Harris Books and Literature Blog

  ( Buy on Amazon ) I haven't liked much of whatever I have read of M T Vasudevan Nair’s fiction so far, except Naalukettu , especially because of its ending, and one of his short stories. And every time I read one of his books, I sincerely hope I would like it. However, it's only now that I’ve found a novel by him I can honestly say I love and admire. This book Manju (Mist) is different from most of his other works; the story doesn't take place in Kerala but in an exotic Nainital, and perhaps this is his only novel with a female protagonist. It’s not a novel, but a novella with sixty-odd pages and is sweet like a little melancholic poem. Vimala is a boarding school resident teacher in Nainital who stays in the school quarters even during the summer vacation when all the students and staff leave for home. She hardly visits her family. It's the end of winter and the start of the tourist season where Vimala sometimes talks to the boy known as 'Buddhu' who operate...

  Buy on Amazon The book  Kochikkar  (Kochiites) by Bony Thomas is an enquiry into the lives, customs, religious practices, traditions, languages, beliefs, and stories of tens of ethno-religious communities inhabiting Cochin (Kochi), which by the earlier definition comprises the twin neighbourhoods of Fort Cochin and Mattancherry occupying an area of four and a half square kilometers. Despite having been born and growing up here, I only had a superficial understanding of these diverse communities, partly because I lacked the curiosity and inquisitiveness of an outsider. The pages of this book helped me have a deeper look into their lives. For instance, though I knew the area where Konkanis lived, I used to be puzzled why they had at least three temples within an area of a radius of merely fifty metres. Now I do know; though I see all Konkanis as one, they are themselves divided into sub communities based on caste and live their separate lives, which is practically invisib...