The novel Dattapaharam starts
with a newspaper clipping that reports about a mysterious man sighted by a
team of researchers in the depths of a forest – Pullothikkadu, a place 20 kms
from the valley – and who vanished again. This incident brings back five
friends together on a quest to find their friend Freddie Robert, who might be the
one seen by the researchers.
In this tale,
witnessed, lived and told by different narrators, we come across six friends, who
in their days spent as engineering students formed a close-knit group and
called themselves Pandavas – the
legendary five brothers from the epic Mahabharat
who along with their wife Panchali
(Draupadi) were sent on an exile, and who spent their long years hiding, mostly
in forests (Vanabasa). Like Pandavas
and Panchali, the group – Freddie Robert, Sudhakaran, Mahesh, Muhammad Rafi,
Sahadev Iyer and Meera – would make nature visits, particularly led by
Freddie Robert, to the forests, and who in his later days of engineering became
elusive, wayward and obsessed with his inclination for nature and forest.
Freddie Robert,
once a leader of hostel ragging, later the most revered and loved one among his
group for his generosity and daring, and who would let his comrades experience
the otherwise unthinkable, transforms to become more introverted and enigmatic in
his later days before his mysterious disappearance in a forest. The other
members of the group do not find it easy to understand Freddie and his purpose
– to be close to nature and be in unison with it. As the friends make a journey once again to the forest where they lost their friend, the tale unfolds
or rather unravels into threads connecting to more subtle but sensible thought-provoking forces driving Freddie to disappearance. The author successfully lets
the story drive in a mysterious train, revealing secrets at every new station,
told through multiple narrators – the mystery keeps you hooked, and the
sensibility of connectedness to nature slowly turns from an idea to a necessity
for the characters. This book has a special calling! Those not finding the
roots of nature simply might be lost in the pages, which has also been
suggested in the preface by the author.
The members of
the group narrate their individual relation with and impression of Freddie
during their college days, all of which contribute to characterize the Pandava
gang but also illuminate the idiosyncrasies of the members, which transmits a certain mood to the whole story. We find sufficient humor, in all its naturalness
of youthful days, but memories of a horrific experience, especially in the
description of the hostel ragging, unsettle us.
The vision of
life envisioned by the author, especially through Freddie Robert, Meera and
Sudhakaran forms a dreamy ambience, which is earthy, raw, and palpable but one
which is realized transforming from something ethereal to something urgent and
close, only when transformation happens within oneself too.
The engineering
background of the author makes him very attentive to technical details, and he
puts them in sharp and accurate ways to his advantage, lifting science with
natural spirit and joy, as metaphors and for swinging to the edge of the
universe.
As the friends
make the arduous journey into the deep forest, hoping to find their purpose,
they rather are excited to find themselves ruminating over the cause of the disappearance.
Enchanted by the beauty of the forest afresh, discovering new symbols and
connections, as if a clue to the secrets of nature, their hope to find
Freddie is bolstered. They try to understand the forest, its comfort, offerings and
dangers, so that those experiences form a path to Freddie, wherever he is. They
discover that the path to disappearance was not so simple, nor the life Freddie
chose, glimpses of which were written in his diary.
As the urgency
burdens the friends, to find Freddie or to escape, events unfold putting
them into a dilemma, and delusions and placing them face to face with a secret they
held for so long. Freddie turns from a man to an idea that is contagious.
Who'll they find in the forest? Or, who will they lose? Will they return the
same, or will they return at all?
The sensibility in the novel, which I wrote about earlier, has its fundamentals in the affinity for nature, not limited to being an observer, but to be part of it, without any superficiality. If we know about the spirituality, and the duo – body and soul, the force driving the characters adds in Nature, to become a trio of existence. The novel plays on the ideas like journey of instincts, going back to nature, merging with its core and essence, nature as mother, nature as a God, and spiritual awakening oriented to nature than to anything else. Imagine a mysterious bird taking you to the depths of the forest to show some secrets, and imagine a man entering a forest, and a forest entering into a man. The novel is a journey of awareness that takes us to the roots of our existence – which can find solace only in nature, unraveling our deep-seated desire to escape, to be free, to return to the origin, to return back to nature and to primeval human ways. Dattapaharam is gripping, natural, sharp, meditative, wildly imaginative and one of the thoughtful novels written in a mood of mystery. Perhaps, I can name it a "Nature Mystery" novel!
Author: V.J. James
Original Text: Malayalam
Translator: Ministhy S.
Publisher: Penguin Random House India https://penguin.co.in/book/dattapaharam/
No comments:
Post a Comment