துயில் [Thuyil]

ராமகிரிஷனின் நல்ல படைப்பு. மனிதன் நோயின் மிதுகொண்டிருக்கும் என்னத்தை மிக அற்முதமாக வெளிபடுத்துகிறார். அடித்தட்டு மக்களின் அழகான வாழ்கையை பற்றிய கதை இது. முடிவு மட்டும் சற்று ஏமாற்றத்தை கொடுத்தது.

இது போன்ற நாவல் படிக்கும்போது நாம் வெளி உலகை காண்பதுபோல் ஒரு பிரமை ஏற்படுகின்றது. எவ்வளவு மனிதர்கள், எவ்வளவு கலாச்சாரம். இதில் வரும் மாதாகோவில் திருவிழா நான் உண்மையில் சுற்றிப் பார்ப்பதுபோல் ஒரு உணர்வு. இதில் திரு. எஸ். ராமகிருஷ்ணன் அவர்கள் நோயை பற்றி கூறும்போது வாழ்க்கையில் நோய்கள் எத்தனை விஷயங்களை கற்றுதருகின்றது. இதில் வரும் ஒவ்வொரு நோயாளிகளும் அவர்களின் கதைகளும் நமக்கான எச்சரிக்கை. இதில் வரும் கதாபாத்திரங்கள் சின்னராணி,செல்வி,ஏலன் பவர், அழகர் இன்னும் பலர், ஏன் இவர்கள் அனைவரும் நம்மில் ஒருவர் ஆவர். எப்போதும்போல எஸ். ராமகிருஷ்ணன் அவர்களின் எழுத்து நம்மை வசீகரம் கொள்கிறது. இப்புத்தகம் என்னை மீண்டும் படிக்க தூண்டுகிறது, அதை நான் செய்யவும் செய்வேன். துயில் நம்மை விழிக்க செய்கிறது.

Good one. Thought provoking. Though I didn't like the ending for some reason.

One of the best books I have ever read. Literally all characters have been portrayed well. I felt that Chinnarani was hero in the novel, Powerful character. Thanks to S.Ramakrishnan for delivering such a wonderful piece. I would rate 4 out of 4 for this book.

மிகவும் அருமையான புத்தகம்

As I read more and more Tamil books, I am discovering that the Indian way of storytelling is quite different. It is more disperse and free and follows along multiple tangents. Usually these tangents add to the end-product, and converge around the central theme. In Thuyil however, these tangents just seemed tangential. The first thing that I loved about this book was how heat was such an important character. Having grown up in Chennai and having faced the scorching sun through the many years, I could related to every sentence that was written about it. It feels like this is something that is quintessentially Tamil too. S. Ra. brings alive the setting through his various descriptions of summer and how dry it is. Reading this during the summer month, I could almost feel the hear bouncing from the pages and onto the room around me. Spoilers ahead! Essentially this book is a discourse on disease. Two of the three narratives are centered around disease and third narrative that I thought was the primary one is related to these discourses in a very indirect way. Other than being situated in the same area there isn't really that much of a connect. All three stories go along independently of each other and somehow culminate at the same violent point. The women who are the protagonists of the narratives face some form on violence from an ostensibly drunk person. For me personally, the climax came out of nowhere and did not feel like it meant anything. They were just random acts of violence that had been barely foreshadowed. It felt doubly disappointing that this happened, because the arcs of each of the women had been built up to a nice point and felt like it would lead to something good. The fact that it instead ended up with death, rape and abuse did not feel impactful in any way and I could not see it as a statement that the author had made. A strong point about this book is its female characters. All of them are written very well and given more attention to than the male characters, which is refreshing. The general anecdotes are also good. But sometimes the episodes about a particular person's suffering and the solution offered to it felt a little too pointed and simplified. Not every disease can be traced as easily to some form of mental anguish or 'sin'. It was irritating at points when disease was equated to a punishment for a sin. Thankfully, there are enough counter points to balance these out and give a very cohesive picture of suffering. Overall this is a good book that gets a little dry here and there. An enjoyable read nevertheless.