Get Access The Ghosts Of Meenambakkam Drafted By Ashokamitthiran Accessible Through Document
average book which describes a day in the life of a father who lost her daughter a while ago.
While the atmosphere set, and the premise, could lead to a multitude of beautiful thoughts and conversations, the book could rarely hold a grip on me.
The book talks about topics of death, love and loss but fails to really invoke any of those feelings.
I had absolutely no idea this was going to be a thriller is it even, Judging by the cover and the blurb, you'd imagine a quiet contemplative dialogue between two strangers at Meenambakkam Airport a novel I'd have loved to read something along the lines of The Sunset Limited.
With the sudden introduction of murderers and secrets in the air, you slowly realize the author has other plans, sink deeper into your bed, and get ready to be taken on a different ride than the one you thought you were on.
There's something unmistakably cinematic about the presentgtsharp cut to flashbackgtpresent structure of the narrative, On the last page, I found myself thinking not about the narrator, but about Sylvia and Dhalpathado, And for some reason found myself singing Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, a strangely apt tune for the tragic end.
Their tangent injected a lot of drama into the story without being mentioned too often, and it's used expertly at the novel's conclusion.
I think that's what going to stick with me, along with the Lalitha flashback and the narrator's regret about not knowing his daughter.
Sidenote: Ashokamitran amp Vivek Shanbagh
In the preface, translator N, Kalyan Raman classifies Ashokamitran's narrative technique as "documentary realism", His description of the term however reminds me of another celebrated South Indian author, Vivek Shanbagh, I loved hisbook Ghachar Ghochar for it's subdued narration, simple prose, and as Raman puts it in the preface of this book, "for describing the surface of events choosing the details with great care but never spelling out what they might mean".
That's true for both of them, and both of them use the art of leaving things unsaid in different ways.
While Ashokmitran's generous with the blunt emotional triggers and puts unspoken tangents to great use, Shanbagh is more subtle and a closer proponent of "documentary realism".
Sidenote: Cannot do the reader the injustice of not linking this sitelinkbrilliant profile of Ashokamitran by Arvind Adiga.
Enjoy! After having read Aravind Adiga's sitelinkpiece on Ashokamitran several years ago, I kept his name stored away at the back of my head, keeping a lookout for his works in translation.
I finally found a stack of them at Words amp Worth in Besant Nagar,
This book starts off a bit confused, but as it progresses, the confusion makes sense, The plot as such is very basic and only has two or three real movements, The narrator of the book, who is unnamed, has to deal with the ghosts of his past, literally and otherwise.
It's primarily a story of loss and suffering, and of departures, And of how time wears us all down, numbing us, changing us, and pushing us along, like rocks in a stream.
And atpages, you're soon ready for your own departure,
The writing is crisp and leaves a lot of space for the reader to read between the lines.
There's often more left unspoken than there is explicitly stated, bringing to mind Tolstoy's shorter works, There is no overly descriptive prose, yet it is not too minimalist either, The real heart of the book is reserved for the dialog, the inner monologue, and all those unsaid thoughts.
It's where the book really shines,
The translation is top notch and smooth, and as someone who can speak Tamil, I could detect a connect with the source language in the translation style.
Apart from that, it captures the vibe of Chennai life perfectly, and the utter loneliness you find in this giant city.
The descriptions of the thoughts you have at suburban railway stations struck a chord with me, The description of middle class life is more subdued and less embellished than you might expect from Indian English authors, and feels very authentic.
The Ghosts of Meenambakkam by Ashokamitran and translated from the Tamil by N Kalyan Raman is a book that left me befuddled with a lot of questions about the author and his writing, all in a good way I must add.
A short novella, this is a meditative
narrative on the nature of the past with its baggage of guilt, despair and overpowering grief that affects people in so many different ways.
We know more of the airport at Meenambakkam and less of the two protagonists in this and that made me look at the writing whether this was an effort to capture the essence of a place that is moving at breakneck speed towards being a city, stripping itself of character to become concrete buildings and tarred roads.
It makes one pause at the amount of emotions by way of memories and associations we have let go to welcome big structures into our lives that will not necessarily compensate for what we are losing.
On the face of it, the novella follows an unnamed character who goes to the airport every day, reliving the horrors and pain of losing his daughter in plane crash.
He runs into a rather mysterious person from his past who in turn is carrying his past into his present.
What
follows in the course of a few days in the present is heavily influenced by what has happened to each protagonist in their past.
There is a sense of unreality in the events that transpire that made me question whether it is the case of an unreliable narrator, one who has lost his grip on the reality around him.
And then of course, I went back to the translator's note where I am assured that it is the author's craft, his style and that's where the brilliance of this novella is that it makes you grapple with the dilemmas in way of the protagonists and that it makes you want more.
This is a book you should read if you are reader who loves to submit to the craft of an author.
If you want to read something and examine the journey, go for this,./. Half a star only for the last line of the book
The novella begins with the narrator walking along the airport in Meenambakkam when he spots Dalpathado, a foreign filmmaker, getting attacked by assailants.
This chance encounter sucks the narrator into a vicious ordeal involving Dalpathado and other such shady characters with evil plans.
The plot is predictable and seems superficial but there are lots of things that left unsaid by the author.
The story is as much about grief and loss, which the narrator exemplifies throughout, as much as it is about the turn of events that happen.
Overall, a very quick read that leaves behind an impression, A short, haunting read. You'll keep waiting for the big secret to be revealed, and, yet, you're going to be hit hard when the loose ends tie up at the end.
One dark and stormy night , Dalpathado unexpectedly crosses paths with the narrator of Meenambakkam airport, The faceless, middleaged man from Dalpathado's past is mourning the unexpected death of his daughter in a plane crash.
After they spend a dangerous night in each other's company, lashed by rain and reminiscence, neither man remains the same.
The Ghosts of Meenambakkam is a meditation on the violence that detonates human lives and the idea of love that endures all mayhem , even in death.
Was Dalpathado a terrorist or was he an angry lover Ashokamitran only can answer, I have not been posting reviews for quite some time now, Reason is, I am in Chennai on an orientation programme with the new job I have taken, I miss my desktop and my own private space posting from my tab is all very well for FB, but GR requires more respect.
However, this novella simply overwhelmed me so much that I decided I at least had to do a quick review.
I am not very familiar with Tamil literature, a gap which I decided to redeem recently.
What better place to start than from the state capital itself Quite serendipitously, I visited the "Giggles" bookshop and Nalini, its delightful proprietor, pointed me to some landmark books and writers.
Asokamitran was one of them,
This slender book packs so much power in its one hundred and fortynine pages, It's the story of a night and a day: the unnamed narrator, a father grieving the death of his only daughter in an airline accident, is at the airport at Meenambakkam on some unspecified errand when he meets Dalpathado, an awardwinning filmmaker from another country one may guess it's Sri Lanka who is apparently on the run from some people out to kill him.
In a sequence straight out of Kafka, we see him crawling across the railway tracks in pouring rain, holing up in a house, and participating in some kind of clandestine activity with the foreigner.
All the while, his mind is full of his angelic daughter whose face he can't remember any more and Dalpathado's erstwhile girlfriend Sylvia with whom she seems to share a strange kind of identity.
The story ends in a shattering climax at the airport the last sentence hits the reader with the force of a tidal wave.
Asokamitran's writing is very straightforward however his narrative is complex, There are multiple layers hidden within the folds of this apparently simple story, The way the novella opens, with the mention of Meenambakkam's road accidents and the ghosts inhabiting that place, provides an allencompassing metaphor for the tale.
A wonderful read, This small book is a powerpacked novella from Ashokamitran,
Wonderful read. . An amazing work of Ashokamitran, very well translated by Kalyan Raman,
The book is a fastpaced thriller, set in the backdrop of Meenambakkam,
With brilliant balance between the emotions portrayed, suspense created and pace adopted, the book keeps you stay hooked to it until the last page, and longer.
Characters choose not to leave, and incidents keep haunting,
I am so glad that I discovered such a gem of an author,
Already looking for more of Ashokamitran books, and all thanks to Kalyan Raman!
Highly recommended,
A distraught father who has been mourning his daughter for overyears and trying to win over his inner ghosts accidentally meets an old acquaintance on a stormy night at Meenambakkam airport.
What follows next is a journey of emotional turmoil filled with suffering and poignance, Read this short yet powerful novella written by the one of most influential writer in post independent Tamil literature.
Regret: being able to read in tamil, it is sad that I am forced to read in english, I grabbed this book this book from a old book shop , it is very short and could read it at a stretchbut I advice you not to.
Question: Tirisulam railway station seems to be non existent at the time, WOW. JUST WOW. Meenambakkam station flanks the ever so busy GST this side, but the other side still is neglected except for binny mills.
Can film makers find another place to shoot climax of movies
Madras technically ended in guindy those days, airport was outside the city.
WOW.
Meenambakkam. Pallavaram. Aiyo. Bajjis in rain. The connect was immense.
I could remember the airport from my childhood, the opposite to it was dingy and dark, opposing to the new theater area flushed with light and multiple bridges over head.
Being a person who can see the pallavaram hillock from my terrace and the bright white light of the airport flushing the hillockin the night, the connection is immense.
Added to that, I commute daily in suburban trains or at least I did before COVID, The connection . . is immense.
I could just imagine the old anna airport terminal, But that is all I could do, The airport in the story seems like a glorified public space with runways, Frogs and snakes in airport premises I wish, Every inch is concrete now, islands of soil lay here and there,
The story was too, strong, I will leave it there,
ம ஆணட சபடமபரந தத, ஆநதர மநலததல உளள சகநதரபததல பறநதவர. இயறபயர ஜ. தயகரஜன. தமத இரபததனறவத வயதல தநதயன மறவககப பன கடமபததனரடன சனனககக கடயற, ஜமன ஸடடயவல மககள தடரபத தறயல பணயறறத தடஙகனர. அபபத அகல இநதய வனல நடததய ஒர நடகப படடககக அனபன பரச எனனம நடகதத எழதனர. அதவ அசகமததரனன மதல படபப.ம ஆணட வனலயல அநநடகம ஒலபரபபனத. அசகமததரனன மதல சறகத நடகததன மடவ.ம ஆணட கலமகளல இத பரசரமனத. கலமகளல அவரத இரணடவத சறகத வபதத பரசரமனதயடதத, மணககட க. ர. மலம ந. பசசமரததயன அறமகமம, அவர மலம எழதத பததரகத தடரபம கடததத. சமர நறபதணட கம ஆணட சபடமபரந தத, ஆநதர மநலததல உளள சகநதரபததல பறநதவர. இயறபயர ஜ. தயகரஜன. தமத இரபததனறவத வயதல தநதயன மறவககப பன கடமபததனரடன சனனககக கடயற, ஜமன ஸடடயவல மககள தடரபத தறயல பணயறறத தடஙகனர. அபபத அகல இநதய வனல நடததய ஒர நடகப படடககக "அனபன பரச" எனனம நடகதத எழதனர. அதவ அசகமததரனன மதல படபப.ம ஆணட வனலயல அநநடகம ஒலபரபபனத. அசகமததரனன மதல சறகத "நடகததன மடவ".ம ஆணட கலமகளல இத பரசரமனத. கலமகளல அவரத இரணடவத சறகத "வபதத" பரசரமனதயடதத, மணககட க. ர. மலம ந. பசசமரததயன அறமகமம, அவர மலம "எழதத" பததரகத தடரபம கடததத. சமர நறபதணட கலததககம மலகத தமழன மக மககயமன பனகத எழததளரகளள ஒரவரக அறயபபடம அசகமததரன, அமரகக, சஙகபபர, ஜரமன, இலஙக ஆகய நடகளகக அழபபகளன பரல இலககயச சறறபபயணம மறகணடரககறர. அவரத பல படபபகள, பல இநதய அயல மழகளல மழயககம பறறரககனறன. அபபவன சநகதர' எனகற சறகதத தகபபககக, அசகமததரனககம ஆணட சகதய அகதம வரத வழஙகபபடடத. sitelink.