யாமம் -எஸ்.ராமகிருஷ்ணன்

This history laced story is something i loved reading and enjoyed a lot. S.Ramakrishnan , once again proved his versatility.The story starts with how an English got permission to do business in India to Mugal king. The author tells how Madarapattanam came into existence .Its always nice to read the history with stories, instead of just plain history books.

The story moves around between four set of characters. The author uses linear story telling and made it best possible one can make.Because of the period of the stories , the author used historical facts and characters and added value to the story. First , Karim and his family. His is a family of attar makers and he is the last one surviving. None of his three wives produced heir ( a male child) to his family business.He goes behind horse racing and looses everything including the "Keys to the scent", a garden where he refined attar. Left out by their husbands the three wives started their life fresh but everything collapses after the death of one of the girl. The author uses the historic diarrhea outbreak to kill one of the wives.

Second ,Bhathragiri and his family.He had good life with his wife Vasala. But everything collapses after the arrival of his brother Thiruchitrampalam's wife Thaiyalnayaki. When Thiruchitrampalam leaves to London to pursue his education ,Bhathragiri and Thaiyalnayaki makes love and she get pregnant.The author beautifully brings the emotions and guilty feelings of Bhathragiri. But his love for his brother remains intact but he do not want to see his brother.The author beautifully brings the life of London through Thiruchitrampalam ,enjoyed reading this part of the story a lot.

Third , Krishnappa and his life with Elizabeth in Sirumalai. Krishnappa comes to Madharaapattanam to settle his wealth through court but his stays more in Madharaapattanam than expected and he meets Elizabeth. After spending so much money and time , he decided to take only Sirumalai and give everything to other party. He asks Elizabeth to go with him to Sirumalai. She also agrees and they enjoy their life there. The authors description of the place is really wonderful,i can feel the place. The author explains how Britishers started tea cultivation.Very interesting.

Fourth, Sathasivam pandaaram,a dog and their journey. These two characters are very peculiar and unique, i have not read any characters like these two in tamil novels , at least so far.Sathasivam leave his mother and goes behind the dog.On the way he meets many different personalities, he also had a sexual relationship with a girl who gave birth to a child.

Each of these characters are related to one another. The author beautifully moves the story of these people along with the historical events.I should call this book historical-fantasy novel because in the first part of the book Karim's family was guided by a spirit or a genie. 

After finishing reading the book my immediate thought was to put all the main characters in a diagram and see , i mean how all the characters are linked to Madharapattanam and Yamam. The reason for my thought was that in my profession i draw diagrams for everything but i'm not good at Photoshop or any other tools like that. People may laugh but i love drawing and connecting the characters.And below is a simplistic Yamam diagram .

 This book won Tagore Literature Award.