Uravidangal by Jayamohan: Sources of an Uncompromised Writer

I wrote a Malayalam write up also about the book here.

I've already read two Malayalam novels by Jayamohan: 'Nooru Simhasanangal' (A Hundred Thrones) and 'Maadan Moksham’ (Salvation of Maadan). Both of them converse directly with the hearts of their readers. I found in them a style of story telling in its most unadorned and uncompromising manner, which hits its target very hard. Normally Malayalam has a very curved style of narration, just like its script. It makes its point in a very soft way, taking care of not hitting any soft spots of the reader. But Jayamohan refuses to be anything other than straight. 'Uravidangal' is a collection of his autobiographical notes that makes us aware of the reason why his writing turned out so. 

In the book foreword, Kalpatta Narayanan writes about how in logging camps the most difficult logs are left out for Tamilian laborers to handle. Like that, Jayamohan takes out the issues that are the most difficult and disturbing for an average Malayalam writer to handle. You find this quality in 'Nooru Simhasanangal', where the cast issue, which still lies at the heart of our society, is put forth in the most brutal manner possible by depicting the life of a woman of an oppressed caste who finds it impossible to adjust to modern-day life. 

In 'Uravidangal', you find the source of this angst of the writer to expose the carefully submerged evilness inside us, in the life shared between his parents. We find in his extremely oafish but loving father the signs of a change from matrilineal to a patriarchal society. It's not a very old change, but in today's world, when we hear about the writer's grandmother who changed three of her husbands because she could, we wonder if it's true. In five parts, the book discloses the different, though interconnected, sources of the writer's inspiration. His parents, ancestors, his village, its history, geography, and folklore—everything interacts with time and presents in the writer the sources and inspiration for his writing. 

'Uravidangal' is the writings of a man who is residing at the borders and who possesses every angst and alienation that such a life offers. It is the history of literature that burst out of its sources and broke every obstacle on the way to enter its readers consciences permanently.