BOOK REVIEW Where the Rain is Born: Writings About Kerala Edited by Anita Nair.


A great deal of effort has been expended to bring together "voices that haven't succumbed to the sheer beauty of Kerala and who have been able to decipher, if not appreciate, the conundrum that Kerala is”, such a collection would simply be uncritically welcomed. Therefore, it's with sincere delight that one finds the compilation of writings on Kerala appealingly named 'Where the Rain is Born' and abridged by Bangalore's own Keralite, Anita Nair. This anthology of writings gives the greenhorn a peek into the contradictory medley that is “Gods Own Country”-Kerala.

Swerving away from a coffee table book with succulent photo-snaps or a travel account that showcases the State's overcooked riches, snake-boat races, ayurvedic havens, Kathakali, the compilation is a well thought-out blend of culture, geography, social issues, history, and examples from its affluent literary customs. This collection is made  special because  the articles are descriptions of eminent authors like Pankaj Mishra, Arundhati Roy, David Davidar and several more and their lucid memories of  ‘Gods own country’. In addition to each author recording a dissimilar subject, the book carefully covers the societal ethos and cultural of this small state packed with inspiring splendor. As of stories of upbringing and harking back to the account if passionate patriotism of a homecoming of a war hero Malayali, the ‘no Indians please’ restaurant on the seashore Kovalam beach and many more wide-ranging description brings forth the altering times, traditions and customs and amidst the steady effort to cling on their roots in one way or the other, this compilation gives a accomplished account the state, its bygones and the current.

A tantalizing mix of expected, unexpected and really unexpected names make up a list of thirty four writers in the table of contents. Consequently, even as one discerns that the voices of Kamala Das, Vasudevan Nair, Basheer or Vijayan OV are destined to be told in 'Where the Rain is Born', and one is pleasingly astounded to meet the likes of a Salman Rushdie: speaking in ‘The Moor's Last Sigh’. Every one of them coalesce to fetch alive the languorous exquisiteness and electric political and social culture of this miniature state that has been listed as one of the top 50 vacation destinations in the world.

Malayali cuisine revels in multi-course delicacies, a carefully orchestrated menu designed to soothe, tickle, seduce and excite the taste buds - and visually stimulating, served on fresh green plantain leaves. In this book, too, there are many savories. Suresh Menon, in his piece, The Voice, has written about his individual reminiscences on Yesudas, his esteem for the singer well founded and evident. His tenderly mocking annotations about a Keralite demonstrate that they have arrived of age, their legendary haughtiness giving way to a capability to laugh at themselves.

Jayanth Kodakani, in his reflective and analytical essay ,'The Expanse of Imagination',  scrutinizes notions such as walls and freedom, through Basheer's story, Walls, and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's filmy portraying of it, added with Kodakani's childhood recollections.  “Fool’s Paradise?" by Ammu Joseph is regarding women in the state, although very unlike is just as lucid. The article has the merit of being one of the few that unambiguously writes of the women's aspect of life in Kerala. She highlights her feminist sympathies in this commentary which is very eye opening to anybody who is under the delusion that the Kerala's matrilineal structure or its much tom tommed literacy rate has unshackled the states’ women. Essay, Stalinist & Indian: E.M.S. Namboodiripad, by Ramachandra Guha presumes that the Indian Marxist is a vanishing clan, and therefore to be deliberated and documented.

“Charlis and I’’, an anecdotal story by Shashi Tharoor from his book ’’India: From Midnight to Millennium’’ is among the best of the lot. Shashi Tharoor recalls of his laid-back summer holidays spent in his grandmother’s abode in a little town in south Kerala. Alexander Frater portrays in gripping text the manifestation of the shadowy monsoon clouds as they dash towards the shore, proclaiming the onset of the southwest torrential rain in Kerala. Pankaj Misra depicts his encounter in a “No-Indians please” beach restaurant in Kovalam. Salman Rushdie’s aura of existence in Cochin, with its assorted Portuguese  and Jewish legacies, conveys alive the past roots of the antique seaport city, whilst Dalyrmple, walking the tapered lanes of modern-day Kochi, is startled by the unearthing of a existing church of St Thomas ; the foremost recognized Christian guest to these regions. In other end of the spectrum are Father Alphonse and his posse of villagers in tranquil Mayyazhi, Mukundan’s Mahe, where Malayali and French influences clash for preeminence.

The books’ renditions from the Malayalam are appetizingly lucid, in austere English that very successfully encapsulates the setting recommended by the language, with its vernacularisms. The dissimilarity, consequently, additionally accentuates Surendran CP’s labored English, his insecure writing style pushing for outcome so that individuals lose some of that legitimate confined class. However, Lalitambika Antharajanam's powerfully private address to her deceased mother, which conveys into incisive spotlight a Namboodiri woman's position in the initial decades of the previous century, demonstrates a pleasant counterpoint to Ammu Joseph's commentary, the consequence of latest study. The addition of The Bonsai Tree by Davidar appears mislaid in this anthology, evocative neither of backdrop or its population.

The assuaged melancholy of being a part of the imperial family of Travancore, the intense partisanship of the “Gulf returned” Malayalee, and the actuality of man-woman hierarchies in a society that is keen to brag of its robust matrilineal customs make for a ironic portrayal of today’s Kerala where soaring literacy rates and exceptional health care are equalized by the maximum rates of unemployment and suicide in our nation. Also, apart from that MT’s ’’Karkidakam’’, ’’The Garden of Antlions’’ by Bangalore based Paul Zacharia - all are real gem of stories. In addition, Geetha Doctor's "Mundu, meesha, kumbha koda: The sartorial splendour of the Malayalee male" is a mirthful and vastly intuitive piece of text on the quintessential Malayalee man, his idiosyncrasies and ways of life. Scrupulously pleasant, it is unquestionably one of the most readable texts in the paperback.

“Where the Rain is Born” is not all text, there are some poems, by Balachandran Chiliad, Ayyappan Panikker, Kamala Das and Jeet Thayil. Yet even as Chullikad's poetry is distinctive of the brand of writing which is widespread among the famed, as you flip through the book, there are so many assortments and a preponderance of appealing writing.

            Changing styles of life and the measured attrition of past principles and customs in favor of an apparently advanced, yet contradictory traditional culture take on the attention of a number of authors figuring in this anthology. All the same, not every one of these authors live up to one's  expectations  which perhaps maybe is unfair and the book's stated goal of writing about the under the surface of the Kerala feel is forgotten as too many exact description of the  psychosomatic and emotive ground of the Malayalee emerge habitually.

 ‘Where the Rain is Born’ comes as a winner, the reason is that you don't have to be a "certain" class of individual to take pleasure in the articles in this book and that's positively one of the pleasant things in relation to it. An amalgamation of essays, extracts, short stories and poems from published books both in Malayalam and English: counting perpetual favorites like The Legends of Khasak and Chemmeen: this collection provides an alluring peek into the opulent and assorted tiers of feelings that Kerala has to offer. The collection is suitable for anyone who is intent on savoring Kerala in smaller amounts, in a multiplicity of writing techniques and standpoints. Consumed entirety, it unquestionably deepens in the reader the distinctive flavor of Kerala and its people's local spirit.