The Two தமிழ் books (October 2020 Reads #2)

My first Cathartic Tamil Book

A good book should not necessarily discuss about good things. Moral things. Because the things I call moral will never be the same for another person. For example, I say killing is bad. But to a person, whose parents were killed by a guy and he wants to kill that guy, whose only life motivation was revenge, he would consider killing a moral deed.

Of course, killing is bad. But that doesn’t necessarily make a book, that takes and justify the story of that vengeful man, a bad one.

Vela Ramamoorthy’s Kutra Parambarai was one such gem of a book that talks about a tribe whose only job was stealing.

I like to know about grey shades of people more than their other qualities. Because those grey shades were the only true things that people have in themselves. People who identifies their grey shades can escape the reality and practicality of this society. But those who are stubborn to let go of their grey shades were the ones who gets punished by the very society of theirs.

Simply put, being fake and hypocrite is a survival instinct. Prove me wrong!

Kutra Parambarai is one such books that tries to showcase the utter reality of the people who steal for a living. We cannot call them the bad guys because whatever they steal (for example golds, diamonds and so on…), they exchange it for grains and rice. Every 10 chapters in this book had hit me hard with what is right and what is wrong. And how we should see it.

The important thing this book gives away was a simple fact.

There is no such thing as a good thing or bad thing. Morality of an issue gets corrupted when people start getting cunning as fuck!

Except for the glorification sequences, all the other sequences, which tells the folklore and caste indifferences of the people, gave me a mindful catharsis.

I even loved the fantasy story line of Nagamuni. I hated the love story part of it but liked the fantastical element that storyline offered.

I never thought I would read a gory scene in a Tamil book. Be it the Karu Aruppu scene, be it the Vandalising Perunazhi scene, it was like watching a Gasper Noe film. There was one scene where the British police officers were chasing the women of Komboodhi. An officer finds one lady and he start raping her. The events that happened next where very dark and gory. Before this scene, there were chapters dedicated to characterising the mind of that lady being raped. After reading all those side stories and the grasping the character of that lady, this scene put justification to that character.

It showcased how brutal a mind of a widow can be. No one should judge her and if you did (you probably will), then you are as damaged as that Police Mothafucker.

This book had all the elements that I usually love. A fantasy, a mystery, sexual tension between people and most of all – THE BADASS CHARACTERS.

The book made a huge impact on me even after I finished reading the book.

My logs for குற்றப் பரம்பரை are here!

Death of a Writer

After writing Madhorupaagan – One Part Women, writer Perumaal Murugan announced his death as a writer. That hooked me to buy this book. I never spoiled myself reading the controversies that were happened because of this book.

I started reading this book at the end of my vacation.

I never expected this book to be entertaining with a mundane plot.

A husband and wife were so in love with each other. The society and their family destroy their relationship in the end. If this feels like a spoiler. Its not.

I have heard the sorrow and constant belittling of women who were unable to have children. This story explores such kind of tragedy that had befallen on a woman called Ponna. Kaali and Ponna have been a married couple of 12 years. This book explains the problem faced by this couple and how they struggle to overcome them.

As a reader, I can able to grasp not only the story of this book, but also the concept of marriage, we, as a society, believe in.

And what could make one to go to such extent when they were in such a situation. It was explained brutally and mind numbingly in the last pages of this book.

I liked how a character called Nallappan Chithappa had been portrayed. I’ve never read a cool character in a Tamil book before. He was a man of 65 who is single and living a life he wanted to live in a village like that. He never cares about anything and surprisingly, there’s a goodness and clarity to it.

This book was pressed charged because of a ritual the author had talked about in the last pages of this book. I was hoping the ritual should not happen, but it happened anyway.

The story ends with a hysteric Kaali cursing and swearing his wife’s name like anything. After reading this book, the impact was huge to take. I had dreams of those ritual and it was horrific. I can’t even imagine myself to empathise with Kaali.

The irony here is that both Kaali and Ponna’s family were trying to hide about the fact that Ponna was taking part in the ritual. But when it was also the family that supports Kaali to undergo that same kind of ritual (in a different way) to claim his manliness. Kaali refuses thinking about Ponna. Even Ponna didn’t want to do the ritual but her family lied to her that Kaali approved her to take part in the ritual.

After pressing charges, Perumal Murugan, the Author of this book, announced his death as a writer and never wrote anything for the next 6 years. Then the high court ordered him to write and it made him happy it seems. So, he restarted his career as a writer now and had written 2 novels, I guess.

I hope to read all his works someday.