From: sp2@cec1.wustl.edu (Sundara Pandian)
Subject: Thi.Jaa's `ammaa vandhaaL' ( was Re: Literary Awards in Tamil )
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 22:11:24 GMT

"R. Sritharan" <SRI@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu> writes :
> SP writes on Thi.Jaa's `ammaa vandhaaL' :
>>                                            This book breaks away from the
>                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>established images of women ( by Laxmi,Rajam Krishnan..), in a non-commercial
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>sense. Rajam Krishnan's resignation following the award to Thi.Jaa just tells
>^^^^^^
>>us the opposition that good Tamil writers face even among the Sahitya Academy

>>selection committee for selecting books for awards.
>>                
>>                                                                      - SP
>>                                                         sp2@cec1.WUSTL.edu
>> 
>I have not read this book myself. I have only heard people talk about
>this book or Thi. Jaa.
 
>Would you be kind enough to say more on the theme of the book ? I am
>curious as to what it is about that turned even a woman writer against
>it.
 
>R. Sritharan

     K.Zvelebil writes on the plot of Thi.Jaa's ` Ammaa VandhaaL' as
             `This is, in short, the plot : Appu, a Brahmin boy
 is sent at the age of eight to a Sanskrit seminary ( paatachaalai ) to
 learn the Vedas. He stays sixteen years to master them, living on the
 banks of the Kaaviri, in a beautiful, serene atmosphere. Appu alone does
 not know that his handsome, overbearing mother who appears to his mind's
 eye as a luminous vision, is unfaithful to his father; in fact, she seeks
 vicarious atonement by turning her son to a Vedic scholar. After sixteen
 years Appu returns to home to learn the devastating truth : Appu's
 affectionate younger brothers and sisters turn out to be bastard half-
 brothers and half-sisters, his mother an adulteress. The short, explosive
 novel decribes the reation of the ardent, puritanical young Brahmin
 idealist to his emotional catastrophe. Seeing that his resigned,withdrawn
 and compassionate father ignores the aberration of his wife, Appu rejects
 his home and goes back to the paatasaalaa whose founder and benefactoress
 on her deathbed makes him the joint heir to her property. Appu ends by
 living "in sin" with her widowed niece, a lovely and sensual woman by name
 of Indu. '
     Zvelebil's translation of a passage from the same book which describes
 the first confrontation of Appu and Indu ( before Appu goes back to Madras
 and learns the truth about his mother ) may give some ideas to readers of
 this net Thi.Jaa's style and a flavour on this ( controversial ) book :
   ` She gripped his shoulders with both hands, the fingers digging into
 his flesh. 
     Her palms were hot, but the rounded, soft forearms cool on his shoulders
 and chest, like a tight woven garland of chrysanthemums...
     He was overwhelmed by a staggering feeling of astonishment.
     Indu's hair rubbed against his cheek, then her brows, her forehead, her
 lips.
     A lizard chucked from the wall. Appu stood abruptly up, pushing her aside.
 She got up, too, but held his shoulders tightly.
    " No, Indu!"
    " No to what ?" 
    " No! No to this sin...When I think of your aunt, I feel ashamed."
    " Even now it is only aunt you can think of! Not me! Why do you keep
 bleating `sin', `sin' ?"
    " Because this is sinful."
    " It doesn't seem sinful to me. What is a sin ? To do and say things  
 against one's conscience. It is you, you that I have been thinking of all
 these years, you that I've been living for! Now that you know. Is it wrong?
 Shouldn't I have told you what I feel ? "
    " It doesn't seem to me right, Indu. I think of you as I do of your aunt.
 When you touch me, I feel as if I was touching her...' Appu closed his eyes.
    " You always think of her, how great she is. And you turn away from me
 in disgust as if you had trodden on a dead worm. If you could only realize
 that I am a human being, too... but that you can't ! "
    " I do not even think of my own sister at home as so near to me as you,
 Indu ! I think of you as one born with me..."
    " But you don't realize now that this is not true ?"
    " No, I still think it is true. Nothing has changed".
    " Appu !"
    "..."
    "Appu !"
    " ..."
    " You talk and you don't understand, even now after I have told you all
 this. I swear on the Vedas you study - without you, my life has no meaning
 at all".

     He stood aghast, hurt ; he could not hear this goading, this oath on
 the Vedas.
    " Never talk like this again, Indu"
    " Why ? "
    " Don't drag in the Vedas. They are like mother to me. They are my god,
 my mother, they are like my mother who is god to me. Pure gold... I knew
 Parasu. Don't think he is dead. He is there listening to all that you say.
 Doesn't it occur to you how his soul will squirm in agony hearing you ?
 You don't think of him at all - and not only that you dishonour him and
 degrade yourself, and I cannot bear to hear you babbling like this,ignoring
 him ! And when you, in addition, swear on the Vedas, it is as if my mother
 had been dealt a blow, as if dust had been thrown on her face ! Look here,
 Indu, I'd have left by now, but for your aunt... I am just waiting for her
 to say good-bye...You know when I look at you, think of you, I feel happy...
 but I feel like crying,too...Don't be angry with me, Indu.When I go back to
 my mother, I should goin clea body, clea in mind. She must never think that
 I went to study the Vedas, but really smeared mud on my head. When you return
 after a bath in the Kaaviri, you should not drop into a roadside tavern and
 drink `kallu'. I couldn't stagger in my mother's presence with a mud-stained
 face ! When you look at me, it is as if she was looking at me ! Send me home
 safe, Indu ! "

    He moved away from her and there he stood, afraid that she would follow
 and hold his shoulders.
    Indu stood facing the wall, with the light of the lantern falling fully
 on her. She was not looking at the wall. She was not looking at anything.
 Her nose was shiny, the skin sagged beneath her eyes. She was standing
 there as if she was some dead body that had been stood up. Even on the face
 there was a deadly pallor, as if life and blood had been drained. She was
 like ashes.
    For minutes the corpse-like apparition stood there, unmoving.
    Then she knotted up her hair, and raised a finger to scratch her cheek
 and lip. With the look of utter blankness she crawled from one place to
 another, picking up the lantern, set it down by a pillar, and sitting
 beside another another pillar, she buried her face between her knes. 
    Appu glanced at the door, and then went quickly up to her ; she heard his
 foot-steps and raised her head, but he did not look at her. He laid himself 
 flat on the ground in front of her, in a full stretch namaskaaram. Then he
 rose and walked into the paatachaalai.He spread his towel on the floor and
 laid down.
     He was listening to suppressed sobs and moans and snivellings.
     A gecko chucked from the darkness : kik-kik-kik.
     He closed his eyes and could see, in the shadows, the face of his       
 mother. '

                                                                 - SP
                                                    sp2@cec1.WUSTL.edu 
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