സംഹാരത്തിന്റെ പുസ്തകം | Samharathinte Pusthakam

by Anand

ആനന്ദിന്റെ മൂന്ന് ആഖ്യാനങ്ങള്‍

104 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

P. Sachidanandan (born 1936), who uses the pseudonym Anand is an Indian writer.
Anand writes primarily in Malayalam. He is one of the noted living intellectuals in India. His works are noted for their philosophical flavor, historical context and their humanism. Veedum Thadavum and Jaivamanushyan won the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award. Marubhoomikal Undakunnathu won the Vayalar Award. He did not accept the Yashpal Award for Aalkkootam and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Abhayarthikal.

Reviews

[Arun Divakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violence is to me like an ether that permeates all forms of life at each instant. Night or day, jungle or the city, home or battleground, violence rears its head every time. Looking at the history of the most organized of violence : warfare, we can understand that the time of large nation states battling across titanic battlegrounds is a story of the past. It is the time for smaller skirmishes and intense, bloody urban warfare. If I may borrow from Guy Gavriel Kay : The time of Lions is past, it is a time for wolves ! Anand borrows this concept of violence moving from large nation states to a struggle between individuals. In three loosely interconnected stories, Anand introspects on the nature of violence as a force of humanity.

There are three stories in this slim volume : The Gardener, The Hotelier and The Tailor. Told from a first person POV, it is the interaction with individuals who make violence a vocation or an indispensable part of life (theirs and others) that is the stand-out factor for this book. In the story of the gardener (how these titles came to be is something you need to read this to figure out)it is the author's interaction with a member of a community called 'the thugs' that is highlighted. The thugs were a group of assassins in the British India who waylaid travellers and unsuspecting commoners.They were thought to be obliterated by General Sleeman but if I were to believe Anand, then they are still an esoteric cult baying for blood. In the second story of the hotelier, we explore another bloody aspect of history. Here we interact with the much fabled Hashshashin of Hassan-i Sabbah and the notorious fortress of Alamut. Remember Assassin's Creed ? Well, this is where it all began. Their difference from the thugs is in almost total lack of religious sense. The thugs kill as an offering to a godhead while the assassins kill for nothing but the act of killing itself. The killer aspect of these stories is in the fact that you view them from a first person POV and it adds a lot of authenticity to it. I really cannot comment much on the story of the tailor for it was weak and did not venture beyond a superficial look at secret cults.

These can be labelled more aptly as articles than stories for they delve deeper into the nature of violence and its religious and social implications. As with the other stories by Anand, the characters are unimportant but the ideas more prominent. Not the author's best but a good read nonetheless.

If you are still wondering what the title means, here you go : Samharam - destruction and Pustakam - book. So there you have it, the book of destruction !

[Santhosh Thottingal · Rating 4 out of 5]

ഠഗുകളിലൂടെ, അസ്സാസ്സിനുകളിലൂടെ, സംഘംചേര്‍ന്ന അനുഷ്ഠാനങ്ങളിലൂടെ നടക്കുന്ന സംഹാരങ്ങളുമായി ഒരു നേര്‍ക്കാഴ്ച. ഫാന്റസി പലപ്പോഴും യഥാര്‍ത്ഥ്യത്തോടടുത്ത് വരുന്നതിന്റെ ഭീതി.

[Hariprasad · Rating 4 out of 5]

best fiction from Maayalam

[Krishnakumar Muraleedharan · Rating 4 out of 5]

തോട്ടക്കാരൻ, ഹോട്ടൽക്കാരൻ, തുന്നൽക്കാരൻ എന്നീ മൂന്നു വീക്ഷണങ്ങളിലൂടെ നമ്മുടെ ഇടയിൽ കണ്ടേക്കാവുന്ന ഗൂഢസംഘങ്ങളേയും അവരുടെ തത്വസംഹിതകളേയും വരച്ചുകാട്ടുന്നു. മൂന്നു സംഘങ്ങൾക്കും പൊതുവായുള്ള കാര്യം ഹിംസയാണ്, സംഹാരമാണ്. സംഹാരം അവരെ സംബന്ധിച്ച് മഹത്തായ ഒരു പ്രവൃത്തിയാണ്. ഠഗ്, അസാസിൻ എന്നീ രണ്ടു സംഘടനകളെയും അവയുടെ ചരിത്രങ്ങളെയും രീതിശാസ്ത്രങ്ങളെയും ക്കുറിച്ചാണ് ആദ്യ രണ്ടു കഥകൾ എങ്കിൽ മൂന്നാമത്തേത് പേരില്ലാത്ത, നാടില്ലാത്ത, ഒരുപക്ഷേ കാലമില്ലാത്ത ഒരു സംഘത്തെക്കുറിച്ചാണ് - അതൊരു പക്ഷേ ഒരു മത സംഘടനയോ രാഷ്ട്രീയ പാർട്ടിയോ ആവാം. ഈ എഴുതുന്നവനോ വായിക്കുന്നവനോ മേൽപ്പറഞ്ഞ സംഘത്തിലെ ഒരംഗമോ അല്ലെങ്കിൽ അവരാൽ വേട്ടയാടപ്പെടുന്നവനോ ആകാം.