...therefore I am

Nowadays I exit from the mundane realities of day to day life and experience the thrill of existence by reading and writing.The inexplicable pleasures of reading without any predetermined purpose have come back after decades with the the same intensity that I experienced during my school days in the 1960s when everyday I ran about 3kms to and fro crossing the vast expanse of the Madaippara for returning the book I read the previous day and to collect a new one from the Kasturba Smaraka Grandhalyam at Vengara(Kannur).I remember those good old days not with a sense of terrible loss but an unbearable pain arising from the thought how much eager and innocent was I in those days.Life has familiarised me with all the evil tricks of this world;I have lost enthusiasm in almost all the happenings in contemporay politics and learnt to be insensitive to many a social issues.To a great extent I am disinterested even in my personal wellbeing.My mind is at presnt a rocky vastness in more than one sense.But I yearn to get this vastness filled in a heavy downpour of emotions and urges so far totally unfamiliar to me.Hence the name Rock Pond for this blog.Of course I can't forget the red wattled lapwings whom I used to see nearby the rock ponds of Madaippara.They were the most fascinating organic delights of my childhood.That is why I made them perch on the address bar.

Random notes

For a Turkish reader 'The Museum of Innocence' may mean a great many things.It may be a grand carnival of memories and emotions for him/her.But I found it to be an overwritten novel.Where or in which layer that overwriting has taken place is not easy to point out because the overall structure is that much imposingly built displaying wonderfully great creativity and craftsmanship.Perhaps an ideological reading may liberate the reader from the hypnotic effect of the work so as to enable him/her to have a more meaningful understanding of it.Any how one thing could be said without any doubt:The statement in the blurb that 'The Museum of Innocence is Orhan Pamuk’s greatest achievement' is not in the immediate vicinity of truth.

Random notes

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I am really ashamed to state that I write this note after casting my votes in the panchayat election before an hour.Participation in the process of democracy should elate self respect in a citizen.Otherwise he/she will cut a sorry figure before his/her conscience.Now I remeber 'SEEING'the great political parody of Jose Saramago.With what a strong political vision and insight Saramago wrote that novel!

Random notes

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In kerala directing a drama has become an activity of utter nonsense.Almost all the young generation directors take the stand that a drama on the stage should only be a cunning assemblage of visual images capable of creating wonderment in the audience.Script,for them, is only bundle of papers something scribbled upon which could be thrown to wastepaper basket at anytime.This has spoiled the Malayalam Drama as a whole and because the serious audience could not make a choice between this nonsense and the artless commercial shows using the label of drama this medium is withering away without anyone to weep upon it's tragic plight.

Random notes

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A FEW MORE WORDS ABOUT 'TIGER HILLS'

We know that many of the characters in great classical works are more real than real men and women.They share their ontological agonies and sharp edged moral dilemmas with every new generation or to put it in the words of Umberto Eco readers of every generation 'make emotional investments on them.'
Devi and Devanna of 'Tiger Hills'are of a different sort.They are simple human beings.Their existential issues and tensions are not multidimensional.They never come out freely from the limitations of 'Family Drama'.But the possibilities hidden in them to be raised to the heights of classical characters are reminded on several occassions and that itself is a commendable merit of the work.
I was deeply touched by a statement made by Dr.Ramaswamy,one of the many insignificant characters in the novel.When Devi asked him 'Why?Why Devanna?'meaning why Devanna became a prey to the brutal rage of Martin Thomas without any apparent reason Dr.Ramaswamy sighed absently rubbing the edge of his stethescope against his sleeve."Who can say madam?Sometimes it would seem,we are simply cast in the path of misfotune."Dr.Ramaswamy's words do not have great philosophical connotations.But the tragedy in Devanna's life could not be defined better and I felt a burden over my heart akin to that I had experienced in many a similar situations in life.

Random notes

8
Most of the scholars are like feudal landlords.For them knowledge is either like acquired wealth or inherited property which gives them the authority to advise,scold and punish others who undergo the innumerable pains and problems inseparable from any sort of creative writing,painting and the like.Even the spirit of genuine research is beyond their comprehension.The greed and haste of these scholars to exhibit their insolence is repusively ugly.

SARITA MANDANNA'S 'TIGER HILLS'

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Sarita Mandanna’s debut novel 'Tiger Hills' is not a great literary work . It has many shortcomings.The diction is often loaded with sterile phrases and usages. Characterization lacks density in many situations. Narration also is at times disappointingly flat and crude. These are all totally adverse comments,Iknow.But the fact remains that I enjoyed reading the novel. I have an irrational love for everything related to coorg.The landscape of Coorg always gives me the feeling that my soul really belongs to this mystic land.When I get down at Veerajpet or Gonikoppa from Thalassery Mysore bus and move a few steps to interior areas I feel as if reaching back the land of my childhood left far behind.'Tiger Hills' gave me that indescribable and infatuating experience.'Tiger Hills' is even otherwise a literary work which can legitimate it’s being without such personal considerations on the part of readers like me.It takes you to so many nuances of coorg life and landscape The period described in the novel extends only upto the fourth decade of 20th century.But the incidents and details along which the plot moves forward take with them the ethos of present day coorg life, with wonderful ease.And of course there are some unique elements in the construction of plot and in the depiction of some areas of the inner life of characters.These things deserve detailed discussion and anaysis.Irresponsible comments like ‘Tiger Hills is nothing but a triangular love story’ ,should not be taken seriously.In grading the novel people may take diametrically opposite stands.That is a different thing.The inner thirsts, agony and pleasures of creativity quite explicit in this work ,of course, demand serious conideration from readers.In future writers with deeper insight and strong visions may spring up from Coorg.We can expect works with far more literay merit from them.But 'Tiger Hills' will continue to attract generations of readers.The cretive usage of ethnic and anthropological details of Coorg in the novel will always be a great source of inspiration for many and the memory of several dramatic and tragic situations in the novel may haunt them for years.I keep Sarita Mandanna’s novel in my shelf in between M.N.Sreenivas’ Religion and Society among the coorgs of South India,a really invaluable cultural study and Kavery Nambeesan’s Scent of Pepper the novel which has every right to claim a unique position among all the writings on Coorg life.