Just completed this, the first of 20 or so tamil books that i bought in chennai recently. one word - awesome.
it is a story of a type, yet to be told, in our community, afaik. ie the travails of a man needing to find a wife. it is a common phenomenon these days, of recent (10 years?) origin, and all indications based on population idea culture shifts, only to grow more acute in the coming years and generations. especially if we hold on to our caste loyalties, as we appear to, now.
back to kangaNam. the story is about marimuthu, 35 years old and unmarried. he has seen over 15 or so girls, and for reasons beyond his control, each opportunity slipped away - largely due to the interference and prejudices of his relatives (the bride is too black for me, his mother says, at his first poNN paarkkal).
petty people. petty reasons. all familar to us, about 50 years ago. those nasty mamas and athais of the groom, who in real life, of little consequence, suddenly raise up their ante, based on ancient rights of mamas and athais, and on the basest of reasons, move to destroy relationships and functions, and if not successful, yet manage to leave long lingering bad tastes. my aunt married in 1958, and still remembers, with bitterness, how the groom's goodfornothing mama, managed almost to stop the wedding, because NBs were fed first, before the brahmins.
the poor man, with only sabotaging from his near and dear, gets help from a lower caste chakkilian friend, who ultimately finds a bride for him, albeit, with flaws re parentage, but good enough, to pass the scrutiny of a kongu vellalar community of thiruchengode.
the love of the land and fortunes/life tied to it, are beautifully brought out. so is the immense caste prejudice of the gounders towards the dalits. brahmins dont figure in this novel, and there is mention of nadars a couple of times. beyond that, this is a gounder story with chakkilians playing an integral role, as it happens in real life. the two communities are joined at the hip, and a reading of this novel, gives a insight to some of the caste related fights of today.
the language at times is raw. epithets, which i have heard used but rarely, are freely used here. so is the venom of the people. basically some of the characters are ugly in their attitude - jealousy envy anger and above all the need to destroy - all beautifully portrayed.
the struggle of the young man to arrange his own marriage is something of an eye opener. in my family, an orphaned male cousin, did the same as there was no one to take the initiative. he advertised, he searched, he found, he negotiated, he married - a self made effort, but where in my cousin's case, there was only family indifference, here in this village story, the community is portrayed as never wishing well entity. maybe our own agraharams were similar. i dont know.
it is heavy reading. the portrayals of characters and incidents are emotional, and i could at times move only a few pages a day. inbetween i took a break, to read, a fast past anthology, again by perumal murugan, சாதியும் நானும். the experiences of about 25 people, most of them dalits, and their experience of caste. there was only one brahmin among the contributors. his essay dealt with the way, he saw how the women were treated during their menses, in the agraharam, in a joint family house. any excuse that it was 3 days of rest, i realize, is all lies. where indignities were heaped on a scale that i cannot even imagine, how can one find reasons to justify it, albeit from this distance of time? Jeyamohan was right, when he said, that the tambrams, probably their cruellest, when it came to treatment of their women during 'those 3 days'.
back to kangaNam...what i am felt with, is a sense of relief, at the completion of a major read. it is a novel of today's rural gounders of tamil nadu, agricultural, with no education beyond high school, and little prospects of finding a bride. thanks to the selective breeding habits of the previous generation. small families, strong prejudices, emanicpated women, all of these make it tough for men of today, of certain groups, to find mates. somewhere something has to give.
i will give this book 9 marks out of 10. buy it. read it.
it is a story of a type, yet to be told, in our community, afaik. ie the travails of a man needing to find a wife. it is a common phenomenon these days, of recent (10 years?) origin, and all indications based on population idea culture shifts, only to grow more acute in the coming years and generations. especially if we hold on to our caste loyalties, as we appear to, now.
back to kangaNam. the story is about marimuthu, 35 years old and unmarried. he has seen over 15 or so girls, and for reasons beyond his control, each opportunity slipped away - largely due to the interference and prejudices of his relatives (the bride is too black for me, his mother says, at his first poNN paarkkal).
petty people. petty reasons. all familar to us, about 50 years ago. those nasty mamas and athais of the groom, who in real life, of little consequence, suddenly raise up their ante, based on ancient rights of mamas and athais, and on the basest of reasons, move to destroy relationships and functions, and if not successful, yet manage to leave long lingering bad tastes. my aunt married in 1958, and still remembers, with bitterness, how the groom's goodfornothing mama, managed almost to stop the wedding, because NBs were fed first, before the brahmins.
the poor man, with only sabotaging from his near and dear, gets help from a lower caste chakkilian friend, who ultimately finds a bride for him, albeit, with flaws re parentage, but good enough, to pass the scrutiny of a kongu vellalar community of thiruchengode.
the love of the land and fortunes/life tied to it, are beautifully brought out. so is the immense caste prejudice of the gounders towards the dalits. brahmins dont figure in this novel, and there is mention of nadars a couple of times. beyond that, this is a gounder story with chakkilians playing an integral role, as it happens in real life. the two communities are joined at the hip, and a reading of this novel, gives a insight to some of the caste related fights of today.
the language at times is raw. epithets, which i have heard used but rarely, are freely used here. so is the venom of the people. basically some of the characters are ugly in their attitude - jealousy envy anger and above all the need to destroy - all beautifully portrayed.
the struggle of the young man to arrange his own marriage is something of an eye opener. in my family, an orphaned male cousin, did the same as there was no one to take the initiative. he advertised, he searched, he found, he negotiated, he married - a self made effort, but where in my cousin's case, there was only family indifference, here in this village story, the community is portrayed as never wishing well entity. maybe our own agraharams were similar. i dont know.
it is heavy reading. the portrayals of characters and incidents are emotional, and i could at times move only a few pages a day. inbetween i took a break, to read, a fast past anthology, again by perumal murugan, சாதியும் நானும். the experiences of about 25 people, most of them dalits, and their experience of caste. there was only one brahmin among the contributors. his essay dealt with the way, he saw how the women were treated during their menses, in the agraharam, in a joint family house. any excuse that it was 3 days of rest, i realize, is all lies. where indignities were heaped on a scale that i cannot even imagine, how can one find reasons to justify it, albeit from this distance of time? Jeyamohan was right, when he said, that the tambrams, probably their cruellest, when it came to treatment of their women during 'those 3 days'.
back to kangaNam...what i am felt with, is a sense of relief, at the completion of a major read. it is a novel of today's rural gounders of tamil nadu, agricultural, with no education beyond high school, and little prospects of finding a bride. thanks to the selective breeding habits of the previous generation. small families, strong prejudices, emanicpated women, all of these make it tough for men of today, of certain groups, to find mates. somewhere something has to give.
i will give this book 9 marks out of 10. buy it. read it.
