Jayakanthan I

Note:

I tell myself "Give a break from blogging, at least one day a week" but am not able to do it. Other than my work (which I thankfully love in spite of the expected frictions and conflicts), the only other thing I love is blogging. I could go for a walk or a run but won't. I look out my window. It looks bright and sunny but the temperature is a "balmy" 21 deg F I could practice my table-tennis serves but it is a losing battle. I could try cooking but this is an even bigger losing battle. I could do some of the never ending paperwork but let's not even go there. Here is a blog entry on one particular aspect of Jayakanthan's writing.
--------------------------------------------
Jayakanthan belongs to the பிள்ளை caste. He dropped out of school after the third grade. He spent his early years with the communists in Chennai -- he has written very fondly about several of them; they all seem to be quite great people.

Jayakanthan seems to have picked up the Tamil Brahmin culture (the lower middle class one) very well. Full disclosure: I am writing this at the risk of losing my entire suite of 10 loyal readers here I was raised in a Tamil Brahmin household in Chennai but moved away from it. Jayakanthan seems to have done the opposite. He was raised in a பிள்ளை household but seems to have embraced the Tamil Brahmin culture whether they embraced him back or not.

He definitely seems to have picked up the Brahmin patois down pat. After writing my blog entry Agni Pravesam, I have been spending a lot of time reading his other stories here. In several of these the main characters are Brahmins. They all ring rather true to me. When he published பிரம்மோபதேசம் in Ananta Vikatan, it was accomplished by great drawings by the noted artist Gopulu. Growing up in Chennai, going to Christian schools, and listening to DMK propaganda, I was never "that Brahmin" but these drawings also looked very realistic to me.

Jayakanthan does not succeed in avoiding cliches in his Brahmin stories -- perhaps this is too much to expect. However, overall, his stories are more impressive than others'.

In one story, a sastrigal goes to someone's house to perform தர்ப்பணம். Once there, he finds out that a relative of the house owner also wants தர்ப்பணம் performed. This later guy comes down the stairs wearing a silk வேஷ்டி. He has his footwear on which the sastrigal points out and asks him to remove.

"I am sorry" says the relative wearing the silk வேஷ்டி.

"It is alright" says the sastrigal, adding to the reader (something like) "நான் இப்போ அப்போ Englishல விடுவேன்". I burst out laughing when I read this. (This whole story is an essay that the sastrigal writes to his son, apologizing for his wasted life.)

Back to my main point: a Brahmin could not have captured the atmosphere better than Jayakanthan.

I have wondered sometimes how Jayakanthan was able to learn the Brahmin culture. I really have no idea.

In his heyday, when each of his stories was published as a முத்திரைக் கதை in Anantha Vikatan for the then princely sum of Rs. 101, Anantha Vikatan had two assistant editors, Savi and Manian, both of whom are Brahmins. I later read that Manian was a neighbor of Jayakanthan and was instrumental in Jayakanthan and Anantha Vikatan finding each other. If Savi and Manian did not directly influence Jayakanthan, they at least provided quality control for the Brahmin stuff.

I read Agni Pravesam when I was 18 years old -- of course it made a strong impression on me. In addition to coming across Jayakanthan in Anantha Vikatan which my family bought each week, there was also another source which strengthened my connection with him. My high school had some sort of a deal with a publishing house called Meenakshi Acchi Press in Madurai. They donated books given out as prizes for Tamil, several of which I won. I read several of Jayakanthan's non-Anantha-Vikatan (and perhaps pre-Anantha-Vikatan) stories in these books. If my parents had known what these stories were like, they wouldn't have let me read them. But they didn't and I read them. [My mother especially was very strict, with me being the first born and she having no experience raising children. She wasn't too pleased with either her husband or her brother and wanted to make sure that I didn't go astray. The movie Sleeping Beauty came to Chennai once and being a Disney fan, I wanted to go see it. I had a hell of of a time convincing her that it was entirely wholesome and not like the B grade Beach Beauties type English movies then being shown in Chennai.]

Added 1/2 Hour Later

I just finished reading another of Jayakanthan's short stories. The protagonist is the wife of a sastrigal. He turns down offers of teaching jobs from fancy universities, since a Brahmin can only earn his living by begging for alms. A kid sells his wife a lottery ticket. He is completely against the lottery. She ends up winning the first prize of one lakh rupees (in 1967 rupees). She asks him what should she do. He tells her that if she wants to continue to be his wife, she should tear up the winning lottery ticket.

 

> should I only be one among your 10 loyal readers...where's your reciprocation part?

Fair enough. I read all your posts religiously but you wouldn't know it unless I post something in response.

After reading your latest post, I (only) had a couple of questions. I thought that they were too minor to ask. That's why I didn't post anything.

Also, we all focus on different things. I like to read/write about incidents showing interesting aspects of human nature. What I find interesting, others may not. This is a problem. A bigger problem may be that people may not like to open up in this way.

I think that there is a ChitChat in IL for casual talk. I have not explored it much. Maybe I should. It also probably will let me graduate to Junior ILite

Anyway, take care.

 

> He is not one of my favourite authors though!

Who are some of your favorite authors? Are any of their works online?

Jayakanthan's works have flaws but, for me, he is head and shoulders above anyone else in Tamil that I have come across. (I can't say the same for his world views though.)

His works have been translated into Russian (and perhaps other languages too).