Recently read book - "Othappu' by Sara Thomas

Recently read : Othappu – A book by Sara Joseph

The word othappu in Malayalam means temptation. This is a word which every body underestimated from the time of creation. It was the devil tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden.

And both Eve and Adam fell as we all know. Thereafter all kinds of jealousies and violence take place on earth which continues till date both individually and in groups.

Here the simple theme is around the life in central Kerala where a simple youth from a poor family goes out to learn and become a devoted priest, becomes one and in the nascent stages gets shaken by the mesmerizing eyes and feet of another youth, a nun who comes to the church for her prayer activities. It encompasses the lives of the priests and nuns of the Malayalam country, especially central Kerala.

Hilarious and emotional to read, especially for those who have grown in and near the churches, the novelist is depicting the life and times of yesteryear Trichur and to an extent its Catholics who are so much devoted and stead fast in the daily activities which are bound by tradition. It is difficult for them to escape from that circle and have another life.! The Trichur Rice Market which the novelist depicts is so well put in, one can smell the odour of red chillies all over in that market even today.

And the dialogues of the people with the original beauty of it in Triichur, where most of the families will have a 'double name' by which they are generally known by the people around and another great name to be used ceremonially, once they are rich and had to be addressed in public where great people are around. “Channere Varkey Mashu” is so well set, any body in the District of Trichur will feel they are reading somebody near their own houses.!

I felt this has something to do with the caste system of the olden days, in which the poor people were allowed only to put in names bearing a kind of lowness in it, like 'thevan', 'koran' 'kandan' etc, in the south India and dhukhia', 'kaalu' in the north. The tradition is always to get rich and keep the riches so that the family flag flies high, but in the process people became arrogant and overlooked ones own brothers and sisters who are not that accomplished as themselves and went on to heckle and put down who wanted to come up.

The youth, in any case, are not much subdued by all that. Others help them from time to time and they survive most of the life's trials as all youth but in the process are unable to help their near and dear, viz. their beloved, fathers and mothers. The father of the young priest who leaves his priesthood is a gentleman who does earn his daily living and feed the family with his meager salary in the 'Whole sale Rice Market' by lifting the huge bags of rice and other groceries which landed up in the market. His head is held high among one and all around him, as 'His son is going to become the Priest, becomes the Priest, 'and proves to be a good Priest at that', whom even his own 'Mothalaali' (Merchant owner of the shop where he works) looks with awe. But alas, the moment of extreme paang comes for him in the form of the news, that his loved son whom he was looking forward as a icon has left his calling as priest hood and is going here and there! In a traditional setting like Trichur, this is some thing which no mortal can take..and naturally, he ends up his life

on the very beam of the shop where he was lifting the huge and heavy rice bags for the last forty-fifty years.

The novelist beautifully touches up the lives of people who are still kind and dare to help the youth and his fiancée who run for their dear lives while still trying to do all the good to others wherever they moved, but without wherewithal finds it difficult to go forward. It is here the nun out of the convent who does not have much standing dares to return to her brother to ask for a job to which she is well qualified. There is a situation created as 'if the ignominious girl' picks up the job, the brother Mayor will find it shameful for 'STATUS' ego. This kind of difficulties are found in all places and parts of our country among all kinds of people.

It is a book which can be read for the beauty of the depiction of Trichur and its people, their markets and the lives of the common man as well as the rich, their institutions and the general belief of the people, their strifes in daily living etc. Over all, the lives of the undaunted Goodness doing priests and nuns who keep on doing good regardless of the outcome and their touch way of keeping themselves the lowest by humbling themselves through acts of fasting and penance.