അടയാളങ്ങൾ - Sethu

In the contemporary Malayalam writers, Sethu is one one the prominent names. His books stand apart in the general melee of publishing. The latest Marupiravi, was also a good attempt. Taking up his 2005 book, which supposed to have won the prestigious 'Vayalar award' in 2006, was with a lot of hope and expectation. However, this book did not live up to the expectation one had on this writer.

Priyamvada Menon is a middle aged HR executive in a respected private firm, living with her college going daughter Neethu. The mother -daughter relationship is that of a close friendship, especially after her seperation from her US residing husband Ranjith Menon. The nasty separation, seemed to have made a lasting impression on the daughter and hence her dependancy on her mother is beyond expression. However, as expected in such a relation, it has to go through the period of distrust and disown. Everything started with a trip to Goa by {Priyamvada on an HR conference, where she presented a paper on the plight of workers at a Sugar Mill in Meenakshipuram. The story of old employees, committing suicide at the age of 59 ( few months prior to their retirement) in order to secure the job to their children, was received with a lot of enthusiasm. She had a lot of fans on her ability to portray a question of ethics and those cases beyond the known HR guidebooks. One of her idea of being at the conference is not only to present her paper, but to meet her mentor Prof.Roy Choudhury. A meeting which did not go too well with her,. She recalls later ' an idol should remain an idol, it should never appear in flesh and blood, demeaning its own values.

The rift between the mother and daughter now increased with them busy with their own life and not willing to concede their position. Adding to this Priyamvada's own struggle at her office, working around a factory modernizing scheme,trying to garner the support of the warring workers were taking her time. Bringing the fiery Meenakshipuram HR lady to her folds , as an assistant at the factory and as a sister to her own life, did not yield the desired calm in her life. However, as it is expected the issues at the official front as well as the home front.

Conflicts in a mother-daughter relationship. At the outset, a standard, cinematic, cliched plot. Except for the clever incorporation of the subplots related to her work as an HR head of a private firm, and the symbolic Meenakshipuram incident, where the employees of a sugar mill commits suicide at the age of 59, in order to get the job to their direct descendant, the book is very very ordinary. The new trends in writing, with working professional women in lead, the independent living, open discussions between parents and kids etc could be a welcome change. Notwithstanding his ability in handling the subject with a good control of language, to me this is not one of those books that stands out in Malayalam literature, irrespective of the numerous awards it is supposed to have won.

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അടയാളങ്ങൾ ( 2005)

Sethu

DC Books

276 Pages

Rs 125
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മറുപിറവി (Marupiravi) - Sethu

Story of the port city of Muziris, is known to most of the school students in kerala. Once a thriving center of trade between Kerala and the rest of the world, the natural port of Muziris lead the way over other towns as the centre of attraction. The pride and popularity of the place is available to us through the 'Sangham Literature'. Partly due to the great flood of of river Periyar in 1341, Muziris was more or less wiped out of the map and newer towns and port cities emerged , Kochazhi ( Kochi) taking prominence.

Even before the celebrated and recorded arrival of Vasco De Gama in 1498, India was engaged in business relationship with the Europeans. However, due to the various political and religious trouble in the Arab world, this path was cut out for the Portuguese , Spanish and Roman kingdom, which resulted in the new route, round the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, thus nullifying the need of Arab support to reach India. However, we later saw the traders turning into colonists and trying to control the continent for their greed. The trade partners turned to be the colonial poweres controlling the assets of this part of the world.

Sethu's celebrated new book on Muziris, looks at the place and surroundings area through the time known to us. From the glory years 2000 odd years before Christ to the 20th century, through the various people and stories of the town. inspired from a recent excavation of the place where the reminds of some of the evidences of the life under influence by the erstwhile Greeko- roman empire, Sethu's protagonist, arrives in his home town from Mumbai to spend his new found free time after retirement. The letter from the professor of Archeology from Tanjavur was indeed an added inspiration. Reaching his hometown from the chaos of the Metro, it did not take long for Aravindan to switch back to the old school boy/college student frame of his homeland. Knitting information and stories from relatives, friends, well wishers and the scientists, it turned out to be natural for Aravindan to pen them down in a piece of paper to keep them for reference. Little did he realise that those tales and stories varied from style , substance and time be the ingredients for a book. The destiny, and the inspiring feedback from those who read his initial pages, got Aravindan to complete what he had begun in Chendamangalam.

Sethu does this mixing of current day protagonists with the everlasting nostalgia of an expatriate for his home to the invented and created possibilities of the tale, to a great effect. As the narration switches between Aravindan and his story which goes from the 'yavana' traders, to the floods to the Paliyam Agitation of 20th century, mixing of myths and recorded history, Sethu crafted a good work of fiction. The parts which is the 'novel within a novel' is more interesting and give justice to the prowess of Sethu as a writer. On the whole, rebuilding history of his town through characters taken from the history and characters invented and crafted on basis of the available information, this is a great attempt.

The style, as discussed, is of double narrative. As Sethu handles his protagonist 'Aravindan' , it is Aravindan who carry the burden of taking the story to the next level. Interesting mix of languages as appropriate to the time and place of narration, the various element of social and religious structure during different time of the era, the subtle undercurrent of the changing social and cultural aspect of Kerala ; Sethu has done the homework well. Despite a few dragging and irrelevant narrative, the book is beautifully crafted and delivered.

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മറുപിറവി ( marupiravi - reincarnation)

Sethu

D C Books

374 Pages

Rs 200
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Reviews : Deccan Chronicle, The Hindu , Interview with Sethu