N. S. Madhavan , one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Malayalam fiction,is a multifaceted personality, who is famous as a short fiction writer, novelist, football columnist and a travel writer, Madhavan enjoys a wide readership in Malayalam.
In the thirty-third year of his writing Madhavan made his debut in the genre of novels with 'Lanthan Batheriyile Luthiniyakal' (Litanies of Dutch Battery) in 2003. The novel is about life in an imaginary island in the Kochi backwater, that got its name from the battery (bathery in Malayalam) of five cannons installed at its promontory by the Dutch(Lanthans in Malayalam) in the 17th century.
The young narrator of this novel is a girl called Jessica, scion of a family of carpenters with a long tradition in boat building. Her reminiscences start from the days when she was inside her pregnant mother's womb. The novel presents an intimate picture of life of the Latin Christians of the Kerala coast. Latin Christians are descendants of poor, low-caste Hindus who were converted to Christianity by the Portuguese colonists in 16th century . The novel is set in the first sixteen years of Jessica life between 1951 to 1967, but draws upon history starting from the time of Vasco Da Gama. She was born during a time when people used to run away from cow-pox vaccinators. it was also the period when Kerala embraces communism, which the novelist calls 'watermelon years' - an allusion to the verdant green-canopied Kerala hiding the Red inside. There are captivating descriptions of Latin Christian residents of Dutch Battery preparing themselves for months to stage Karalman Chavittu Nadakam, an operatic play on Charlemagne,originally written by Chinnathambi Annavi, in the 16th century in Tamil and pidgin Latin.
Set against the background of the city of Madhavan's birth, Cochin, the novel is a roller coaster ride through micro histories,nascent days of a newly independent country, the growth and decline of ideas, and randomness of events affecting human lives
Here in this novel, Madhavan uses History as a tool. The established historiographers never mentioned the point of view of the common masses in their writings. In this novel, N.S. Madhavan intervenes in to that history and wrote a history from the point of view of a little girl. Throughout the novel the novelist reminds us of the shortcomings of the established writings and employed the techniques of oral tradition. It should be noted here that the memory of the people is related to events rather than numbers in the calendar. The protagonist’s mother retells the time of the releasing of the movie, Jeevithasaghi, and remembers that the child born after the releasing of the movie. The life of the people is very much connected to films,theatres, religious festivals. There is a nostalgic effect in the novel while he mentions the theatre, because theatre going is a rare event nowadays.
The Communist movements and the Vimochana Samaram are also part of the memory of that little girl, but her(or the novelist’s) position in all these issues remains ambiguous. Com. Ramachandra Shenoy is portrayed very positively, so is Br. Vadakkan, whereas the priest in the church is a negative character, at least slightly. But in the later part, when the protagonist face a severe problem no noe helped her, even the party. Party was in a strategic alliance with the church.She remains helpless!!!!
The characterization of Jessica remains as a question. What the novelist tries to convey through her?? She is remaining in her self- proclaimed madness. it is better to accept madness in such a worst place? Or is this place not good for an independent, thinking, brave girl like Jessica?
The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa
