The Snake crucified

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.