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If it is a Tamil love story then
one may be forgiven for assuming that there would be a lot of
high decibel melodrama. The narrative does not get out of hand
while dealing with emotional scenes, revelations and
confrontations. The characters show almost realistic reactions
to real life situations regarding man-woman relationship. The
woman is not a whore nor is the man a raving mad villain. They
are human beings caught in circumstances they are unable to
understand; and they try to face up to these to the best of
their abilities.
While still
in her early teens, Pavalayi becomes pregnant by her cousin
with whom she used to play around in the fields, while taking
the cattle out for grazing. Her parents quietly get the foetus
aborted and decide to marry her off to Periannan from a nearby
village. Periannan was still a toddler when he lost his
parents to cholera, and was brought up by his grandparents. He
is the sole heir to their property - a few acres of
agricultural land. He is a hard working, honest and well-built
lad. Among his other virtues is his virginity that leaves him
a confused man on the first night. He has absolutely no idea
of his wife’s premarital affair. He loves her immensely.
It takes some
time for Pavalayi to develop a soft corner for her husband -
as she still pines for her first love. She bears him a son.
But fate once again intervenes when Pavalayi goes to her
parents’ home and meets her former lover. Dormant passions
are re-ignited. One secret rendezvous leads to another. She is
unaware that her husband has known her deception. However,
when Pavalayi learns that her lover is struck down with
paralysis and needs her help, she decides to desert her
husband. She confesses her infidelity to Periannan and even
tries to inflame hatred in his heart by calling him impotent.
Periannan,
despite the pain, provocation and seething anger ravaging his
heart, forgives her and lets her go to her lover in peace. She
takes their son with her. Once when Ernest Hemingway was asked
why he had deserted his wife for another woman he retorted,
"Because I am a bastard". Pavalayi or Periannan
shows no such nastiness. Tragedy torments their souls, and
they thrash about to escape it all. Rancor is kept firmly in
check even when provoked to the extreme.
The forlorn
Periannan becomes an emotional and physical wreck. It is not
easy for him to forget the ten blissful years he had spent
with the woman he loves so passionately. It reminds one of
what the English dramatist Francis Beaumont had written in
"The Maid’s Tragedy": "Those have most power
to hurt us that we love".
Raman, the
outcaste servant of Periannan, introduces Thangammal as a farm
hand. Thangammal is a widow belonging to Periannan’s caste
of farmers. Soon the two begin to live together, much to the
village’s chagrin. Since widow re-marriage is taboo,
Thangammal commits suicide when she discovers that she is
pregnant with Periannan’s child. Periannan is left alone
once again. The love square ends in tragedy.
This story
could be from any part of our country. The imagery and syntax
is rustic. The reference to calf in a manger, the building of
nest and its destruction in storm, the birds on the neem tree,
the warmth and strength that the soil gives to a farmer etc.
are some of the examples of universal metaphor from this
narrative. Again, the rustic’s wisdom has come into play on
more than one occasion - be it the quiet abortion of the unwed
Pavalayi, Periannan’s immense patience with his wife’s
treachery, or the need to keep on toiling against all odds.
Yet it is impossible to pass value judgement on Pavalayi. It
is natural for her to yearn for her first love.
What makes
the reader wonder is her unconventional and bold decision to
tend to her paralysed lover. She deserts her husband not out
of lust, but because her lover is helpless and needs her
attention. Thus there is certain non-conformist nobility in
her action.
Chinnappa
Bharathi, the author, is an active member of the CPM. Yet at
least this novel is devoid of the usual leftist rhetoric and
jargon. It reminds one of the works of such progressive
writers as Munshi Premchand wherein protagonists are ordinary
village folks showing extraordinary fortitude and earthy
commonsense while facing the endless vicissitudes of life.
In "Pavalayi"
there is a lot of philosophic dialogue too. Again, it is
imbued with rural simplicity. There is something charming
about this novel. It tugs at your heartstrings. I am sure it
must be much better in its original version. No translation
can do justice to a writer’s efforts. This is not to
denigrate S. Visveswaran’s translation, though it is not
exactly a professional job. I should like to put this novel in
the must read category. It is much closer to the Indian
reality than all the magic-prose stuff that is churned out to
lure western readership.
* * *
Rabindra by
Rajkumari. Writers Workshop, Calcutta. Pages 179. Rs 200.
Poetry has
over the period of time lost its glamour. There was a time
when it was a benchmark for achievements made or to be made by
the civilised society. Poets were respected as trikaaldarshi
or the ones who know the past, the present and the future.
They did not merely narrate the actual happenings. As
Aristotle remarks, "… poetry is something more
philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than
history". The poets’ works were read avidly and quoted
in polite gatherings to display one’s finer tastes. Alas,
all this has changed now. So has the form of poetry. The
formal verse, the ballad, the sonnet et al have been replaced
with free verse. This is not really bad if there is at least
some sort of rhythm and imagery, or something profound.
W. H. Auden
points out that a verbal art like poetry is reflective. For
Mathew Arnold, "…genuine poetry is conceived and
composed in the soul". In this context the book under
review is the work of a person who is spiritually evolved.
Even though Rajkumariwork is free verse and appears to be
prose, it has a certain "soul" within that strives
to reach the depths of spiritualism. She seems to endorse the
philosophical canon that "nothing is real but soul or
spirit; the doctrine that spirit has a real existence apart
from matter; the interpretation of a varied series of abnormal
phenomena as for the most part caused by spiritual beings
acting upon specially sensitive persons or mediums".
In an
interesting experiment, she has not given titles to her poems,
and this anthology contains some poems that begin with the
first line of some verse by Tagore (for example poems one to
five, nine, ten and 27), and then Rajkumari goes on to finish
the poems with her perception. Perhaps that is the reason she
has named her collection "Rabindra". Her quest for
the divine being manifests itself in almost all her
compositions. The poem number 41 goes like this, "A
passing thought, a few words, came - suddenly it was all
swiftness of light/ In only a rhyme so much lay for me, a
radiant mind/ And - God is suddenly mine, in this, this little
thing."
A good read
during solitude.
* * *
HIV
Education and Prevention by Gracious Thomas.Shipra
Publications, Delhi. Pages 252.: Rs 495.
AIDS or
Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome was shrouded in
half-truths and misinformation for a pretty long time. There
was this smug belief that this could never happen in India and
only in the "promiscuous" West or the vulnerable
Africa would this incurable malady strike. It was also
associated with homosexuality and was considered highly
contagious. Though some of the beliefs were partly true, it
was wrong to presume that AIDS would never strike in India.
Today the myth has exploded wshen we learn that in fact India
has one of the largest numbers of people infected with the
human immunodeficiency virus or HIV that causes AIDS.
Says Thomas,
"According to the United Nation’s Programme on HIV/AIDS
India already has more HIV infected people than any other
country in the world…India has the dubious distinction of
becoming the AIDS capital of the 21st century…"
The author
avers that the HIV virus belongs to the family of
retroviruses, which are simple microscopic organisms dependent
on a host for reproduction. It is too fragile to survive for
long outside the human body. Thus it is not contagious and
cannot be passed from one person to another like the influenza
virus. The HIV virus lacks independent metabolism and cannot
grow without energy and nutrients supplied by a host cell. But
despite its fragility, the HIV is "a deadly virus, which
can remain in the body for several years before causing damage
to the immune defence system…"
The author
points out that an infected individual can lead a
"perfectly normal" life for years together.
This book
consists of eight chapters that deal with the detection of the
virus, prevention of infection, identification of vulnerable
groups of people, etc. Chapter seven is especially informative
as it deals with curriculum development on AIDS, sex, and
family life education. It also has a look at the existing
education programme in the country. It cites IGNOU as a model
in this regard.
It is a thought provoking
attempt by Gracious Thomas. This volume will certainly prove
invaluable to educationists as well as to those who want to
have information on the deadly HIV/AIDS phenomenon.
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