Thuraimugam(துறைமுகம் ) (Harbour)

My first book of Thoppil Muhammad Meeran, i should say i was really lucky to buy this book at the book fair, his writing is unique and the way he hanldes the native slang(malayalam mixed tamil) is excellent.

Story :
Thuraimugam is a story of a preindependence muslim fishing village.Meeran Pillai a fish('Nethilli') exporter and his family is living here for generations, the story revolves around him and his family.They lose everything including their house to the Colombo export owner, who always gives loss account.Many exporters became homeless,died because of the loss incured.Meeran Pillai is a typical muslim father who believes that education is not good for children, but Kasim his son is good at studies and persue his own interest, he involves in freedom struggle by participating in demonstration against the government and help the community in whatever ways possible.In the end after losing everything, Meeran Pillai acknowledges his son's views on religion and way of life.But he can not bear his wife and children suffer, he left the house never to be back.The story ends with the arrest of Kasim for treason.. and the family left without a male...

When i read this story i felt how much my community(im from a Fishing community) people suffered through the years, this story almost reflects the current state of many fishing community.Now the big companies themselves fixing the cost of prawns and fishes and leave the fisherman without any profit,i have seen many family losing everything just like Meeran Pillai in this novel.

Come back to the Story, the author is excellent in bringing the emotions of the characters like the dialogue between Meeran Pillai and his wife when Meeran pillai wants his wife's 'Thaali' to pawn and get money to run the business.Its clear that the author criticizes many belief of Muslims in a positive way specially about the education and marriage.

As written on the back of the book " the story lingers even afte finish reading".. yes its true.I imagine myself as this author and standing with lots of hope on seashore and  waiting for the boats to come ..  like me hundreds in my hometown waiting in hope.. the life story continues..

I should say that the physical nature(printing&cover) of the book is excellent ,very handy not like other Tamil books i read over the years which has hard cover and designed pathetically.This book is printed excellently , the covers are also good.I wish many more Tamil books will come like this one.Why im mentioning this, because this book is very easy to carry and read when you travel in trains and buses.Very handy.

First Tamil book of the year.. a great start to my Tamil  reading.. 

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