CHENNAI: They say, never judge a book by its cover. But the light-green coloured sketch of his mother draws your attention as you pick up Perumugal Murugan’s latest novel Amma. “When illustrator Rohini Mani asked me for a picture, all I had was this one of Amma in her white sari. She sketched a coir bed, farm and cattle to bring out an agrarian feel. What could’ve been a better description of the woman who raised her children with the income from just a few acres of land!” shared Perumal Murugan.
The author was in the city for the launch of his first non-fiction book of 22 essays, where he pays homage to his late mother Perumayi’s way of life, simple values and hard work, peppered with nostalgia in his Kongu dialect. The book was released in the presence of educationalist Vasanthi Devi.
Lifetime memories
The idea for the book stemmed from an essay Thondra Thunai, which the author had penned for a magazine in July 2019. “The chapter, An invisible Companionship, was an essay I had written to overcome my grief after her death in 2012 due to Parkinson’s Disease. I’ve tried to incorporate my childhood days with Amma in the book and I recollected that through her storytelling. They left a lasting impression on me as a child. Revisiting those days was like reliving every moment with my Amma,” said Murugan, who has received an overwhelming response for the book in both Tamil and English.
The book was translated from Tamil to English by journalists Nandini Murali and Kavitha Muralidharan. In one of the chapters, The Book Addict, Murugan has beautifully penned how a book was only a utility to his Amma. She’d scold Murugan and his brother for spending money on magazines. Little did she know that her son would end up writing essays on her delightful humour, ideologies and home-cooked meals that satiated his tongue and heart. “Women saw it as an appreciation of womanhood and called it an empowering story. Readers revelled in the nostalgia it brought them or were amused by the life of village women. I feel great to have covered every aspect of Amma,” he said. He’s the author of eleven novels, four collections of short stories, and five anthologies of poetry in Tamil.
A legacy left behind
The foreword of the book is written by his wife Ezhilarasi. ‘We also see how mother and son treated each other like friends, without feigned respect; they neither sought to control each other nor compromised when expressing their thoughts,’ she pens in the chapter Athai-Amma. “My wife got to know more about Amma when she stayed with us for five years. Somebody who read the foreword suggested that even my wife could’ve written a book on Amma since there was so much to it,” said Murugan.
The author launched the book among his friends and family for the first time at the terrace of his house where his bother’s and his children reminisced fond memories of their grandmother. “Given a chance, I would’ve included a chapter on Amma’s Dalit friend Thangammal since I touched upon caste towards the last two chapters. She worked in her land and they shared a good friendship till the end. Every incident about Amma evokes a memory so it was hard to select the stories,” said Murugan, who is grateful to his mother for having taken this shy, introverted child by the hand and pushing him into the outside world.
Family connect
Perumal Murugan approached his wife to write the foreword, and she immediately accepted. He read out every chapter to his wife and children after framing the content.
‘Amma’ is priced `399 and is available on Amazon.