Review: Anubhavangal Palichakal

Anubhavangal Palichakal by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rating 4 out of 5 | Grade: A

Premise:

Like most of thakazhi’s works, this book is set during the post-independence era. It details the day-to-day grind of the farmers, manual laborers and other blue-collar workers in Kerala. At a time when the nation had barely gained independence, when there was a gross inequality in wealth, when few influential landlords had control of all the arable land, industries and lucrative businesses, most lived just one of two steps above poverty.

Your average worker had to perform 12-hour days of back breaking work, just to earn enough for food and boarding. Thye owned no lands, had no knowledge of their rights, were cavalier with their limited assets, and hence were ripe for exploitation by the ruling bosses. Being from weaker sections of society, as well as illiterate, they were incapable of even understanding if they were being underpaid or exploited. This state continued for a while now.

Enter the Communist Party of India. If you look at the political landscape of India today, the Communists have only a minor foothold in the nation. Out of the 3 states they have a significant presence Kerala, the state in which the story takes place, and West Bengal (to the east) are the most prominent.

Without getting into the details, there is a reason that the ideology has maintained roots in these places, even when they went extinct in the rest of the nation.

At the time where this story takes place, the Indian National Congress, the only other major political force in the state, was seen as a party for the elite, upper caste sections of society. It was understandable why the public perceived it as such, with its leaders almost always being those highly educated, opulent influential people in the society.

Naturally, the party had a reputation of being filled with the very same Bourgeoisie, who fed and funded the organization to cater to their interests.

Enter the communists, who in contrast, went down to the grassroots of society, the workers and farmers who were the backbone of the economy. Over the course of the next couple of decades, they managed to unionize the workers, and create a strong political base for themselves amongst the most numerous sections of the population.

This, to a large extent, allowed their wages, work and living conditions to improve. The downtrodden sections of the society had finally someone to speak on their behalf, and to demand the deserved rights.

In the contemporary political spectrum, modern iteration of the Communist party, has proven itself to be just as incompetent and corrupt as the rest of them. But the legacy that stalwarts had created before, still helps to garner support for them, in a state which is becoming more and more anti-capitalist, and suffering for it.

But forgive me for boring you with meandering exposition, when I should be focusing on the story

Synopsis:

The novel details the life of three individuals, manual laborers lying in the lowest rungs of society. The unhappy couple, Chellapan & Bhavani, who are in constant conflict due to the husband’s suspicious nature, and Bhavani’s headstrong personality which is like putting oil and fire next to one another. Involved in this conflict is Chellapan’s friend Gopalan, who has romantic intentions for the married women, but cannot act upon them.

When the headstrong bullish Chellapan threatens one of the Landlords, he is being hunted by the Police and has to go into hiding, leaving Bhavani and the children to fend for themselves. It is in this situation that Gopalan steps up to help the family, and as Chellapan’s absence extends to months, the two fall in love and decide to start a family of them.

But much like Raskolnikov after committing his heinous crime, both of them are constantly plagued by fears of what may happen in the future. Particularly the return of Chellapan, who might just murder them both for this transgression. In addition, Gopalan is constantly in a state of fitful anxiety. From his perspective, he had taken another man’s wife, children and home. Self-Loathing and guilt grips him, seeing himself as a villain who ruined a family. This, in addition to the encroaching fear of the unknown, causes to him chronic insomnia and terror, as he slowly wastes away. He had love and family, but his conscience denied him the state of mind to properly appreciate them.

Elsewhere, Chellapan who had gone in hiding incognito, found himself in the hospitality of the kind family, who spared no expense in taking care of him, and treated him as a member of their own family. In particular, the youngest daughter of the house, in time, shows a passionate interest in him. Chellappan had grown up an orphan and had spent much of his life like a beast of work. He had spent the entire days working in gusto in the fields, and then spending much of what he earned in booze and arak. Even his wife and children were a point of sore contention whenever they came to his mind. Only his political work, campaigns and agitation organized for the fellow workers, where he was always on the forefront, gave him any sense of purpose.

Now, in this home of strangers, he began to feel like he was reliving his childhood with love and affection. Not privy of what was happening back home, he too begins to feel some conflicting emotions. But, given a chance to, for the first time in life, grasp at genuine happiness, he too resolves to let his old identity die and make the lie and reality.

That would’ve been the end of it, were it not for events placing Chellappan at a crossroads. One road, leading to happiness, where his hunger for love, relationship and a family will be satiated. But that would also mean he’d be content, start a new family, children, and look after their needs for the rest of his life.

Other was the road less traveled. One where his future or safety would be uncertain, where he would continue with his service for the benefit of workers everywhere. One which would most likely land him in prison, or worse.

Like a stoic unaffected by the riches surrounding him, Chellapan decides to discard his mortal relations, good and bad, and walk towards the unknown, wherever his belief and ideology might land him. That road was one of revolution and martyrdom.


Thoughts


Thakazhi ShivaSankara Pilla, or Thakazhi as he is known widely, is one of the stalwarts of Modern Malayalam literature, who, along contemporaries such as M.T. Vasudevan Nair, were indomitable writers who were able to carve out soul stirring narratives which cut to the very deep of the lowest strings of society, the powerless, the exploited, the forgotten.

Thakazhi, whose bibliography is filled with works which showcase the life, struggles and inner thoughts of these people, is often able to use the working-class societies in and surrounding his native Alappuzha and Kuttanad. He is able to imbue these characters with a storied conflicting life, and through them force us to look at those whom society chooses to ignore and make invisible.

Whether in this story, or his other popular and equally moving works such as Thottiyude Makan തോട്ടിയുടെ മകന്‍ (English: Scavenger's Son) or രണ്ടിടങ്ങഴി Randidangazhi (English: Two Measures) he is proficient in laying bare the lives of those who struggle in the lowest strings of society, with poverty and discrimination.

His prose demonstrates a masterful command of the language, dialect and slang characteristic of the section of society which his characters represent. Although perhaps not to the level of M.T. Vasudevan Nair, they provide a certain nuance to the narrative, one which can only be fully appreciated by speakers native to Malayalam.

Although in Thakazhi’s strength, is an extremely accessible and understandable structure and verse, which although intermingled with the local dialects make sure you are never lost as to what is happening in the narrative.

One thing which I’ve noticed for most of Thakazhi’s works is how the concluding part of his narrative tends to meander towards the more philosophical or ideological, at the expense of the story. They almost always end in death, often with a tragic heroic figure. And their deaths would be colored by some political evils, such as class struggle, discrimination or exploitation of the weaker sections of the populace.

I have not read his works as English translations, because I believe their true essence can only be enjoyed in the native language. For those who are proficient in Malayalam, I would recommend they peruse through his bibliography. Even for those who depend on English translations, I would urge you to give it a shot. As Thakazhi is one of the writers who defined the cultural zeitgeist on a generation throughout the 20th and even 21st century.

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