ஒரு கடலோரகிராமத்தின் கதை (Oru Kadaloragramathin kathai)- ோப்பில் முஹம்மது மீரான் (Thoppil Muhammad Meeran)

Every other day i saw this book on my table , two or three times took it and kept it back without reading a word. At last two days back took this book and started reading , and i did reading without stopping and finished the book . What a joy to read this book. Its worth the delay .

As the name suggests
this is the world war time story of a village called Thengaaipattinam where majority were Muslims.  The community was soaked in religious roots and never accepted anyone go out of their belief and faith. The darker side of the community was told beautifully without hurting the religious sentiments.I think this is the first book talks exclusively about the Muslim community in Tamilnadu .

The author explores the life of the people with two very unique characters Vadakkuvettu Ahamadkannu and Mahmudeen -the two main protagonists .Larger than life and over the top and typical village head Vadakkuvettu Ahamadkannu, who is doing everything for the sake of his family name and for prestige . But he is evil minded even to his own people - killing of the the lady(Lakshmi) who keeps her assets with him, arranging marriage to her daughter Aisha just to avoid getting bad name, opposing anyone who oppose him etc.. and Mahmudeen , who is a dried fish merchant and a good man who opposes the village head for his wrong doing.

In the name of religion Ahamadkannu opposes the building of English teaching school and takes all steps to prevent the construction and latter children from attending it. The worst of his activities was making some guys to defecating on the front door of the new teacher's house.

Aiza , the daughter of Ahamadkannu, loves his aunt's son Fareed. Fareed is not a emotionally strong guy. He did not understand much of what Aiza told. But the physical touch made him to realize that he needs Aiza. No one suspected anything between these two. Ahamadkannu without asking neither his wife nor his daughter quickly arranges marriage for Aiza to a old man. But she returned from her husband house due to his illness. The author beautifully tells the tragic life of Aiza, with an eye for her youthfulness and her wishes to unite with Fareed.

Two other characters makes the story even more interesting ,Avukaaru , the accountant of Ahamadkannu and Asanaar ,the imam-like guy. Through Avukkaru's character the author tells the story of Ahamadkannu's 'fall from grace' stage of life beautifully,  Avukaaru's inner conversation specially after Ahamadkannu became mentally unstable- brilliant. Asanaar ,on the other hand, as Ahamadkannu loses power he slowly move away from him . The author portrays him as ugly guy - did not take path for some days with dirty dress and cap and rude behaviors towards kids. His life was a bogus one.

The author tells how the people hold on to their belief and how it changes slowly as time passes and new things arrives. The impact of new changes made on these people was enormous. They lost their way of life slowly.This book tells the story of one particular community like 'Irandaam Jaamangalin Kathai'. But the similarity stops there. Both are dealing with different things.

A great read!