S Hareesh’s Malayalam novel Meesha made headlines in 2018 after right-wing activists called for a ban on the book. The reason for such outburst: a conversation between two characters in the story hurt the sentiments of the Hindus. Bigotry and banality apart, the uproar piqued the interest of many non-Malayali readers. With the English translation of Meesha by Jayasree Kalathil already on the shelves, curious readers can finally have an audience with Moustache.
The story of Moustache or Vavachan, the Dalit protagonist from Kuttanad in the southern state of Kerala, is as virtuous as it is vicious. The hyperboles of the hoi polloi may overwhelm the reality of his life but Moustache remains a representative of the oppressed class who ironically turns into a terror for all, cutting across castes.
Vavachan is a Pulayan, one of the largest communities in Kuttanad, converted to Christianity. The members of the community are farm workers and were once nothing more than tangible property to their upper caste masters. Hunger is part of life and survival is a daily battle for Vavachan and his family and many others like them who live at the mercy of affluent land lords.
Paviyan and Chella, Vavachan’s parents, work in others’ fields for a handful of paddy a day, and collect wild edibles and fish in the numerous canals and rivulets of Kuttanad to feed the family. When food is scarce, Paviyan takes home a pangolin, locally called eenampechi, so that his children can forget their hunger. And in her desperation, an unaware Chella takes home poisonous mushroom to cook a fatal meal. The dead daughter never existed for the mother.
For the boy Vavachan, to be the first among six siblings to go out on a boat with his father Paviyan is more tempting than a bowl of kanji (gruel) water even if pangs of hunger distract him. “Except for giving them a good thrashing with a length of coconut leafstalk a couple of times a year, Paviyan paid very little attention to his six children,” the author writes.
No wonder then that Vavachan feels pride at being invited to climb on to the boat.
As Vavachan’s story unfolds, from a teenager to a youth, the non-existent Pulayan boy with a dream to go to Malaya becomes a revered figure. And this is all because of a play. The moustache that a young Vavachan grows for the policeman’s character in the drama gradually overshadows the human identity and transmutes into an independent entity. It is the moustache that rouses fear and reverence for Vavachan and not the person. It is the moustache that makes a Pulayan a legend.
The moustache, left unshorn, only grows in size and might. In its inkiness is reflected the morbidity of war, famine and despair. Hareesh’s adroit portrayal of the social fabric of pre-independence Kerala and the politico-economic transformation of the state is also weaved into the majestic and mysterious moustache.
The magic realism in Hareesh’s story in no way belies the humiliation of casteism and poverty but definitely lessens its impact on readers. The talking fish or the ghosts treading the bunds of the canals are as real as the crafty Brahmins or the crocodile-killer sahib. This commingling of the real and the surreal makes the narrative compelling. There are also references to and appearance of historical characters in Vavachan’s story.
The author’s narrative in the style of folklore may be bewildering at times and one may lose sight of the contours of the waterscape, like Paviyan and Vavachan who get lost in the darkness. But finding the way does not seem difficult with Hareesh’s vivid description of the place and nature there and like a deft boatman, a reader navigates the dark waters in search of the real person hidden behind the bushy moustache.
Moustache is more than a story of an individual. It is the story of the land and its waters, the people and their lives, the women who are the worst sufferers of any social malice, and the aquatic flora and fauna. It is about Kuttanad, a below-sea-level farming region in the state’s south-west coast. It is also about the local economy and politics, both deeply impacted by the caste dynamics, and science and ecology.
Moustache is an enigma and remains so till the end. Everything else around him disintegrates with time but Vavachan and his stories remain eternal. The book takes the reader back and forth in time, connecting generations through moustache, which is a sign of virility in a patriarchal society, and which the author uses as a metaphor to denounce everything conventional. The novel, though rooted in regional history, has a wider appeal for it gives a glimpse of a greater Indian society that had suppressed, and still does, numerous Vavachans whose stories remain untold.
~ NM
Book: Moustache; Author:
S Hareesh, translated by Jayasree
Kalathil; Publisher: Harper
Perennial; Pages: 331; Price: Rs 599