Wednesday, January 18, 2017

A Malayalam Book After A Long Time!


I can't quite recall the last time I read a malayalam book. I love the language, the beauty of its words and I've loved all the malayalam books that I've read. One of my first memories of a book fair was purchasing a malayalam book and the excitement of reading it on my own. Sadly, though I still remember the story, I forgot the name of the book and I misplaced it too. I really loved that book!

Then came the second language malayalam classes at school. Some of the amazing teachers that I've had at school were my malayalam teachers and I am sure they played an integral part in my love for the language and reading malayalam books. My love for Pottakkad's and Malayatoor's books, amongst many others, was instilled by them and I still associate these books and authors with the classes we had where we discussed the books rather than being taught, and where we were encouraged to give wings to our imaginations. Even during those times when I didn't prepare for any other exam, I loved preparing for Malayalam exam - there wasn't much to prepare for, you just had to read through a bunch of wonderful stories and poems!

Reading malayalam novels came down (a lot) once I started college and there would have been very few that I read since college till now. I remember reading Changampuzha's Ramanan and falling in love with some most of the verses in it. I remember reading Vaikom Basheer's Pathummayude Aadu while I started working and M.T.'s Randamoozham after I got married. Other than these, I don't remember vividly reading malayalam literature for a long long time.

Last year, I did want to add a few malayalam books to my reading list but it never happened. And, as the year was about to come to an end, somewhere during the last week of December, as I was browsing through a bookstore, Deepa teacher's ( I do not know her personally, but after following a lot of her posts and reading her book, I do not want to call her anything other than 'Deepa teacher') books caught my eye. Without a second thought, I picked one, wanting to add this to the list of books that I read in 2016. But my mind never let me pick this up since deep down, I knew I wanted to start the new year with this book.

And so, as a new year dawned, I picked up the book with a lot of excitement. Ask me if I had high expectations of the book, I wouldn't be able to answer you. I mean, I don't know. I didn't set any expectations although deep in my mind, going by Deepa teacher's Facebook posts, I knew that this was going to be an interesting read. And that was exactly what it was for me.

The book took me down the memory lane, bringing in lot of childhood memories along with it. I laughed at times, I was disturbed at other times, and there were moments when my heart felt heavy too. All through the book, I felt like I was sitting in my couch and having a conversation with Deepa teacher, taking in all that she had to say, just sitting back smiling and nodding my head. Simple, understandable language and most often, in your daily conversational tone without trying to modify it to suit the 'dressing' of a book, this is what made the book stand out to me. I re-lived my childhood, remembered a lot of old friends and the "naughty school girl" moments, and by the end of it, I felt good.  I felt really good. The book was so heart-warming that once I finished the last page, I sat back closing my eyes and smiled - a right from the heart smile. 

I'm really glad that I picked this book. It was the perfect push I needed to bring me back to the long forgotten warmth of Malayalam books that I once enjoyed. Now, I can't wait to read more. Thank you, Deepa teacher, for this gem!

P.s: You can click below to buy the book. Thank me later! :)

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