Moons Far Far Away - Review
TEJAS
When people ask me where I'm originally from, I usually laugh to myself. As a kid born in the USA to parents from different regions of Tamil Nadu and I returned to India to grow up in a totally new part of Tamil Nadu, I usually choose my answer based on how much time and interest my audience has. Though I have never been in doubt about my Indianness or Tamilness ( no matter what my passport says) what I have struggled with is finding my language.
As someone who has done their earliest education abroad and in English medium schools in India, it is the language that I write most effortlessly in however the language of my heart and mind has always been Tamil.
This dichotomy has always led me to be dissatisfied with Indian English literature that never seemed to talk about the country I saw but rather about a land that has been imagined through various lens of what the western world believes India to be.
The resilient, vibrant, foolhardy ( yet surprisingly wise at the same time) people I met on a regular basis were absent in the pages I read. Especially the women. My mother would tell me tales of how she explored various jobs as a young woman, ranging from working at a publishing house to a recovery team for a chit fund company. She would tell me tales of resilience and independence as part of growing up in a household of 30. If she was a rebel, the tales my grandmother told me were of one who lived as an extension of the system.
From being her father's pampered daughter to suddenly being one of the oldest brides in her laws place at the age of 17, the stories my grandma told me would no doubt elicit our generations go to word - " Trauma" yet I have never seen her once tell these stories without a smile on her face.
She was someone who beat the system just by making it hers through acceptance.
Bharatha Devi's Nilakkal Thooran Thooramaga brings to life many such characters. Who are deeply relatable yet at the same time wildly outlandish.
The ability to narrate the most fantastic of situations in a language that displays no excitement or hyperbole . Whether it is stories of how she plays with her friends and works in the fields or mystical tales of how the gods play among the mortals ( sometimes these do overlap thanks to the mischievous kids) all of them have that stark matter of fact tone, that is in a sense quintessentially Indian.
However the beauty of Moons far far away is the translation. Chaidhanya's masterful work does not make the English language a curious onlooker but an active participant in the dry lands of Kovilpatti and Srivilliputhur.
Generally one of the strong points of literature that talks of rural life is their use of the dialect. Many a time these dialects stump a native tamil speaker of another district or community, however the beauty of Moons Far Far away is that it retains the raw earthiness while not obscuring the meaning.
The Tamil Nadu that finds description in this book is a land of people struggling to survive. These are stories that my generation have not seen yet have heard from parents, uncles or grandparents. A generation we know for their extreme care to ensure a paise is not spent in excess. A generation that is more interested in a stable job than job satisfaction. A generation we very conveniently can dismiss as Boomers without understanding where they come from. However when I read this book I see a love and zest for life that trumps any suffering. As the author frequently mentions the moon, though very far away, is a constant companion. A symbol that no darkness is too dark.
As a book there are many moments which feel disjointed or mildly repetitive, however as you go along this slowly becomes a style of its own. The novel slowly becomes a living person who talks to us.
There was one moment in the book where there was a mention of the Tiruvannamalai temple ( Not the famous Arunachaleshwara of North Tamil Nadu but a small hillock in the Srivilliputhur district) which so happens to be my family's deity. It was a moment of realisation that Meenakshipuram and the other villages were but a stones throw from my father's native place. Along with that realisation was another one that such translations and representation of Indian English is the way forward for people like me whose Indian hearts are locked by an English tongue
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