THE SNAKE CRUCIFIED, AND RESURRECTED.
A novel, in general sense, is
assessed, appreciated and discussed on the basis of its socio- cultural
attitude, aesthetic perception of storytelling, strength and appeal of its
characters, but when the writer is a novice and less a celebrity criteria of
assessment too have chances of discrimination. ‘The snake crucified’, the first
published works from new writer raises, as usual, the first question if it is worthy
of discussion especially when novel as a literary form has been metamorphosed a
lot in the hands of many sophisticated writers worldwide in content and
presentation. I too started reading it with the same psychic standpoint though
I am a promoter of the writer, being one of my friends, but reading a few
paragraphs has created a kind of torrential movement strong enough to pull me
down to its core and to catch me till the epilogue.
The story unfolds through a
couple Davis and Nisha, a noted journalist of a renowned national magazine and
his sweetheart, a junior but multi-talented cardiologist, who are in search of
their identity, existential apprehensions and cosmic derivation, of course,
with non-identical reasons. There! They are in Karuvankode, a remote Kerala
village and in the middle of a people whose genre is not fit for any of
well-known societal formations of the modern day. Davis has been born and
brought up in the same village till his adolescent life by his most loving
parents, the exorcist father and god-fearing mother.
A saga of chronicles arrayed in
nebulized order that is only known to the author. Though the narrator has many
places and locations in India in his hand to deliver the episodes it seems to
be Karuvankode the epic centre and the portal which he wants to watch India and
world through. So Karuvankode is not only the measure, matter and soul of story
but also mirror of socio-political attitude and philosophical source of the
author. An oppressed people though christened but not Christians, not Pulayas,
the untouchables and unseeable caste of Kerala, as they were converted and they
are also, by the religious scriptures, said to be equals to their own
tormenters. The reader can’t help admitting that the author is a veteran as his
craftsmanship of words and events filled with emotional integrations, psalms of
hatred and hymns of sorcery.
The narrator weaves the past and
present as warp and waft mixing magical exorcism and plain reality of wretched
and wrenched life of Pulayas. The carat of aesthetical altitude of the reader
is under stress and most of the time tested for originality. The courage of the
author to split open the plain but obscured life to the hypocrite modernity is
really appreciable at many places. Propagative and politically motivated
shininess of the Indian socio-political models are questioned several occasions
humbly educating the countrymen with staid realities. Karuvankode, the land of
blacksmith, is always casting and recasting to mould, shape and solidify its
people’s life but miserably fails as India, the great nation does.
Narrator is impartial to Karuvankode
people and its life related matters are concerned but sensitive to political
thoughts, theological views, social values and religious righteousness. He
depends mostly on legends to reveal his standpoint and remedial suggestions.
Take the Pottan’s debate with Sankaracharya. The great guru is totally
subjugated and became submissive to Pottan; an absolute surrender but wisdom
and uprightness is overpowered by physical viciousness. The reader can
substitute Buddhism and Brahmanism or Aryans and Dravidians or any recent
conflict that our country faces for Pottan and Guru and answer is ready! The
core of India’s unanswered and unaddressed and so unsolved social problem and
the source for all evils in polity of this national state, the caste system, is
discussed throughout by the exchanges of lives in Karuvankode. Call it Ambedkarism
or communism; the author may not bother.
The narrator does not ascend any rooftops to preach but opens the
eternal truth he found expressed just in a murmur as softly as a bamboo leaf
responds to breeze.
Chacko says to Davis,’ all sins
which women commit should be forgiven my son.’ Then he measures his son’s quest
for knowledge and only when his son shows a keen interest he replies, ‘they
give birth to children… the world is here because of her patience, tear and
silence… life they lived and death they died…’See how natural simple and
genuine!
The writer, like many great
novelists, breaks many conventions and convictions of literacy world, meaning
all the values are either devalued or revaluated. No a single character in the
novel is embodiment of high spotless morale nor is seat of total ugliness but
admixture of standard rightness and wrongness; a little more or less that’s
all. Morale parameters are redefined to the truthfulness of reality. The one
who searches for Indulekha and Madhavan will definitely be disappointed.
Chacko the exorcist
It is a universal fact that
sorcery is known for taming the evil powers and using for selfish end most
probably to ruin and eliminate or a total annihilation shall be the only outcome
and the sorcerer would be the seat of all evilness. Chacko is an exception. He
is basically a worshiper of nature. He not only sees divinity in all of its
creations but also believes that when a creation is in synchronised with nature
it too obtains divine powers of creator. There were no any floras or fauna that
he could not communicate with him except a few human beings. One who could
speak to a plant or butterfly could also share pain and pleasure with them. He
believed in eternity of love and he loved all unconditionally and empathically.
He was as content as any natural phenomenon and with his surroundings and with
his family. An illiterate but wandered immensely crisscrossing his country just like
Vivekanda, Sankaracharya or any other hermit of his country had done only to
satisfy his quench for pure wisdom and secret of the nature. What he
understood, gained and learnt made him the sorcerer. To him, snake, comparing
to a green scorpion, an owl or a spider could read nature better and so more
dependable. The snake, in a nutshell, had superlative bliss. The most
interesting subtleness of the author lies in the selection of snake as a
medium, a symbol and the subject. Snake and cross are the most sensitive
symbols that humanity has ever made and both are entwined right here in
Karuvankode.
The Priest, exorbitantly pious
Fr. Sebastian Maliyekkal, the shepherd, is a
blessed one, deific and healer. He was fulfilling his father’s last wish by
becoming a priest what he could not have been even in a dream otherwise. To say
he hadn’t had the call. So he had to act his act, his priesthood, a lot of
rehearsal was a part of his life and he had to prompt, direct and to act. But
others were not the part of his realm of his stage means all others who had to
do away with him were out of his prompting and direction. So unexpectedness had
prompted him quite often and no one can blame only the father for the
developments in his life. The writer does here a great job. He points out how
an established religion can never be religious. How cancerous a religion can be
when it stands for devil on the name of God. Fr. Sebastian is the only one of
the symptoms, neither reason nor outcome. Vulgarity is exposed, quite
naturally, little vulgarly.
Black Cobra, the
representative of God.
The writer can mistakenly be
alleged as a blasphemer for taming and naming the black cobra for solving small
problems a people but the characterization of the lead in the novel is
unmistakably a great artistic job. Manikyan will haunt the reader for ever. The
original sinner, as per Christian mythology, all of a sudden becomes the
heartthrob. No wonder if a genuine pious reader calls all the Gods to save him
from all the dangers. It was the first time Chacko wanted the help of snake to
solve his own sorrow and called him repeatedly waiting for his appearance. Came
at last but died; unanswered. Quite heart-breaking a scene was it really! The
writer does not testify the miraculous healing performed by Chacko, Manikyan as
the mediator but the on behalf of experienced ones did so. Other few also
testified Fr. Sebastian’s too for the same; leaving the judgement to the
readers. Anyhow the question of real ministry is still remained ambiguous or
else it is the only one thing unambiguous.
Life in Karuvankode
From generations to the present
day life is a struggle in the terrains of Karuvankode. Chacko explains Davis
how charayam, the sharp local beverage alcohol replaced milk as the best
offering to the pulaya deities. It makes clear how reciprocally, milk
replaced alcohol for the deities of elites. It’s the history of human kind. How
cow becomes the sacred of the best cow eaters, owners of land became wretched
landless drunkards, priests became murderers, cross became blood stained… one
need not extensively search instead watch the life of this village,
Karuvankode.
I am also critical to the exceeding
number of characters and episodes related to many of them. A few of them make a
little traffic blockage. Davis seems to be playing shadow of Langdon some times;
to say, the author has created the evasive but flamboyant character using all
the materials remained after all other players. Poetic beauty of the narration
seems to be lost sometimes due to over-explanatory tendency or decorations of
language. But one has to admit the author has really authenticated an own
style. One can criticize dissent or appreciate writing but never dictate a
writer to rewrite a works.
It really seems to me a great
works by all means.
