Delhi : a soliloquy / M. Mukundan ; translated from the Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mukundan, Eṃ., 1943- author.

Contributor:

Fathima, E. V., translator.

Nandakumar, K. (Translator), translator.

Standardized Title:

Dalhi gāthakaḷ. English

Language:

English

Malayalam

Subjects (All):

Malayalis (Indic people)--India--Delhi--Social life and customs--20th century--Fiction.

Malayalis (Indic people).

Malayalam fiction.

Social conditions.

History.

Manners and customs.

India--History--1947---Fiction.

India.

Malayalis (Indic people)--India--Delhi--Social conditions--20th century--Fiction.

Delhi (India)--Fiction.

Delhi (India).

India--Delhi.

Malayalam fiction--Translations into English.

Genre:

Fiction.

Novels.

Physical Description:

537 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Chennai : Eka, an imprint of Westland Publications, 2020.

Summary:

"It is the 1960s. Delhi is a city of refugees and dire poverty. The Malayali community is just beginning to lay down roots, and the government offices at Central Secretariat, as well as hospitals across the city, are infused with Malayali-ness. This is the Delhi young Sahadevan makes his home, with the help of Shreedharanunni, committed trade union leader and lover of all things Chinese. His wife Devi and their children Vidya and Sathyanathan adopt Sahadevan as their own, and he soon falls into a comfortable rhythm : work, home and long walks across the city, in constantconversationn with himself. One day, these meanderings will find their way into a novel, or so he dreams. Then, unexpectedly, China declares war on India. In a moment, all is split asunder, including Shreedharanunni's family. Their battle to survive is mirrored in the lives of many others : firebrand journalist Kunhikrishnan and his wife Lalitha ; maverick artist Vasu ; call girl and inveterate romantic Rosily ; JNU student and activist Janakikutty. As India tumbles from one crisis to another - the Indo-Pak War, the refugee influx of the 1970s, the Emergency and its excesses, the riots of 1984 - Sahadevan is everywhere, walking, soliloquising and aching to capture it all, the adversities and the happiness. Hailed as a contemporary classic in Malayalam, this is a masterful novel about ordinary people whose lives and stories have leached into the very soil and memories of Delhi."--taken from back cover.

Contents:

Part One. Times of War

1. A hundred withered flowers

2. Writing in times of war

3. An auspicious journey

4. The solitude of war

5. Memories of romance

6. The pissing Olympics

7. Whooping cough and nostalgia

8. The heralds of war

9. Journeys in wartime

Part Two. The Republic of Hunger

1. Hunger, lines, colours

2. The politics of hunger

3. The naked poor

4. The unwed

5. The parade of hunger

6. The sighs of Old Delhi

7. Friends and refugees

8. Letters from home

Part Three. Of Crypts, Religion and Caste

1. What is it with Vanaja and Abdunnissar?

2. The slip-ups of a Thiyya girl

3. Abdunnissar in Delhi

4. The caste of art

5. Riots in Sewa Nagar

6. The lingam of ice

7. Sweet partings

8. The anguish of a widow

Part Four. Blackholes

1. June, a nightmare

2. The cane in Madam Indira's hand

3. The hearse of dreams

4. The closing doors of justice

5. The fear of castration

6. Disappearing men

7. The spectre of Tihar

8. Winter of fear

9. Ruckus in Chandni Mahal

10. The bulldozer army

11. The ballad of Turkman Gate

Part Five. Desires and Disappointments

1. The vacant throne

2. No locks or keys

3. The tears of Saiful Islam

4. The dismembered

5. Raksha Bandhan

6. Adieu to Sewa Nagar

Part Six. Bloody Yamuna

1. Chapatis and onions

2. Vasu the Great

3. Artist's slumber

4. Gunshots in Sewa Nagar

5. Thirty-three bullets

6. The hunters of Amritpuri

7. Streets on fire

8. Blood run

9. Keeper of dreams

Part Seven. Return Journeys

1. Jayanti Janata Express

- 2. The changing manuscript

3. The secret of mango blossoms

4. Diamond on her forehead

5. Goodbye, Mr. Kunhikrishnan

6. Her father's daughter

7. The beggar army

Afterword.

Notes:

"First published in Malayalam as 'Delhi Gathakal' in 2011. First published in English as 'Delhi : A Soliloquy' in 2020 by Eka, an imprint of Westland Publications Private Limited."--title page verso.

ISBN:

9789389648263

9389648262

OCLC:

1224045071