Writing short
stories is a challenging proposition, especially for new writers. You have to
build the set, describe the characters and their peculiarities, and then
narrate a tale, that too all within limited pages. Not many authors rise up to
this challenge, well Mohan Nair has done it wonderfully with his first book
Nair Told & Untold, which is a collection of 15 short stories.
All these
stories offer a fascinating insight into the lives of Malayali people, their
culture and religious values that not only influence their daily life but
thought process as well. The flavour of the stories may sound local because one
character ‘Nair’ is made available persistently through all stories, though his
roles differ from one story to another. In the first story, at Kabeer's Tea
Stall, he is a silent spectator where one pessimist customer is made satisfied
through product differentiation theory. Whereas, in Slaughtering Eyes, Nair is
an intelligent commando who busts the secret training camp of a terror
organization being run by a famous writer and human activist in the tribal
parts of Periyar.
As a reader,
you will never come across any awry point where you may feel that the author
has plunged into banality with his stories. Rather, with optimum satirical
angle, all stories sound fresh and try to spice up over all interest of
readers.
The longest
story is ‘What Really Mattered’, this story sheds light on strong family
traditions and what possible conflict of interests arises when a white-skinned
foreigner girl ties knot with a stereotype Keralite Nair. This story delicately
unfolds family lineage and rituals, and when Kate, the American girl, takes
firewalk, the event goes viral on FB. This is the same story that extensively
details the Chamundi Pooja and other religious chores in a typical Nair family.
Other than the
in-built behavior of Malayalis and culture of Kerala, these stories also didn’t
miss a chance to shed light on wider themes of today's world, like women
empowerment, typecast thinking, customer engagement through product
differentiation, cultural gap that comes coherently in the case of inter-faith
marriages, radicalization and terror spreading gangs and so on.
Despite the
character ‘Nair’ being made omnipresent in all stories, none of the story looks
repeated or dull at any point of time. Every story has something to tell about
today's time. The author sounds at ease even after adding satirical angle to
each story, nevertheless all the stories are presented with equal brevity and
clarity.
The stories
are written in such a simple and lucid way that you need not be a hardcore
Keralite to get the most out of them. In these stories, the author's
understanding and intuition into the Keralite people’s culture and religion is
evident. Some stories are quite short, some are little longer, otherwise rest
are of medium length. Well, they are all truly a delight to read.
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