Tharoor writes of indolent summer vacations spent in his grandmothers, house in a small village in southern Kerala: Alexander Frater captures in mesmerizing prose the spectacle of the dark monsoon clouds as they rush towards the coast, heralding the arrival of the south-west monsoon in India; Pankaj Mishra describes his experience in a no-Indians please seaside hotel in Kovalam.
Salman Rushdie’s evocation of life in Cochin, with its mixed Jewish and Portuguese legacies, brings alive the historical roots of the ancient port city, while William Dalrymple, walking the narrow streets of contemporary Kochi, is surprised by the discovery of a living church of St. Thomas-the first known Christian visitor to these pats. At the other end of the spectrum are Father Alphonse and his band of Villagers in idyllic Mayyazhi, Mukundan’s Mahe, where French and Malayali influences fight for dominance.
Changing lifestyles and the gradual erosion of past values and traditions in favour of a seemingly modern, yet paradoxically conservative society engage the interest of several of the writers featured in this collection. The tempered nostalgia of being a part of the royal family of Thiruvananthapuram, the fierce patriotism of the Gulf-returned Malayali, and the reality of male-female hierarchies in a community that likes to boast of its strong matrilineal traditions make for a bitter-sweet depiction of today’s Kerala where high literacy and excellent health care are balanced by the highest rates of suicide and unemployment in India.
Contents
Introduction
The corridor
Chasing the monsoon
Charles and I
Marthanda Varma
The village before time
Chemmeen
Grandmother's funeral
In search of doubting Thomas
The Blue light
Fool's paradise?
Where everything is different
The first lessons
Butter chicken in Ludhiana
The expanse of imagination
Karkitakam
The voice
Mattancheri in Manhattan
The moor's last sigh
Sesame seeds, flowers, water
The garden of the antlions
Footballer
On the banks of the Mayyazhi
The power of one
God's own country
Hangman's journal
Those were the daze
Ancient Promises
The thief of memories
The mountain that was as flat as a football field on the top
Stalinist and Indian: EMS Namboodiripad
The bonsai tree
Mundu, meesha, kumbha, koda: The sartorial splendour of the Malayali male
The town they come from
The swamp
Notes on contributors
Copyright acknolwdgements