HYDERABAD: Rainy days, social distancing and quiet afternoons combined with WFH — as the ‘new normal’ begins to settle in delve deep into the world of written words, laze around with a cup of your tea and explore these three books released recently.
The Women who Forgot to Invent Facebook and Other Stories by Nisha Susan
The stories in this debut collection tap into the rich vein of love, violence and intimacy that technology, particularly the Internet, has brought to the lives of Indians over the last two decades that transformed India’s digital landscape, where would-be lovers went from cooing into cordless phones to swiping right on cell phones.
Whimsical in its telling and brutal in its probing of the human mind, these stories breathe unexpected life into the dark and joyful corners of a country learning to relish and resist globalisation. A classical musician finds a prince in a chat room. Three dancers in Kochi mastermind their sex lives over email.Strange (and familiar) troll wars drag at a writer’s peace of mind.
The Cock is the Culprit by Unni R, translated by J Devika
In a small village in Kerala, people begin to get anxious about an invisible rooster that crows at odd hours.
It is heard interrupting the morning and night prayers at the temple, the mass at the church, the azaan at the mosque and the martyrs’ day ceremony. When it hoots in the middle of the national anthem being sung at the local school, it is instantly labelled as a threat to national security. It offends the sentiments of all those who are privileged, religious, political, patriarchal, exploitative, fanatical and homophobic. Naturally, there’s quite a mob baying for blood. The witch-hunt that ensues fuels suspicions that the invisible cock might even be a human; an anarchist who is trying to destabilize the nation with help from outside.
Delhi: A Soliloquy by M Mukund, translated by Fathima EV and Nandakumar K
It is the 1960s. Delhi is a city of refugees and dire poverty. The Malayali community is just beginning to lay down roots, and the government offices at Central Secretariat, as well as hospitals across the city, are infused with Malayali-ness. This is the Delhi young Sahadevan makes his home, with the help of Shreedharanunni, committed trade union leader and lover of all things Chinese.
Then, unexpectedly, China declares war on India. In a moment, all is split asunder, including Shreedharanunni’s family. As India tumbles from one crisis to another-the Indo-Pak War, the refugee influx of the 1970s, the Emergency and its excesses, the riots of 1984-Sahadevan is everywhere, walking, soliloquising and aching to capture it all, the adversities and the happiness. This is a masterful novel about ordinary people whose lives and stories have leached into the very soil and memories.