துருக்கித்தொப்பி - கீரனூர் ஜாகிர்ராஜா

Most of the things I knew about Muslim community is from Thoppil Meeran's books and Salma's Irandam Jamakangalin kadhai. But this novel breaks that boundary. Kudos to the author. Most of the things portrayed in this novel are new to me.

This is the story of  ettukal veedu and it's gradual deterioration. The stand out feature of this book is the portrayal of two main characters KB Sheik and his grandson Rahmadullah.  KB Sheik, once a powerful man, lost huge amount of money which made him powerless. His fall from grace starts from there. He was lustful. His relationship with his wife is mostly sexual. He even tried to have sexual relations with his grandson.  He spends most of his time in his room upstairs with his harmonium.

Rahmadullah's story itself can be written as a separate book. The author brings the essence of the childhood with all its playfulness. As his mother moves away from him after the birth of his brother, Rahmadullah started behaving differently. He enjoys watching his mother giving breast milk. He also  enjoys being with his aunt's daughter Mallika , the first touch by the girl made him go crazy and kept on thinking about next touch. He even write a letter to his father detailing the relationship between his mother and Ruben. He speaks to Jesus during his visit to Palani church.Kudos to the author for bringing psychological aspects of a adolescent.

Noorjahan, the most beautiful girl, who marries not so handsome son of KB Sheik. She think Abbas as her ideal partner. Abbas is her cousin and childhood sweetheart. She realised that all the power in the ettukal veedu is with her mother-in-law Pattammal. She believes she was deceived by the fake fame of the house. But everything changes after the birth of Rahmadullah. She was strong and fight all the way to get his son back when Pattammal took away Rahmadullah. She even walks naked. She starts hating Rahmadullah after the birth of second son,- more importantly once she realized her beauty was destroyed by giving birth to him.Through Athavullah's character, the author highlights the growth of  Dravidian parties and how he was utilized by the leaders.

The story ends with the Turkey cap which made KB Sheik famous and well known in his village was hanging out without anyone taking care when the ettukkal veedu's  family shifting to new house .And at the same time Noorjahan receives money order from her husband Athavullah. As the story starts with Neem tree, it ends with need tree - remarkable story telling.

Everyone has some sort of sexual feeling for someone else, I think this particular point is very important for this story. KB Sheik - Noorjahan, Rahmadullah - Mallika, Ruben - Noorjahan, Kuttilevai-Renganayaki. This shows our society's view on female body and how we treat them.

The author brings alive all the characters with its unique features, though some times the writing is bit boring. The author also highlights the caste , economic division and sexual abuse in this story. The way the author highlights the division is remarkable - Pattamal is proud of eating mutton and hates Keelatheru people from where her daugher-in-law comes, who eats beef etc. The use of local slang was one of the highlight of this novel ,though I did not know some words. So many details about habits,rituals and food items of the Muslim community made this novel even more interesting.

Good read. I need to read this author's other books too.