What drew me to the book was that it was set in rural Tamilnadu and that the author was my class-fellow at school. Firstly, about the author, I shall restrict myself to some trivia, which is not in the public domain, since a simple googling of the name can give you more inputs than you can read.
Roll No 605, Bharathi feeder house in 1968, Chera house and finally passed out from Valluvar house in 1975. In all likelihood, his writing career started with “Nonsense Rhymes” , published in the school magazine, Amarsainik 1968, If my memory serves me right, it went something like this;
there was Mr cork,
who killed a huge hawk,
with a piece of chalk,
………….
In School, David was a voracious reader and he won prizes for recitation, essay writing and short story writing.
Coming to the book, the story covers three generations of the Dorai family, set in rural Tamilnadu, in the period from 1899 to 1946. These were very turbulent and eventful years that saw more churning, in the political, economical and social life in India , as compared to any period over 2000 years of history.
The main characters are Solomon Dorai, Daniel Dorai and Kannan Dorai, who respond to the challenges of their own generations in the ‘Dorai’ spirit. If the first generation was mired in caste wars, the second was affected by nationalist movement. The third, had to tackle the social churning and the uneasy equations between, Indians, white-men and the Anglo-Indians. There is a portrayal of two strong women , Charity and Lily, who free the Dorai men to pursue their eccentric ways and to nurture their inflated egos, while they themselves toil to keep the family together as much as possible.
Narration is simple and easily flowing, particular when Tamil words are easily interposed, with no annotation, brackets or italics.
…..spinster chithis and decrepit thathas were singing along….
The rural beliefs and way of thinking is conveyed through the characters, without any commentary or moderation.
………Every villager knew that a man didn’t find soil that suited his nature would not prosper. Brahmins thrived on sweet soil, like that found in the delta at the mouth of the river, which is why Subramania Sastrigal and his ambitious young son would never thrive on the astringent soil of Chevathar. They might squeak and flail away at the Dorais but one roar from Solomon would send them scurrying for cover. But surely the kunam of the Vedhars matched the soil of the Chevathar, which was neither sweet nor sour, salty or pungent but fairly bitter-the soil of people of the earth, farmers and artisans……………
Right through the book, the blue mangoes are loved, missed, venerated, glorified; well, the blue mango is more than a fruit; it represents love for one’s native place, மண் வாசனை , family, clan honour, clan spirit and what not.
There is detailed descriptions of well jumping in rural tamilnadu, shikar and life in a tea estate. There is a vivid description of tadpole catching by a little boy, which took me back to our own tadpole catching sprees in the puddles among the rocks between Chera house and the water tank. David was very sharp and I could never catch a single one.
There are many historical events interpolated in the story, and at time it is difficult to separate facts from fiction. 1899 caste riot at Sivakasi, ‘upper-cloth’ wars of Travancore, assassination of Ashe Dorai (the collector of Thirunelvali) are the major events described in the novel. DD mentions in the Author’s note , that he had to invent three new castes so that he did not add to the caste controversies, in Tamilnadu, Kerala and the country at large. The author also says that these castes share some similarities with some of the non-brahmin casstes in the south. I must say , there is more than just some similarities. I think, in the land of ‘Satyakam’ , we should not be shy of speaking a bitter truth. David’s ‘Andavar’ is so much like nadars and one of the fictitious castes ,’ vedhar’ sounds so much like ‘dhevar‘
The acknowledgement section is exhaustive, which goes to show the kind of background research which had gone into writing of the book.
It is definitely a readable book,