CHENNAI: Barely a week after the Madras High Court ordered that controversial author Perumal Murugan should be “left to do what he does best. Write”, he has done just that. Murugan’s latest is the translated version of his story Neer Vilayattu in English titled The Well by N Kalyan Raman.
After the verdict, Juggernaut, a library app, approached Perumal and asked if they could translate his stories. According to editor R Sivapriya’s note, Perumal took no time to think and immediately said ‘yes’. Within just a few days, Perumal sent the editor some of his best works. The Well is the first of the stories to be translated and in the editor’s words “is a story that begins in light and laughter and plays out till an accretion of small actions results in a swift descent of darkness.”
News of the publication spread after Juggernaut and Raman, the translator tweeted about it. In a piece about the book, Perumal said that the story was one of his personal favourites as well and thinks that it is his best work yet. “I wrote it 15 years ago and I still feel a kind of dread when I read it today,” said the writer who fell a prey to the controversy last year for his critically acclaimed Madhorubhagan (One-Part Woman).
The writer has been in the news after this and started to face heat in December 2014, four years after its publication. The book spoke about the Ardhanareeswarar temple which is known as a place where childless couples go to get their wish for a child fulfilled. While devotees believe that the deity fulfils the couple’s wishes, Perumal gave the more banal reason that a ritual was conducted where a woman would be impregnated by a stranger. This upset a large section of the society that went up in arms and burnt copies of the book and demanded a ban on the book.
However, the Madras High Court ruled last week that Perumal should be allowed to write with the Chief Justice even starting his verdict with the famous quote, “ I might not like what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it.”