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BOOKS
Postcards From The Lost World
Two self-exiled cartoonists return to their homeland
to capture its glory-and grime
By Paul Zacharia
When two prominent cartoonists set out
to reinvent their homeland-the illusory sub-nation Kerala-the results
are bound to be worth our while. E.P. Unny both sketches and narrates
Kerala, while Ravi Shankar cements his text with photographs by V. Muthuraman
and others. I can imagine how hard it must be for Malayalis, used to a
nominal civil society like Delhi, to keep smiling as they revisit their
crumbling homeland, whose famed greenery and glittering waters are an
ironic backdrop for stark social and environmental decadence. But the
two eminent and self-exiled sons of the soil, in their respective works,
not only keep their wits about them but also ferret out affectionate and
intimate portraits of their lost world.
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KERALA
By Ravi Shankar and V. Muthuraman
Lustre/Roli
Price: Rs 295
Pages: 78
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SPICES & SOULS
By E.P. Unny
DC Books
Price: Rs 595
Pages: 130 |
Things are indeed
bad. But nature has a way of grimly grappling with human stupidity. So
we have contaminated rivers and polluted greenery still holding out obstinately
against ferocious politicians, insensitive citizenry and a cynical media.
Shankar and Unny, astute in their grasp of the plain truths, have chosen
not to hurt their homeland. They have been kind and warm to the "Motherland
of Malayalis"-the title given to Kerala by the redoubtable E.M.S.
Namboodiripad. In the bargain, we get two smart and crisp coffee-table
volumes that are a delight to look at and read.
Shankar's Kerala is marked by an easy business-like
flavour and breathtaking pictures. It straightaway speaks to the potential
visitor to Kerala, starting with a tourist map of the state and taking
in everything you have always wanted to experience-from ayurveda, the
rejuvenation miracle for all seasons, to Ayyappan, the highest-earning
member of Kerala's pantheon of popular deities. Shankar works with a minimal
text, yet smoothly uncovers history, probes the ancient arts, discusses
the religious milieu and dips into the spicy cuisine. Muthuraman is a
wizard with his lenses, imbuing his best pictures with a delicate and
complex overlay of intimacy, depth, perspective, information and force.
 Unny's
is a sure-footed journey into the joys of black-and-white vision. The
narrative often takes witty and sparkling bypasses into history while
the cartoonist's eye remains anchored in the passing show of God's Own
Country. As he travels through the multi-layered verisimilitude of Kerala's
crowded and cacophonic life, Unny's lines capture moments of ordinary
truth with wonderful calmness. Spices and Souls gets under the skin of
Kerala unsentimentally but compassionately and reaches out to some of
the best things worth knowing. The good feeling makes one wish to see
Shankar too reaching for his sketch-pen.
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The Landour Cookbook
Ed by Ruskin Bond and Ganesh Saili
(Roli/Lustre)
Marshmallow Pudding a la Stanley, Tennessee Angel Lemon ... a
century of hillside cooking.
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 Musings
of an Old Shikari
By Colonel A.I.R. Glasfurd
(Natraj, Rs 395)
Shikari life in the times of the Raj.
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The Unknown
Hsuan-tsang
Ed by D. Devahuti
(Oxford, Rs 495)
Documenting the Buddhist scholar's life after his return from
India in 645 a.d.
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 Mind,
Matter and Mystery
Ed by Ranjit Nair
(Scientia)
The ground between science and philosophy.
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 A
Tutor of History
By Manjushree Thapa
(Penguin, Rs 295)
The first major novel in English from Nepal.
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