God's MischiefAs Post-Colonial Mayyazhi (Mahe) Where History And Time Flowed With The Water Under The Rusted Iron Bridge Tries To Come To Terms With Its New-Found Independence, Young Men Leave To Seek Their Fortunes Abroad. And Many Of The Older Generation, Orphaned By The Departure Of The French, Struggle To Eke Out A Living Even As They Remember Their Days Of Plenty Under Their Foreign Masters... Caught Up In Their Suffering, Kumaran Vaidyar Does Everything He Can To Keep The People Of His Beloved Mayyazhi From Starving, But Entrusts His Own Children To The Care Of His Beloved Wife, Who Is No More. Meanwhile, Father Alphonse Waves His Magic Wand And Changes Pebbles Into Candy And Waits For His Good-For-Nothing Son To Return. Through All This, Untroubled By The Woes Of The Elders, Shivan, Shashi And Elsie Spend An Idyllic Childhood In Sunny, Sleepy Mayyazhi. Until The Day Of Reckoning Catches Up With Them And They Pay The Price Of Growing Up. Mukundan S Two Seminal Mayyazhi Novels, On The Banks Of The Mayyazhi And God S Mischief, Are, At One Level, The Saga Of Mahe (Mayyazhi) With Its Legacy Of French Colonialism. At Another, They Are, Despite An Exuberant Parade Of Myths And Legends, A Chronology Of The Futile Search Of The Exiled Through The Crowded Alleys Of History. Mukundan Has...Made Mahe Into The Malgudi Of Malayalam Literature. S. Prasannarajan, Times Of India Mukundan S Novels Provide A Reading Of The History Of Colonialism Unavailable In A Historian S Ruvre. Prof. K.N. Panikkar, Interrogating Colonialism: Novel As Imagined History. |
Common terms and phrases
Adithiyya Alphonse's Arupurayil asked Assainar brought bungalow called changed Chathu church clothes coconut dark Dharmapalan don't drink Elsie Elsie's eyes face Father Alphonse fell felt fish flowers France gave girl give glass goats gold gone hair hand happened head heard Indran Kadungan knew Kumaran Kumaran Vaidyar Kunchiruta Kunhaman Kunhikannan lamp laughed leave light live looked lost Madame Maggie Madhavan Madonna magic Mambi Mandiamma married Mayyazhi Michael mind Moosa morning mother never night once opened Raman reached returned rice river road round seen Shashi shirt Shivan showed sleep smoke started stay steps stood stopped tell temple Thiyya thought told took trees turned Vaidyar veranda walked wall watch wear wife women wore young