Review: Kaalam
Kaalam by M.T. Vasudevan Nair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
View all my reviews
Towards the end of the book, Sumitra says, ‘Sethu, you have always only loved yourself’. That is accurate in regards to this person. From the time he was a teenager, Sethu has always resented his family’s impoverished circumstances, yearning to escape their trappings.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
View all my reviews
Thoughts
Towards the end of the book, Sumitra says, ‘Sethu, you have always only loved yourself’. That is accurate in regards to this person. From the time he was a teenager, Sethu has always resented his family’s impoverished circumstances, yearning to escape their trappings.
Our protagonist Sethu is someone who is temperamental, Insecure and like a fickle bee jumps from one women to another, based to who catches him fancy at the time. Be it Sumitra, Thankamani or Lalitha. he chases after wealth and riches in much the same way, a man tries to keep his balance while having one leg each on a different boat. Circumstances force him to choose love or wealth, and like the hunter trying to catch both the birds, he often misses the mark.
His decisions, His decisions are what led to his final fate at the end of the story. And the writer goes to great lengths to point that out. Certainly circumstances and environment might've played a role. But it was Sethu who choses to leave each of his lovers for reasons which seemed reasonable at the time. Although in the end they ended up making him a poor man, full of wealth but with no one to share it with.
In Sethu we see many of us, our dreams, hopes aspirations and failures when we first step out into life. If is incredible in a sense how a character written for 1950s India gains empathy in contemporary time. But then again, MT's words always had a timeless quality to them.
Kaalam (Time) is a story of the life of our protagonist, as he struggles through life, swimming from one coast to another, desperately trying to find a final oasis where he might find some solace. But, by the end, he realizes that his life’s achievements are a series of failures and what-ifs. That he’s been swimming all life, only to end up back where he had begun.
It encompasses this feeling of loss that everyone has felt at least once in life. The thought of ‘what my life would have been, have I chosen differently’? Or, ‘what if I had the courage to accept love, instead of running from it?’, or ‘Does my life and struggles mean anything in the grand scheme of things?’
The language is much more somber, and subdued and lacks the usual explosive prose characteristic of MT’s works. There is a profound sense of longing and loss associated with the human condition. That all we are is inconsequential. Towards the end, as we leave Sethu alone on the banks of the river, we empathize with him to an extent.
Sethumadhavan is the youngest son of an impoverished patrician family, living on the drying banks of the river Nila. Since he came of age, Sethu has resented the decrepit state of his family, as well as family members whom he sees as vulgar. Yearning to escape this existence which he sees as wretched, he, like any educated youth, attempts to concentrate on studies and get a stable government job.
In the meanwhile, he gets close to Sumitra, a girl of similar age from a family of close acquaintance. Their relationship progresses past romance, and develops into one of physical intimacy. When he passed matriculation and got admitted into the Victoria college in Palakkad, he bids her goodbye, and promises to keep in touch.
By scraping together savings and borrowing the rest, Sethu’s folks arrange for him to go to college. At his college and hostel lodgings however, he is quickly discouraged by his fellow students, many of whom hail from affluent families, and are not averse to brandishing their luxuries. Sethu on the other hand, has to tighten his belt every month, and pinch pennies to save enough for money and basic amenities. His feeling of inadequacy is further compounded, and he begins indulging in vices of smoking and booze.
His relationship with Sumitra had started to cool with distance. And partly because he had found another, younger object of affection, in the form of his distant relative Thankam, whom he had met during a family gathering. They had fallen in love, like the immature lovelorn teenagers they were, making grand promises of marriage and eternal love.
But on his side, the growing challenges of college life, an unstable financial situation, as well as the uncertainty of being a jobless graduate increasingly plagues Sethu. So, once he finished his college education, he cut off things with Thankam, instead focusing on an increasingly futile endeavor of securing stable government employment. His situation is not helped by the fact that his father, the sole income earner of the family, has just retired and returned home.
Desperate, he applies and gets selected for a lower end government posting, and reluctantly leaves for training. But at the training camp, he becomes averse to the spartan living conditions as well as the blatant favoritism, gets in a spat with his superior, and quits within the day. With no direction, and too afraid to return home once again jobless, Sethu leaves town, his destination unknown.
A few years down the line, Sethu has managed to get a job as a clerk in the company of the affluent Srinivasan, a man of many vices. The job is hard, and the pay is modest, but he tries to make the most of it. Yet, his inherent sense of inferiority creeps up, as he becomes jealous of the sheer fortune which passes through Srinivasan’s offices everyday, while he has to live in squalor.
Srinivasan in turn uses Sethu as a handyman, and ‘generously’ gives him rent free accommodation in one of his lodges. The caveat, Srinivasan gets to use the place at times, entertaining his several female companions. Suffice to say his boss is not the best role model.
Biting down his revulsion and resentment, Sethu continues his daily grind, and by chance gets close to Srinivasan’s missus, Lalitha. Both lonely souls, ignored in a monotonous existence, become close and start a secret relationship.
Fortune favors him, and Srinivasan becomes paralyzed due to a stroke and bedridden. With recommendation from Lalitha, Sethu becomes the de facto caretaker of Srinivasan’s vast assets. He skims off the top all the while keeping the affair with Lalitha, until the Boss gets wise and kicks him out. Lalitha files for divorce and the couple start a new life.
Several more years pass, Sethu has become a wealthy man, but he finds himself uncomfortable in the trappings of high class life. After catching Lalitha in a compromising situation with another man, he packs his bags and leaves for the solace of his home.
Back home, things have changed. Owing to their family members in better positions, the house is no longer in dire straits. But Sethu’s mother is absent to welcome him, having died years earlier, and cremated while Sethu was unable to attend her funeral.
As he ponders over his past life, what he accomplished seems like nothing but failures. He may have the money, but Sethu feels more alone than ever. Walking down familiar lanes, he comes across Sumitra, his first love. She now lives as an ascetic with only prayer and God to keep her company.
Desperate for companionship, Sethu tells Sumitra that he loves her. But she corrects him ‘You have always only loved yourself Sethu’, and leaves him alone once again, to an uncertain future.
In Sethu we see many of us, our dreams, hopes aspirations and failures when we first step out into life. If is incredible in a sense how a character written for 1950s India gains empathy in contemporary time. But then again, MT's words always had a timeless quality to them.
Kaalam (Time) is a story of the life of our protagonist, as he struggles through life, swimming from one coast to another, desperately trying to find a final oasis where he might find some solace. But, by the end, he realizes that his life’s achievements are a series of failures and what-ifs. That he’s been swimming all life, only to end up back where he had begun.
It encompasses this feeling of loss that everyone has felt at least once in life. The thought of ‘what my life would have been, have I chosen differently’? Or, ‘what if I had the courage to accept love, instead of running from it?’, or ‘Does my life and struggles mean anything in the grand scheme of things?’
The language is much more somber, and subdued and lacks the usual explosive prose characteristic of MT’s works. There is a profound sense of longing and loss associated with the human condition. That all we are is inconsequential. Towards the end, as we leave Sethu alone on the banks of the river, we empathize with him to an extent.
Synopsis
Sethumadhavan is the youngest son of an impoverished patrician family, living on the drying banks of the river Nila. Since he came of age, Sethu has resented the decrepit state of his family, as well as family members whom he sees as vulgar. Yearning to escape this existence which he sees as wretched, he, like any educated youth, attempts to concentrate on studies and get a stable government job.
In the meanwhile, he gets close to Sumitra, a girl of similar age from a family of close acquaintance. Their relationship progresses past romance, and develops into one of physical intimacy. When he passed matriculation and got admitted into the Victoria college in Palakkad, he bids her goodbye, and promises to keep in touch.
By scraping together savings and borrowing the rest, Sethu’s folks arrange for him to go to college. At his college and hostel lodgings however, he is quickly discouraged by his fellow students, many of whom hail from affluent families, and are not averse to brandishing their luxuries. Sethu on the other hand, has to tighten his belt every month, and pinch pennies to save enough for money and basic amenities. His feeling of inadequacy is further compounded, and he begins indulging in vices of smoking and booze.
His relationship with Sumitra had started to cool with distance. And partly because he had found another, younger object of affection, in the form of his distant relative Thankam, whom he had met during a family gathering. They had fallen in love, like the immature lovelorn teenagers they were, making grand promises of marriage and eternal love.
But on his side, the growing challenges of college life, an unstable financial situation, as well as the uncertainty of being a jobless graduate increasingly plagues Sethu. So, once he finished his college education, he cut off things with Thankam, instead focusing on an increasingly futile endeavor of securing stable government employment. His situation is not helped by the fact that his father, the sole income earner of the family, has just retired and returned home.
Desperate, he applies and gets selected for a lower end government posting, and reluctantly leaves for training. But at the training camp, he becomes averse to the spartan living conditions as well as the blatant favoritism, gets in a spat with his superior, and quits within the day. With no direction, and too afraid to return home once again jobless, Sethu leaves town, his destination unknown.
A few years down the line, Sethu has managed to get a job as a clerk in the company of the affluent Srinivasan, a man of many vices. The job is hard, and the pay is modest, but he tries to make the most of it. Yet, his inherent sense of inferiority creeps up, as he becomes jealous of the sheer fortune which passes through Srinivasan’s offices everyday, while he has to live in squalor.
Srinivasan in turn uses Sethu as a handyman, and ‘generously’ gives him rent free accommodation in one of his lodges. The caveat, Srinivasan gets to use the place at times, entertaining his several female companions. Suffice to say his boss is not the best role model.
Biting down his revulsion and resentment, Sethu continues his daily grind, and by chance gets close to Srinivasan’s missus, Lalitha. Both lonely souls, ignored in a monotonous existence, become close and start a secret relationship.
Fortune favors him, and Srinivasan becomes paralyzed due to a stroke and bedridden. With recommendation from Lalitha, Sethu becomes the de facto caretaker of Srinivasan’s vast assets. He skims off the top all the while keeping the affair with Lalitha, until the Boss gets wise and kicks him out. Lalitha files for divorce and the couple start a new life.
Several more years pass, Sethu has become a wealthy man, but he finds himself uncomfortable in the trappings of high class life. After catching Lalitha in a compromising situation with another man, he packs his bags and leaves for the solace of his home.
Back home, things have changed. Owing to their family members in better positions, the house is no longer in dire straits. But Sethu’s mother is absent to welcome him, having died years earlier, and cremated while Sethu was unable to attend her funeral.
As he ponders over his past life, what he accomplished seems like nothing but failures. He may have the money, but Sethu feels more alone than ever. Walking down familiar lanes, he comes across Sumitra, his first love. She now lives as an ascetic with only prayer and God to keep her company.
Desperate for companionship, Sethu tells Sumitra that he loves her. But she corrects him ‘You have always only loved yourself Sethu’, and leaves him alone once again, to an uncertain future.
Comments
Post a Comment