Talking about the past to invent it…

Hi Jay,

I am an ardent follower of your writing. We have met a couple of times in Bangalore and Toronto.

I am currently in Coimbatore. went to vishnupuram publication last week and bought a couple of books along with ‘Of Man women and witches’.

This is one of your most intriguing works I have read in recent times. After purpadu this one is about your childhood memories  and  Travancore so this is very special.

I can feel I got to know more about your father , mother and extended family. As this was not in tamil it is very new and the translation was awesome and it succeeded by capturing  your malayalam narration in english. This is going to be the next English hit for you.

Some parts of this novel were moving. Especially your father, a very difficult character who will not express love for you. But he was a lovable father at heart. like a jackfruit. Maybe his difficult childhood made him a rigid self-made man .

And your mother was more knowledgeable in literature finding difficulty to cope with your father who was very aggressive sometimes using physical violation and slur words.  Maybe she was the one who pulled the family together.

And your father’s love for travancore was exciting. I got to know more about Travancore tales and the people were amazing.

Thank you,

Kandasami Raja

 

Dear Kandasami,

Thank you for the kind words. I wrote that article nearly 25 years ago, and I feel happy to know still my heart is communicating through those words. Those are not only memories; there are my inventions of love and bond in them. I may say I found them after everything became just memories.

Jeyamohan

Of Men, Women and Witches – Amazon Jeyamohan writes about the matriarchal family system he grew up in A Lazy Wet Morning, Some Stray Thoughts and The Book — Of Men, Women and Witches ‘Devastated by my mother’s death, I found refuge in writing’