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Madhavikuttiyude Premakathakal | മാധവിക്കുട്ടിയുടെ പ്രേമകഥകൾ
37 love stories written by Madhavikkutty, with a preface by V R Sudheesh.
Stories include Oru Snehathinte Katha, Premathinte Vilapakavyam, Rajavinte Premabhajanam, Snehikkappetta Sthree, Kulakkozhikal, Radha Anuradha, Pathmavathi Enna Vesya, Manthravadiyude Makal, Raajaveethikal, Sonagachi, Nashtappetta Neelambari etc.
Stories include Oru Snehathinte Katha, Premathinte Vilapakavyam, Rajavinte Premabhajanam, Snehikkappetta Sthree, Kulakkozhikal, Radha Anuradha, Pathmavathi Enna Vesya, Manthravadiyude Makal, Raajaveethikal, Sonagachi, Nashtappetta Neelambari etc.
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2008
43 people are currently reading
618 people want to read
About the author
Kamala Suraiyya Das
97 books820 followersSee also Madhavikutty
Kamala Suraiyya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), also known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography.
Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Das has earned considerable respect in recent years.
(from Wikipedia)
Kamala Suraiyya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), also known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography.
Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Das has earned considerable respect in recent years.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 30, 2017
പ്രേമിക്കുന്നവർ ഈ പുസ്തകത്തിലെ വരികളിലും കഥാസന്ദർഭങ്ങളിലും അർത്ഥങ്ങൾ കണ്ടെത്തുമായിരിക്കാം . അല്ലാതെയുള്ളവർക്കു ഇതിലെ കഥകൾ വളരെ വിരസതയും ആയി അനുഭവപ്പെടാം . പ്രേമം എന്നത് ദുഃഖം മാത്രമാണ് എന്ന ഒരു ഫീൽ പല കഥകളിലും അനുഭവപ്പെട്ടു.
January 30, 2021
മാധവിക്കുട്ടിയുടെ പ്രേമലേഖനങ്ങൾ, Madhavikutty’s love letters are a hard bunch of pills to swallow. Mostly due to their nature, most of them revolve around adultery, extramarital affairs and broken marriages.
Kamala Das is often regarded as a path breaker in the malayalam literary circles, for her naked description of her life, sexuality and human desires. Yet she is a self proclaimed unreliable narrator, with a tendency to include fictitious elements even in her most autobiographical of stories.
The inverse is also true, the lion’s share of her stories, which deal with love of many kinds, often have a facet of her own life and personality. Since her words were a form of escape for her, from an apparent asphyxiating existence in marriage and personal life.
Many of the stories written portray women thrusting for affection, when affection is denied from their intended sources. Women who lost their love, those who find no love in the marriages that society assigned to them, those that dare to cross its constraints to pursue love that can be considered taboo.
Everywhere we see a part of Kamala herself, who leads a relatively loveless existence with an older man, who supported her intellectually, but not otherwise. This we can gather from her own razor sharp examination of an existence devoid of true happiness and pleasure, whose husband was involved with other men than her.
Then again, this is the self proclaimed unreliable narrator, so take what you will with a pinch of salt.
A theme that permeated all the stories, is that of freedom, to choose their own lover, regardless of what is prescribed for them. ‘If a woman is not given love where she should, she is likely to step out and seek it from where it is’ paraphrasing the writer.
So we have protagonists who never come to realize their true love, or are trapped in loveless marriages, where they find it in the arms of another older man. (Not wanting to make assumptions, but her protagonists almost always seem enamoured with older more ‘seasoned’ manner of men, might be the author coloring the stories with her own preferences). And oftentimes this liaison ends in tragic wrecks.
‘There is nothing wrong in consummating a night with your lover, even if she is married to another, thereby ruining that marriage. All that matters is that you love each other’ says one of her female characters to a friend seeking advice on his object of desire. That might fill you in on the general theme of what sort of characters she likes to put on page.
Kamala explores a niche variety of romance. From the innocent, to the material, to tragic (mostly tragic), the adulterer, to the unrequited. There is almost always the person who desires for something or someone which should not (at least by societal conventions) and being selfish.
Being selfish when it comes to what they want is another theme that is often repeated. Doesn’t matter who you hurt or trample on, your desires trump that of strangers. I Guess in a sense this is considered a freedom of expression from her side. Maybe.
Her detractors have often referred to Kamala as ‘Histrionic’ and her writing self centered to an extreme. Making up phantom ailments of the heart where there were none prior. And I tend to agree on some of those points, especially the self centered one.
In summary Kamala Das as a person was someone who craved and desired for love and affection, in such a way that a man loves a woman. But her circumstances and personal experience left her much in the wanting. And she poured over much of her pains in her words, and gave us some truly introspective works which explore sexulaity, love and relationships.
This one however falls short of the mark.
Kamala Das is often regarded as a path breaker in the malayalam literary circles, for her naked description of her life, sexuality and human desires. Yet she is a self proclaimed unreliable narrator, with a tendency to include fictitious elements even in her most autobiographical of stories.
The inverse is also true, the lion’s share of her stories, which deal with love of many kinds, often have a facet of her own life and personality. Since her words were a form of escape for her, from an apparent asphyxiating existence in marriage and personal life.
Many of the stories written portray women thrusting for affection, when affection is denied from their intended sources. Women who lost their love, those who find no love in the marriages that society assigned to them, those that dare to cross its constraints to pursue love that can be considered taboo.
Everywhere we see a part of Kamala herself, who leads a relatively loveless existence with an older man, who supported her intellectually, but not otherwise. This we can gather from her own razor sharp examination of an existence devoid of true happiness and pleasure, whose husband was involved with other men than her.
Then again, this is the self proclaimed unreliable narrator, so take what you will with a pinch of salt.
A theme that permeated all the stories, is that of freedom, to choose their own lover, regardless of what is prescribed for them. ‘If a woman is not given love where she should, she is likely to step out and seek it from where it is’ paraphrasing the writer.
So we have protagonists who never come to realize their true love, or are trapped in loveless marriages, where they find it in the arms of another older man. (Not wanting to make assumptions, but her protagonists almost always seem enamoured with older more ‘seasoned’ manner of men, might be the author coloring the stories with her own preferences). And oftentimes this liaison ends in tragic wrecks.
‘There is nothing wrong in consummating a night with your lover, even if she is married to another, thereby ruining that marriage. All that matters is that you love each other’ says one of her female characters to a friend seeking advice on his object of desire. That might fill you in on the general theme of what sort of characters she likes to put on page.
Kamala explores a niche variety of romance. From the innocent, to the material, to tragic (mostly tragic), the adulterer, to the unrequited. There is almost always the person who desires for something or someone which should not (at least by societal conventions) and being selfish.
Being selfish when it comes to what they want is another theme that is often repeated. Doesn’t matter who you hurt or trample on, your desires trump that of strangers. I Guess in a sense this is considered a freedom of expression from her side. Maybe.
Her detractors have often referred to Kamala as ‘Histrionic’ and her writing self centered to an extreme. Making up phantom ailments of the heart where there were none prior. And I tend to agree on some of those points, especially the self centered one.
In summary Kamala Das as a person was someone who craved and desired for love and affection, in such a way that a man loves a woman. But her circumstances and personal experience left her much in the wanting. And she poured over much of her pains in her words, and gave us some truly introspective works which explore sexulaity, love and relationships.
This one however falls short of the mark.
December 14, 2024
പൊതുവെ, മനസ്സിൽ നിറയെ പ്രണയം സൂക്ഷിക്കുന്നവർക്ക് രുചിക്കുന്ന എഴുത്താണ് മാധവിക്കുട്ടിയുടേത്. എനിക്കിഷ്ടമാണ് അവരുടെ ശൈലി.
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