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"ON THE
BANKS OF THE MAYYAZHI" Mahe's MoodThe mixed emotions of Kerala's French connection. By Ashok Koshy "ON THE BANKS OF THE MAYYAZHI" Indo-Anglian literature, from John Masters to Paul Scott, is awash with tales of the Raj. Little however is recorded of the lives and loves of other alien visitors who stayed on for considerable time on our shores, unwelcome soldiers of fortune sowing seeds of their culture and their race on native soil. M. Mukundan weaves a tale of love, frustration and decay in the tiny French enclave of Mayyazhi (Mahe) on the coast of Kerala. Mahe unshackled itself from 200 years of French dominance in July 1954. Ringed by the Arabian Sea and the Mayyazhi river, this idyllic island sets the scene for the narrative. Two families, bonded by friendship but eons apart in all else, live out their tragic lives under the spectre of the territory's independence movement. The run up to 1954 is witnessed through the trials and tribulations of the Eurasian Missie, the baker of cakes, and the redoubtable Karumbi Amma, who adores anything in "coat and trousers". Time is measured by the price of Karumbi's snuff, while the citizens of Mayyazhi bask under the benevolent gaze of the Mother of Mayyazhi (the Virgin Mary). Mukundan conjures a potpourri of characters, from the impotent Gaston, strumming a guitar through the night, incarcerated in the darkness of his own choice, to the idealistic but doomed Dasan and the voluptuous courtesan Kunhichirutha. When freedom dawns on Mayazzhi, the French leave behind a perplexed populace, rudderless and lost, not unlike the souls of the departed that hover aimlessly like dragonflies over the Velliyan Rock. "A veil of darkness as fine as hymen" continues to envelope the town. One of Malayalam literature's favourite sons, Mukundan has woven a memorable tale. Gita Krishnankutty's translation conserves the soul of the original work. AUTHORSPEAK She's not an Enid Blyton wannabe, but the grand dame of children's fiction has been an inspiration for 37-year-old Bubla Basu. Teacher, film-critic and now author, Basu's Up to the Nines, a sequel to It Happened That Year, is the second in a series about six intelligent but "difficult to deal with" children and their doings in class ix of a Calcutta school. In the first book, Vikram, Amita, Pia, Rakesh and Dev are introduced as the infamous five who are determined to be difficult, till they encounter Rhea and her mother, Auntie Bulan, who influences positively without reforming. In the new book, the six grow up a little more. Says Basu, "I don't deal with unusual children, the exotic and dramatic. The books are supposed to show these children growing up, not to keep them lovable and perpetually as children." Basu's books are largely autobiographical: "The characters are drawn not only from the people I have known and taught but the person I've been. Auntie Bulan, a very real person, is an influence I have acknowledged very late in life." Like her young characters, Basu herself has led a largely unconventional life. Born in Calcutta, she began her formal education in London before returning home with her family at age 10. Later she embarked on a teaching career that was "a second preference to filmmaking". She began by teaching remedial English at Calcutta's SOS Village. After a short stint at La Martiniere she moved to Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh in 1985 and after four years to Bombay International and J.B. Petit in Mumbai. She has also conducted film appreciation workshops and been a consultant to Zee Education. The interest in cinema has become a classroom tool. For instance, James Cameron's Titanic, dismissed by critics as a tear-jerker propped up by dazzling visuals, was used to point out detailing in a lecture on word pictures. Basu now scripts Film India, the BBC series on Indian cinema. The reaction to Basu's writing has been far from unanimous.
"While some, particularly teachers, have appreciated the realism in it," she
says, "they'd never want to read it aloud in a classroom. There are too many home
truths." Others have been put off by the depiction of adults in the first book.
Basu's young readers though aren't complaining.
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