Beginning with the days of British rule and stretching up to a few years of independence, Thakshankunnu Swaroopam will make you sit and take full notice of the region’s essence from all perspectives. This is an exciting regaled novel from Kerala about Kerala’s much culturally stimulating region: Thakshankunnu. It doesn’t trace its historical roots in BC or AD centuries with tales of eulogized kings and gods. Rather the novel stays here to narrate stories with a central character Ramar in the limelight and over other 100 characters that lived and died in Malabar’s province Thakshankunnu.

A word of praise – it is a terrific novel with much to delight to all sections of readers that love stories emanating from the sections of our civilization and societies. Thakshankunnu was a region in existence for a long time in the history of Kerala. But gradually it disappeared. This novel captures the lives of tailors, hotel workers, school going kids, coconut harvesters, strangers, doctors, local politicians…that collectively form the population of the region. The author has stitched stories from all people’s lives mostly are downtrodden with no proper evidence of their land while upper cast people constantly dominated their lives and exploited them and their women. The below excerpt sums up the soul of the novel throughout the narrative:

Ramar was reminiscing about the various smells and colours of Kizhur Aarrat. Suddenly, he heard a sound somewhere from the east, “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. Someone was shouting the slogan that meant Victory to Mother India. Ramar guessed it came from near Payyoli Cheerup, the trapdoor-like structure regulating the water flow between the Kuttiadi and Akalapuzha rivers. After a small gap, another shout from the western side, “Britishers Go Back.” It must be from near the Prakkoottam  Pattu  Thara. It was an exciting revelation to Ramar. Even as Ramar wondered who must be walking around shouting these slogans on this  dead cold  night, he heard another, “Down with Janmithvam.”Janmithvam was a type of feudalism prevalent in Kerala, in which the land rights were concentrated in the hands of a few janmis who let out small portions of it their tenants. Janmithvam was the root cause of many social miseries and injustices.

The region wasn’t secluded, though it had tussling dustups among untouchables and upper castes. With Malayalam local terms the novel retains its original charm. Each character has a fascinating sweep and contribution in nudging the story ahead. However Ramar is the prominent one. He overhears gossips, befriends revolutionaries, doctors, and is friend with many. Like many, his life phase story is gripping and inspiring, he witnesses the changes like a baby growing in the premises of their parents’ house. Thakshankunnu was not only his home, region, but his soul. You would love the idiosyncrasy of other characters like Kunhikkelu, the tailor, he was the knower of all affairs in the province.  He would sit with Ramar every evening to talk about the happenings of the Thakshankunnu’s streets and markets and alleys, which always chugged ahead with people and their deeds. Freedom struggle, illegal affairs, communal misbalance and the rise of voice against untouchables and participation in Subhas Chandra’s INA keeps the people chirpy and at times numbed by historic events.

The struggle of people for identity and basic freedom from the evils of society was evident and it ran like banter throughout the story. Originally written in Malayalam, this novel retains its charm through translation. It is one of the original and authentic literature masterpieces on Kerala’s provincial history around Malabar.

The novel beautifully leaps back and forth while shining a light on a politically and socially fractious region from the perspective of over one hundred characters that were in snatches were numbed by their own miseries and drastic changes of the province brought with a passage of time.

With Ramar as starting and ending point of the narrative, the region Thakshankunnu gathers strings of stories fetched from its locals…such a profound and dramatically penned down novel that you will find it hard to resist the urge to follow the footsteps of history in Thakshankunnu.