Twilight Musings: 2013

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Magic of remembered moments...

Why is it that many a time, what we have been waiting for to happen, what we had been wishing for- when that moment finally dawns, why does it feel so unreal, almost as if it was happening to someone else. Why does it feel so ordinary, so bland?

When the long awaited moment was in the present, I kept reminding myself , "Here is the moment you've been waiting for, watch it unfurl, be in it, hold on to it, savour it. Lock it away, for some day in the future, you will seek this moment in the casket of your memories, you'll long to be back in it, relive it"...

And then in some moment of the remote future, it becomes a miracle remembered, perhaps more magical than it had actually been when in the present.

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

M.P. Bhattathirippad's "Rithumathi" -1952

Today at lunch, amma was recounting to me about M.P. Bhattathrippad's (Premji) play:

"*Ruthumathi". She embellished her narration with the typical "Namboothiri bhasha".

I was appalled at the plight of the girl child of those times. Thank God it had a happy ending. A very

poignant story that haunts you for a long time after.

Am I glad to have been born in today's era...

Below is an excerpt from :

http://www.academia.edu/3459832/Representation_of_Namboothiri_Women_in_Early_Malayalam_Theater

Similarly, Premji‟s Ritumati was a well-written work as a prose drama.

This is the story of Devaki, an orphaned Namboothiri girl, who initially stays with

her comparatively progressive maternal uncle who provides her with education (

otherwise not prescribed to a namboothiri girl).

But after attaining puberty, her education is discontinued and she is forcibly taken

to her paternal family. There, she‟s ordered to take off her blouse as per custom

and change into a mere piece of cloth. On her refusal to do so, Kizhakeprathe

Apphan Namboothiri tortures her by hiding her clothes and continuously abusing

her.

Devaki, thus transforms into the face of resistance in this drama as she adamantly

refuses to change her outfit for many months at length. Though branded as a

mentally unstable woman by family and society ( for merely voicing her desire and

dissent),she‟s betrothed to someone without her consent.

On the marriage day, her cousin Kuttan and her friend Vasudevan concede to her

desperate plea to rescue her from this confining atrocity. The protagonists Devaki

and Vasudevan succeed in the fight against their wretched life inside the

Namboothiri community. Unlike the three earlier plays mentioned initially, Ritumati

stands as an unflinching testimony to progressive drama. The protagonist is not

conveniently evicted from the plot ( as in Marakkudakkullile Mahanarakam, Savitri

Athava Vidhawa Vivaham and Adukkalayil Ninnu Arangathekku) in order to

maintain social normalcy‟.