Open Sesame

Kafka in the Reader’s Corridor B. Murali again… This time it’s the Kafka in the Court’s corridor Ordinary men and their ordinary lives give the fodder for writing to Murali and this story too falls on this line. Anand in his Govardhan’s Travels has dealt with the issue of the snail pace of the Indian courts. The work was not but for the ordinary readers who ve less time at their disposal for a literary work. Here Murali has touched upon the same issue but with much ease. Rameshan Nair happened to be an eye witness in a scuffle years back.   The case was registered and the issue forgotten. But the Indian judiciary system is slow and steady. The summons comes in search of K.P. Rameshan Nair. The hurdles he face even to receive the summons is the core of the story. The man is not fortunate enough to be inside the court before is story comes to an end.. That may take another few weeks or months. The interesting twist in the story is the presence of Kafka in the cou

What does Umberto Eco has to do with Postmodernism? Theorist? Writer? Advocate of pomo??? My opening sentences today are misnormers... this post is not exactly on Eco but on a story which made Eco a common place name atleast in Malayalam. Couple of days back started reading B.Murali's 100 Kathakal - 100 stories...  "Umberto Eco" has been given the first position... the first in the line..but decided that am not going to read this story.. why should I?? am so familiar with this... lot has been read and told about the story... celeberated  as a postmodern work.... but some how got stumpled on 'Umberto Eco' The story line -  Ramakrishan the UGC  NET PSC aspirant is inducing his lady love to reading- sort of Pygmalion - so that she can be his 'better half - and get qualified for the chat over a cup of tea . She performs better developing herself to be an exponent of Barth, Eco, Foucault.. despising Sidney Sheldon... OMG.... so excited after the

Today finished my second reading of   Adityan Radha and Others   of M. Mukandan. The first reading was on the Malayalam original.   Acclaimed as the work which gave the clarion call of the advent of postmodernism in Malayalam literature, it earned good reviews from the critics. A typical postmodern work - metafiction, irony, fragmentation, temporal distortion, everything put in its right configuration Like the vidhooshakans of Indian Theatre, we have three narrators here to interrupt the course of the story(there is nothing called a 'course' here..still) . Brihaspati good choice of name), Romi Fernandez and Abhimanyu Jalan.   Radha and Adityan enjoys the center stage.   Adityan is the product of postmodern age born with silver spoon on their lips, but their mind and wings tied by the parents of the bygone modern era. Adityan and his generation is born to fulfill the dreams of their parents. They suffer from the plenty of rotti, kapda aur makan (food, dress and she