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യക്ഷി [Yakshi]
യക്ഷികള് എന്ന പ്രഹേളികയുടെ നിലനിലനില്പ്പിനെപ്പറ്റി പഠനം നടത്തുന്ന ശാസ്ത്രജ്ഞനും കോളേജ് പ്രൊഫസറുമായ ശ്രീനിവാസന്. അവിചാരിതമായി നടക്കുന്ന ഒരു അപകടത്തിനുശേഷം അയാളുടെ ജീവിതത്തിലേക്ക് രാഗുണി എന്ന പെണ്കുട്ടി കടന്നു വരുന്നു. തുടര്ന്നുള്ള അവരുടെ ജീവിതത്തില് രാഗിണിയുടെ സ്വത്വം തന്നെ ചോദ്യചിഹ്നമാവുന്നു.യാഥാര്ത്ഥ്യവും കാല്പനികതയും നിറഞ്ഞ നോവല് വായനക്കാരനില് ആകാംക്ഷയുണര്ത്തുന്നു.
178 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1967
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About the author
Malayattoor Ramakrishnan
38 books159 followersMalayattoor Ramakrishnan was born on 30 May 1927 as K. V. Ramakrishna Iyer in Kalpathi in Palakkad (Palghat) in a family of Kerala Iyers.
After earning the B.L. degree he started his career as an Advocate.Later he started his work as a sub-editor in The Free Press Journal in Mumbai. He was a contributing cartoonist to Shankar's Weekly. He is also credited with the first Malayalam translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula apart from translating Sherlock Holmes novels into Malayalam.
In 1957, he entered the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).The memoirs of his long career as a bureaucrat are narrated in his work Service Story – Ente IAS Dinangal.
alayattoor wrote his best known work - Verukal (Roots) in 1965. It is a semi-autobiographical work which tells the story of a family of Tamil speaking Iyers who settled in Kerala. This won him the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award.[1] In 1981, he resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in order to devote his time to writing. It was during the period 1981 to 1997 that his most famous works emerged from his pen. Among his other famous novels are Yakshi, Yanthram, Nettoor Mathom and Amritham Thedi. For Yanthram, he was awarded the Vayalar Award.
After earning the B.L. degree he started his career as an Advocate.Later he started his work as a sub-editor in The Free Press Journal in Mumbai. He was a contributing cartoonist to Shankar's Weekly. He is also credited with the first Malayalam translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula apart from translating Sherlock Holmes novels into Malayalam.
In 1957, he entered the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).The memoirs of his long career as a bureaucrat are narrated in his work Service Story – Ente IAS Dinangal.
alayattoor wrote his best known work - Verukal (Roots) in 1965. It is a semi-autobiographical work which tells the story of a family of Tamil speaking Iyers who settled in Kerala. This won him the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award.[1] In 1981, he resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in order to devote his time to writing. It was during the period 1981 to 1997 that his most famous works emerged from his pen. Among his other famous novels are Yakshi, Yanthram, Nettoor Mathom and Amritham Thedi. For Yanthram, he was awarded the Vayalar Award.
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November 21, 2022
Malyatoor tells us the story of Sreenivasan who is a chemistry lecturer who lost half of his face in an unfortunate incident in the chemistry lab. He marries a lady called Ragini. Sreeni believes that his wife is a yakshi (female spirit) which causes problems in their marriage. The amazing way in which the author travels through the intricacies of Sreeni's psyche will give you an extraordinary reading experience.
August 21, 2017
"Yakshi" is the iconic story of my childhood - but I must confess it is not the novel by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan, but the classic film noir based on it directed by the inimitable K. S. Sethumadhavan that fired up my imagination. I had not read the book until now, and I expected to be underwhelmed. I was pleasantly surprised. The book has every right to enjoy the cult status it does.
A yakshi is a ghoulish female spirit that entices men using her bewitching beauty, then chomps them up (surprisingly, this bloodthirsty version is prevalent only in Kerala, I understand - everywhere else, she is more benign). Obviously a variation of the toothed vagina, the yakshi signifies man's fear of the dark feminine nature. It is not chance that the only deity who can exorcise this female demon is Kali, the fearsome goddess who drinks blood and wears severed heads as a garland. It was my personal bugbear during childhood.
The unreliable narrator of the story, Sreenivasan, is a scientist and a chemistry lecturer in the college: or was - because when the story opens he is in the mental asylum. And he has a strange story to narrate. Sreeni who lost half his face in a mishap in the chemical lab, also lost his lady love and his future. Becoming more and more of a recluse, he turns to research to escape from the unbearable loneliness. The research is on yakshis.
Then one day, a beautiful girl, Ragini, waltzes into Sreeni's life. She professes to love him in spite of his disfigurement, and marries him. Sreeni has apparently got it made, except for one thing - he cannot consummate his marriage with Ragini - impotence seizes him whenever he tries to have sex with her. The commonsense explanation is that it's psychological, and linked to his disfigurement. But Sreeni knows better. It is because Ragini is a yakshi, waiting to drink his blood: his body knows this and rejects her...
There are signs that bear his theory out. The pala tree (associated with yakshis) that flowers at Ragini's command; the neighbour Ananthan's dog who howls at her sight and finally dies when she touches it; the miscarriage of Ananthan's wife which eerily resembles a dream which Sreeni had, where his wife was waiting to eat the foetus... as the days pass, the brilliant scientist becomes more and more convinced that his beloved is a blood demon. The climax comes when Ragini disappears as mist into the night sky, after narrating her real story to Sreeni. The police however, have a different version - they think he killed her.
Sreenivasan is an unreliable narrator (I think Malayattoor was ahead of the times here, as far as Malayalam literature was concerned). The author specifically gives enough clues to the reader to establish the fact that he is reading the diary of a madman. Sex, which runs through the whole narrative, is mostly destructive and ugly - the failure of the protagonist to consummate any sexual union (with his wife, with a prostitute and even with a disgustingly ugly crone) gives it a surreal tension (I think this is mostly applicable to males, as most would have been troubled by temporary impotence at some time of their lives). As the story progresses, so does the strangeness of Sreeni's memoirs; becoming outright fantasy in the end.
But as we close the book, we want to believe that Sreeni was right about Ragini being a yakshi. It is much more palatable than the mundane reality where people live, love and die without any apparent purpose, in a gray universe.
This, I believe, is the author's victory.
A yakshi is a ghoulish female spirit that entices men using her bewitching beauty, then chomps them up (surprisingly, this bloodthirsty version is prevalent only in Kerala, I understand - everywhere else, she is more benign). Obviously a variation of the toothed vagina, the yakshi signifies man's fear of the dark feminine nature. It is not chance that the only deity who can exorcise this female demon is Kali, the fearsome goddess who drinks blood and wears severed heads as a garland. It was my personal bugbear during childhood.
The unreliable narrator of the story, Sreenivasan, is a scientist and a chemistry lecturer in the college: or was - because when the story opens he is in the mental asylum. And he has a strange story to narrate. Sreeni who lost half his face in a mishap in the chemical lab, also lost his lady love and his future. Becoming more and more of a recluse, he turns to research to escape from the unbearable loneliness. The research is on yakshis.
Then one day, a beautiful girl, Ragini, waltzes into Sreeni's life. She professes to love him in spite of his disfigurement, and marries him. Sreeni has apparently got it made, except for one thing - he cannot consummate his marriage with Ragini - impotence seizes him whenever he tries to have sex with her. The commonsense explanation is that it's psychological, and linked to his disfigurement. But Sreeni knows better. It is because Ragini is a yakshi, waiting to drink his blood: his body knows this and rejects her...
There are signs that bear his theory out. The pala tree (associated with yakshis) that flowers at Ragini's command; the neighbour Ananthan's dog who howls at her sight and finally dies when she touches it; the miscarriage of Ananthan's wife which eerily resembles a dream which Sreeni had, where his wife was waiting to eat the foetus... as the days pass, the brilliant scientist becomes more and more convinced that his beloved is a blood demon. The climax comes when Ragini disappears as mist into the night sky, after narrating her real story to Sreeni. The police however, have a different version - they think he killed her.
Sreenivasan is an unreliable narrator (I think Malayattoor was ahead of the times here, as far as Malayalam literature was concerned). The author specifically gives enough clues to the reader to establish the fact that he is reading the diary of a madman. Sex, which runs through the whole narrative, is mostly destructive and ugly - the failure of the protagonist to consummate any sexual union (with his wife, with a prostitute and even with a disgustingly ugly crone) gives it a surreal tension (I think this is mostly applicable to males, as most would have been troubled by temporary impotence at some time of their lives). As the story progresses, so does the strangeness of Sreeni's memoirs; becoming outright fantasy in the end.
But as we close the book, we want to believe that Sreeni was right about Ragini being a yakshi. It is much more palatable than the mundane reality where people live, love and die without any apparent purpose, in a gray universe.
This, I believe, is the author's victory.
October 27, 2016
യക്ഷിയും മാടനും മറുതയും ജിന്നും ഇല്ലാത്ത മലയാളി മനസ്സുണ്ടാവില്ല. അബോദ്ധ മനസ്സിന്റെ പേടികൾക്കും ദുർസ്വപ്നങ്ങൾക്കും ആത്മാവ് നല്കുകയാണ് മലയാറ്റൂർ യക്ഷിയിലൂടെ. ഈ കംപ്യുട്ടർ യുഗത്തിൽ നാം മറന്നു തുടങ്ങുന്ന ഹോമകളങ്ങളും, പാല മരവും, ഗന്ധർവ സങ്കൽപ്പങ്ങളും കൊണ്ട് ഒരു ചോര തുടിപ്പുള്ള മാന്ത്രിക ലോകം തന്നെ മലയാറ്റൂർ നെയ്തെടുത്തു. മനുഷ്യ മനസ്സിന്റെ ചിന്തകളെയും, ആശയങ്ങളേയും, ആശയ കുഴപ്പങ്ങളെയും വെച്ച് അമ്മാനമാടുന്നത് വായനക്കാരനിലും പ്രതിഭലിക്കും.
മുൾമുനയിൽ നിർത്തുന്ന യക്ഷിയുടെ അവസാനത്തെ കുറച്ചു ഭാഗം ലേശം ഇഴയുന്നതായി തോന്നി. രണ്ടു ലോകങ്ങളെ വേർപെടുത്തുന്ന നേരിയ വ്യത്യാസങ്ങൾ അലിഞ്ഞു ഇല്ലാതാകുമ്പോൾ എന്റെ മനസ്സ് യുക്തിപരമായ ഒരു നിലപാട് എടുക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചതും ആവാം.
മുൾമുനയിൽ നിർത്തുന്ന യക്ഷിയുടെ അവസാനത്തെ കുറച്ചു ഭാഗം ലേശം ഇഴയുന്നതായി തോന്നി. രണ്ടു ലോകങ്ങളെ വേർപെടുത്തുന്ന നേരിയ വ്യത്യാസങ്ങൾ അലിഞ്ഞു ഇല്ലാതാകുമ്പോൾ എന്റെ മനസ്സ് യുക്തിപരമായ ഒരു നിലപാട് എടുക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചതും ആവാം.
January 7, 2014
ശരിക്കും രാഗിണി യക്ഷിയാണോ അതോ ശ്രീനിയുടെ യക്ഷികളുടെ കുറിച്ചുള്ള അന്വേഷണം ചെന്നെത്തുന്ന ഭാവനകലാണോ എന്ന് അറിയാൻ വേണ്ടി അത്രയും വേഗത്തിൽ ആണ് ഞാൻ ഈ മലയാറ്റൂരിന്റെ നോവൽ വായിച്ചു തീര്ത്തത്. വായിച്ച നോവലുകളിൽ നിന്ന് വളരെ വ്യത്യസ്തമായ ഒരു അനുഭവം ആണ് യക്ഷി. അനുകമ്പ സ്നേഹമായി രൂപപെടാറുണ്ട്. കുറ്റങ്ങളും കുറവുകളും എത്രയുണ്ടെങ്കിലും കുറ്റങ്ങളും കുറവുകളും അനുകമ്പ അവയൊക്കെ മറപിടിക്കും.സ്നേഹത്തിന്റെ വിത്ത് അപ്പോഴല്ലേ പൊട്ടി വിടരുന്നത്. ഞാനും കാത്തിരിക്കുന്നത് ആ അനുകമ്പ എന്നെ തേടി വരുന്ന ദിവസം നോക്കിയാണ്.
June 27, 2016
പുരുഷന്റെ വൈകല്യങ്ങളേ മറയ്കാനായി സ്ത്രീയെ ബലിയാടാക്കുന്നതാണോ അതോ സത്യമായും അങ്ങനെയൊരു യക്ഷി സങ്കൽപമുണ്ടോ? ഭ്രാന്തിന്റെ അകമ്പടിയോടു കൂടി ഒരാൾ നമ്മളെ അയാളുടെ ജീവിതത്തിലേക്ക് ക്ഷണിക്കുന്നു, അതൊ അയാൾക്ക് ഭ്രാന്തുണ്ടോ? കുറച്ച് സമയം കൊണ്ട് വായിച്ച് തീർക്കാവുന്ന ഒരു നല്ല പുസ്തകം.
August 3, 2011
A Yakshi is an ethereal being, one among the many that eastern mythology has spawned. In the folklore of Kerala are entwined numerous anecdotes of these sensual sirens who waylay men and reduce them to husk as the night passes. This being said, the novel here does not adopt a supernatural atmosphere on purpose. It is quite simply put, a journey into madness.
A rational, intelligent man at the peak of his powers starts tottering and from the high colonnades he tumbles down into the ditches of insanity. This is brought about by what might otherwise have been a satisfying occurrence : The appearance of a woman in his life. The best part of the book is the narrative which is completely from the first person POV and if not for the masterful touch of the author, this would have been a difficult proposition to pull off.
I read this a long time ago but the memories are still fresh.
A rational, intelligent man at the peak of his powers starts tottering and from the high colonnades he tumbles down into the ditches of insanity. This is brought about by what might otherwise have been a satisfying occurrence : The appearance of a woman in his life. The best part of the book is the narrative which is completely from the first person POV and if not for the masterful touch of the author, this would have been a difficult proposition to pull off.
I read this a long time ago but the memories are still fresh.
August 25, 2013
യക്ഷികളും പ്രേതങ്ങളും അന്ധവിശ്വാസത്തിന്റെ സന്താനങ്ങളാണെങ്കില് ആ സന്താനങ്ങളുടെ മൂത്ത ചേട്ടനല്ലേ ദൈവം ....?
October 6, 2016
Yakshi is one of my perennial favourites, and so when Penguin brought out the English translation of Malayatoor's psychological drama, I had to buy it, if only so I could introduce my husband to a novel that dealt with the gradual disintegration of a traumatised mind.
No one can deny the details of the subconscious mind that psychology has laid bare. By doing so, you limit knowledge. To posit that all knowledge, all wisdom should bow down to our understanding of the laws of nature is the biggest superstition. There can be another world. And that world can have its own laws, its own truths. After all, we have corrected so many of our concepts of space and time. In the alternative, occult world, anything can happen. And it usually does.
Malayattor's Yakshi deals with experiences in an alternate reality, and its repercussions in the real world as we know it. At the end, the reader is left in a twilight world, suspended between belief and disbelief - Is Sreeni's story true? Or have his traumatic experiences left him hovering on the brink of insanity? Did he murder his wife? Or was she really a yakshi, who disappeared in a wisp of smoke? Hovering between the rational and irrational, Yakshi is the story of a man who has lost everything he held dear. He finds love and life is worth living once more, only to find that his life is nothing but a mirage.
Chemistry lecturer Sreenivasan was the envy of his junior colleagues and the target of female adulation. After preaching morality to one of his students, Vanaja, who propositions him while on a college excursion, Sreenivasan makes the mistake of falling in love with the beautiful Vijaya, yet another of his students. The budding love story does not have a happy ending - a freak accident in the Chemistry lab disfigures Sreenivasan for life. His lady love turns away from his disfigured face in disgust, and Sreenivasan is sure that no woman will ever look at him with affection again. Turning inwards for solace, his work becomes an obsession. To keep himself occupied after college hours, Sreeni picks up the threads of an old diversion. He begins to research the occult - the practice of black magic in Kerala. As his research material piles up, he begins to believe in the supernatural.
One day, as if out of nowhere, the ethereally beautiful Ragini walks into his wife. The next few meetings are too regular to be coincidental. Her beauty and sympathy are a balm to his bruised soul. Falling in love with her, he is ecstatic when she reciprocates. Hesitant, yet strangely unquestioning, he marries her, and for a while his shattered world is made whole again.
His research into the supernatural continues uninterrupted. Soon he begins to notice strange things about his wife - their neighbour's dog will never come near Ragini. She cringes barking, when Ragini tries to pet her. Days later, the dog dies. Unsettling events follow in quick succession. A pala tree, traditionally associated with yakshis and gandharvas, bursts into bloom, after years of barrenness. Sreeni is awakened by the haunting plaints of a lover's song. Waking, he sees Ragini gazing wistfully from the window. An unearthly light surrounds the Pala tree.
Or, is this all a dream?
Before he has time to mull over his newfound 'knowledge' , the neighbour's wife conceives after the age of menopause. Sreeni is terrified. His research tells him that yakshis are notorious for their love of human foetuses. Troubled by dreams in which his wife appears with bloodied lips, he is sure that the neighbour's wife will never give birth. Sure enough, she miscarries. And coincidentally, Ragini is with her when the mishap occurs. Sreeni is convinced that his wife is a yakshi.
Adding to his troubles, he is impotent. Desperate to prove himself a man, he visits a prostitute, only to be ridiculed for his failure to perform. His impotence is now justified by his terrified mind as a protection against Ragini's wiles. If he were to make love to her, she was sure to kill him.
As each sequence unfolds its terror, Sreeni increasingly loses his mental balance. Each of Ragini's actions is looked upon with suspicion. As he continues his research into the occult, he learns that the only way to protect himself from a yakshi is to sacrifice ants in fire. His condition has deteriorated to such an extent that the scientist in him turns away from rational thought. To his semi-crazed mind, the pala tree has become synonymous with Ragini. In a fit of terror, he cuts it down. What his neighbour, Ananthan, sees is something entirely different. It is Ragini who is chopped down mercilessly. But Sreeni is no longer responsible for his actions. The thin line dividing sanity and insanity has dissolved.
Malayatoor is famous for other introspective novels such as Yantram, Verukal etc. In Yakshi, he explores the chilling reality of an alternate world. Translated into English by Prema Jayakumar, the story retains the ethnic flavour of the Malayalam original. She has remained faithful to the ethos, not changing the essential local colour that characterises the author's works. Her failure, perhaps, in making the translation every bit as powerful as the original, lies in her efforts to provide rational overtones to what is essentially a story about the suspension of belief.
The appalled disbelief that you are left with after reading the Malayalam original, is simply missing in the English translation. Malayatoor's writing leaves you with a sense of sympathy towards a scientist whose personal experiences make him veer towards the existence of a yakshi. At the end of the novel, you are willing to believe that things may have happened just as Sreeni he says it did. The translation, however tends to be somewhat pedantic, and most of the horror inherent in the original is absent. Prema Jayakumar's translation leaves you with a sense of something incomplete.
No one can deny the details of the subconscious mind that psychology has laid bare. By doing so, you limit knowledge. To posit that all knowledge, all wisdom should bow down to our understanding of the laws of nature is the biggest superstition. There can be another world. And that world can have its own laws, its own truths. After all, we have corrected so many of our concepts of space and time. In the alternative, occult world, anything can happen. And it usually does.
Malayattor's Yakshi deals with experiences in an alternate reality, and its repercussions in the real world as we know it. At the end, the reader is left in a twilight world, suspended between belief and disbelief - Is Sreeni's story true? Or have his traumatic experiences left him hovering on the brink of insanity? Did he murder his wife? Or was she really a yakshi, who disappeared in a wisp of smoke? Hovering between the rational and irrational, Yakshi is the story of a man who has lost everything he held dear. He finds love and life is worth living once more, only to find that his life is nothing but a mirage.
Chemistry lecturer Sreenivasan was the envy of his junior colleagues and the target of female adulation. After preaching morality to one of his students, Vanaja, who propositions him while on a college excursion, Sreenivasan makes the mistake of falling in love with the beautiful Vijaya, yet another of his students. The budding love story does not have a happy ending - a freak accident in the Chemistry lab disfigures Sreenivasan for life. His lady love turns away from his disfigured face in disgust, and Sreenivasan is sure that no woman will ever look at him with affection again. Turning inwards for solace, his work becomes an obsession. To keep himself occupied after college hours, Sreeni picks up the threads of an old diversion. He begins to research the occult - the practice of black magic in Kerala. As his research material piles up, he begins to believe in the supernatural.
One day, as if out of nowhere, the ethereally beautiful Ragini walks into his wife. The next few meetings are too regular to be coincidental. Her beauty and sympathy are a balm to his bruised soul. Falling in love with her, he is ecstatic when she reciprocates. Hesitant, yet strangely unquestioning, he marries her, and for a while his shattered world is made whole again.
His research into the supernatural continues uninterrupted. Soon he begins to notice strange things about his wife - their neighbour's dog will never come near Ragini. She cringes barking, when Ragini tries to pet her. Days later, the dog dies. Unsettling events follow in quick succession. A pala tree, traditionally associated with yakshis and gandharvas, bursts into bloom, after years of barrenness. Sreeni is awakened by the haunting plaints of a lover's song. Waking, he sees Ragini gazing wistfully from the window. An unearthly light surrounds the Pala tree.
Or, is this all a dream?
Before he has time to mull over his newfound 'knowledge' , the neighbour's wife conceives after the age of menopause. Sreeni is terrified. His research tells him that yakshis are notorious for their love of human foetuses. Troubled by dreams in which his wife appears with bloodied lips, he is sure that the neighbour's wife will never give birth. Sure enough, she miscarries. And coincidentally, Ragini is with her when the mishap occurs. Sreeni is convinced that his wife is a yakshi.
Adding to his troubles, he is impotent. Desperate to prove himself a man, he visits a prostitute, only to be ridiculed for his failure to perform. His impotence is now justified by his terrified mind as a protection against Ragini's wiles. If he were to make love to her, she was sure to kill him.
As each sequence unfolds its terror, Sreeni increasingly loses his mental balance. Each of Ragini's actions is looked upon with suspicion. As he continues his research into the occult, he learns that the only way to protect himself from a yakshi is to sacrifice ants in fire. His condition has deteriorated to such an extent that the scientist in him turns away from rational thought. To his semi-crazed mind, the pala tree has become synonymous with Ragini. In a fit of terror, he cuts it down. What his neighbour, Ananthan, sees is something entirely different. It is Ragini who is chopped down mercilessly. But Sreeni is no longer responsible for his actions. The thin line dividing sanity and insanity has dissolved.
Malayatoor is famous for other introspective novels such as Yantram, Verukal etc. In Yakshi, he explores the chilling reality of an alternate world. Translated into English by Prema Jayakumar, the story retains the ethnic flavour of the Malayalam original. She has remained faithful to the ethos, not changing the essential local colour that characterises the author's works. Her failure, perhaps, in making the translation every bit as powerful as the original, lies in her efforts to provide rational overtones to what is essentially a story about the suspension of belief.
The appalled disbelief that you are left with after reading the Malayalam original, is simply missing in the English translation. Malayatoor's writing leaves you with a sense of sympathy towards a scientist whose personal experiences make him veer towards the existence of a yakshi. At the end of the novel, you are willing to believe that things may have happened just as Sreeni he says it did. The translation, however tends to be somewhat pedantic, and most of the horror inherent in the original is absent. Prema Jayakumar's translation leaves you with a sense of something incomplete.
January 17, 2021
YAKSHI a Malayalam novel by Malayattor Ramakrishnan, which speaks about the life of a simple college lecturer named Srinivasan, who during one of his chemistry experiments, is disfigured accidentally in his college lab.
Soon after this mishap, his girlfriend Vijayalakshmi, a student of literature, leaves him. Leaving in extreme pain and he realises that LOVE IS ONLY SKIN DEEP. Out of boredom he starts researching on Black Magic and Ghosts, specifically the ghost of women. And he names his research " Black Magic in Kerala". People either making fun of him or getting scared by him, makes him fully indulge like a crazy person into there research. During that time he meets a beautiful women named Ragini, who disproves to him the saying "love is skin deep". But he starts to feel that she is a "Yakshi", who is a spirit/ ghost. That changes his behaviour towards her and she becomes deeply Distressed, but her love for him is strong and she doesn't leave him.
Is ragini a Yakshi in reality?
Does she kill and drink blood of men who are interested in her?
Or is Srinivasan wrong?
This book is all about how Indulging completely in something, slowly effects us and our mind. Also this book proves that not all love is skin deep, there are girls like Ragini.
"വാക്കുകൾ കൊണ്ട് ചെപ്പടിവിദ്യകൾ കണിക്കുനവരാണ് നാം.
വൃണങ്ങൾ വർണക്കടലാസു കൊണ്ട് പൊതിയാനാണു നമുക്ക് ആഗ്രഹം."
Soon after this mishap, his girlfriend Vijayalakshmi, a student of literature, leaves him. Leaving in extreme pain and he realises that LOVE IS ONLY SKIN DEEP. Out of boredom he starts researching on Black Magic and Ghosts, specifically the ghost of women. And he names his research " Black Magic in Kerala". People either making fun of him or getting scared by him, makes him fully indulge like a crazy person into there research. During that time he meets a beautiful women named Ragini, who disproves to him the saying "love is skin deep". But he starts to feel that she is a "Yakshi", who is a spirit/ ghost. That changes his behaviour towards her and she becomes deeply Distressed, but her love for him is strong and she doesn't leave him.
Is ragini a Yakshi in reality?
Does she kill and drink blood of men who are interested in her?
Or is Srinivasan wrong?
This book is all about how Indulging completely in something, slowly effects us and our mind. Also this book proves that not all love is skin deep, there are girls like Ragini.
"വാക്കുകൾ കൊണ്ട് ചെപ്പടിവിദ്യകൾ കണിക്കുനവരാണ് നാം.
വൃണങ്ങൾ വർണക്കടലാസു കൊണ്ട് പൊതിയാനാണു നമുക്ക് ആഗ്രഹം."
January 4, 2025
A good one to start the new year!
Truly a psychological thriller, penned in a first person narrative, holds you very close to Sreenivasan, the narrator. The story takes you through the thoughts of Sreenivasan as he faces an accident in the chemistry lab and burns part of his face, losing his girlfriend because of the accident, insecurities of the change in appearance, meeting the beautiful Ragini, marrying her, and framing her as the 'Yakshi'. Or was she really one? The author has left it to the readers to decide.
Truly a psychological thriller, penned in a first person narrative, holds you very close to Sreenivasan, the narrator. The story takes you through the thoughts of Sreenivasan as he faces an accident in the chemistry lab and burns part of his face, losing his girlfriend because of the accident, insecurities of the change in appearance, meeting the beautiful Ragini, marrying her, and framing her as the 'Yakshi'. Or was she really one? The author has left it to the readers to decide.
September 21, 2025
ഒരു ലബോറട്ടറി അപകടത്തിന് ശേഷം ശ്രീനിവാസൻ എന്ന കോളേജ് അദ്ധ്യാപകന് ഉണ്ടാകുന്ന ജീവിത മാറ്റങ്ങൾ ആണ് ഈ നോവലിൽ ഉടനീളം. അയാള് ഒരു പെണ്ണിനാൽ ആകൃഷ്ടയാവുന്നു തുടർന്ന് അവൾ ഭാര്യയായി ശേഷം തൻ്റെ ഭാര്യ ഒരു യക്ഷി ആണെന്ന് സ്വയം കരുതുന്നു.
മലയാറ്റൂർ രാമകൃഷ്ണൻ്റെ എക്കാലത്തെയും മികച്ച ഒരു സൃഷ്ടിയായി ഇതിനെ കണക്കാക്കാം
ഉദ്വേഗം നിറഞ്ഞ കഥാ സന്ദർഭങ്ങളും ഇനി എന്ത് എന്ന് തോന്നിപ്പിക്കുന്ന രീതിയിലാണ് നോവൽ മുന്നോട്ട് പോകുന്നത്.മികച്ചൊരു വായനാനുഭവം നൽകാൻ ഈ രചനയ്ക്ക് സാധിച്ചു.
മലയാറ്റൂർ രാമകൃഷ്ണൻ്റെ എക്കാലത്തെയും മികച്ച ഒരു സൃഷ്ടിയായി ഇതിനെ കണക്കാക്കാം
ഉദ്വേഗം നിറഞ്ഞ കഥാ സന്ദർഭങ്ങളും ഇനി എന്ത് എന്ന് തോന്നിപ്പിക്കുന്ന രീതിയിലാണ് നോവൽ മുന്നോട്ട് പോകുന്നത്.മികച്ചൊരു വായനാനുഭവം നൽകാൻ ഈ രചനയ്ക്ക് സാധിച്ചു.
April 22, 2020
വായിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുമ്പോൾ രാഗിണി ഇടയ്ക്ക് പിറകിൽ വന്ന് നിൽക്കുന്നതായി തോന്നാം, രാത്രി ജനാലയ്ക്കു പിറകിലെ ഇരുട്ടിലും നമ്മൾ രാഗിണി ഉണ്ടെന്നു സംശയിക്കുന്നു
September 4, 2021
ഒരു സാഹസിക യാത്ര ചെയ്യുന്ന മാനസികാവസ്ഥ സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്ന നോവൽ. ഒറ്റയിരിപ്പിന് വായിച്ച് തീർക്കാൻ തോന്നും. കെമിസ്ട്രി ലക്ച്ചർറായ ശ്രീനിവാസന് ലാബിൽ വെച്ച് ഉണ്ടാവുന്ന അപകടം മൂലം അയാൾ വിരൂപി ആവുന്നു. അതോടെ സ്നേഹിച്ച പെൺകുട്ടി വിജയലക്ഷ്മി ഉപേക്ഷിച്ചു പോകുന്നു. തന്നിലേക്ക് തന്നെ ഒതുങ്ങി ജീവിക്കുന്ന അവസരത്തിലാണ് അതിസുന്ദരിയായ രാഗിണിയെ കണ്ടുമുട്ടുന്നതും പ്രണയത്തിലാകുന്നതും പിന്നീട് വിവാഹം കഴിക്കുന്നതും. ഭാര്യ സുന്ദരിയാണെന്ന് പറയുന്നത് അയാളെ ഒരുപാട് സന്തോഷിപ്പിച്ചിരുന്നു. പക്ഷേ പിന്നീട് അതാണ് അദ്ദേഹത്തെ ഏറ്റവും കൂടുതൽ വേദനിപ്പിച്ചത്.
അവൾ യക്ഷി ആണെന്നുള്ള തോന്നലിലാണ് കഥയുടെ രണ്ടാം ഭാഗം തുടങ്ങുന്നത്. അതിനെ സാധൂകരിക്കുന്ന കാര്യകാരണങ്ങൾ കൂടെ കഥാകൃത്ത് പറയുന്നുണ്ട്. അതുകൊണ്ട് വായനക്കാരെ കൂടെ അങ്ങനെ ചിന്തിക്കാൻ കഥാകൃത്ത് പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുന്നു. രാഗിണി ശരിക്കും യക്ഷി ആണോ അല്ലയോ എന്ന് വായിച്ച് തന്നെ മനസ്സിലാക്കുക. നല്ലൊരു വായനാനുഭവം തരുന്ന പുസ്തകം.
അവൾ യക്ഷി ആണെന്നുള്ള തോന്നലിലാണ് കഥയുടെ രണ്ടാം ഭാഗം തുടങ്ങുന്നത്. അതിനെ സാധൂകരിക്കുന്ന കാര്യകാരണങ്ങൾ കൂടെ കഥാകൃത്ത് പറയുന്നുണ്ട്. അതുകൊണ്ട് വായനക്കാരെ കൂടെ അങ്ങനെ ചിന്തിക്കാൻ കഥാകൃത്ത് പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുന്നു. രാഗിണി ശരിക്കും യക്ഷി ആണോ അല്ലയോ എന്ന് വായിച്ച് തന്നെ മനസ്സിലാക്കുക. നല്ലൊരു വായനാനുഭവം തരുന്ന പുസ്തകം.
July 29, 2013
I feel different now! All the books I read so far was told by a normal human soul. The novel progresses by telling how an abnormal soul will interpret others and world. An engaging high voltage read. Not necessary to mention, yet a must read.
Hats off to the author for a classic like this. I will read it once again for sure.
Read it, I bet you'll feel what I feel now....
Hats off to the author for a classic like this. I will read it once again for sure.
Read it, I bet you'll feel what I feel now....
May 30, 2017
Malayattoor Ramakrishnan has been one of my favorite authors ever since i read a chapter from his semi-autobiographical novel “Verukal”(വേരുകള് ). And this time he impressed me with yet another gem, Yakshi. Malayattoor penned this pscychological thriller in 1967. The original was written in Malayalam and has been translated into Tamil, Hindi and English hence. The English version was published by Penguin, so that should make it easy for any one to get hold of a copy. The BBC “Off the shelf” programme had in a 12 part series as part of BBC World Seies broadcasted a reading of the book. In the word of the publishers “Yakshi that leads the reader to psychedelic experiences and emotions is an example of Malayttoors skill in penning down his imagination”. And boy, how i agree!
To those of you who don’t know, Yakshi is the indian female counterpart of the Vampire. The male counterparts are “Yakshan” and “Gandharvan”. There are a lot of myths and folk tales about these beautiful super-human creatures. While Gandharvan is the divine singer, Yakshi and Yakshan are attendants of “Kubera” the lord of wealth. There are tonnes of stories in Indian Literature about Yakshis. Typically the modern tales and movies don’t care much to differentiate between the Yakshi, Brahmarakshassu, Raktharakshassu, Bhoot and sort. The present day films simply merge all of them into the simple, white saree clad category, while the literature is full of subtle yet clear descriptions which make some of them attractive and some repulsive. In the myths of almost all lands i think some gods or goddesses can be identified which bear a very close resemblance to the Yakshi, be it the Bactrian goddess Hariti or the pantheon of Greek and Roman Godesses that follow suit. However Yakshi should not be confused to be a single goddess. Yakshi is just a category in which there are sub categories and each one of these are different. But one thing generally cuts across all these divisions(atleast in the Kerala version). They generally have long dark hair, amorous looks, broad shoulders, wide hips, heavy and spherical bosoms and the acrid smell of “Palappoo”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstonia...). Well, let us not divulge too much from the topic and get back to our Yakshi.
The novel unfolds through the thoughts of Sreenivasan, the protagonist, who is in a mental asylum. Sreenivasan was a handsome chemistry lecturer and hearthrobe of many a young women in his college. He was the object of envy of most male professors in his college too. A terrible accident in the laboratary leaves the left side of his face deeply scarred and horrible looking(In short he becomes an Indian Harvy Dent) This leaves him deeply demotivated and introverted and a shadow of his previous self. His lover Vijayalakshmi doesn’t meet him after the accident and the girls whom he had rejected now takes perverse pleasure mocking him. Sreenivasan, a teetotaler previously, is now consumed with lust and many a times he has to restrain himself from groping his students and women around him. He finds joy in adult magazines and even has a picture of Terry Higgins framed and kept next to his bed. He also acquires a new habit, the study of Black Magic and Yakshi’s in Kerala. In order to satisfy his ever increasing lust ,Sreenivasan decides to go to a brothel and finds himself unable to perform at the moment. He attributes this to the repelling smell of the cyprian. On his way back home he meets a beautiful young woman ,Ragini, whom he finds more attractive than Helen of Troy,Venus and Terry Higgins. The relation takes off and blossoms into union of the two but Sreenivasanfinds himself unable to consummate his marriage and attributes this to his wife being a Yakshi.With each failed attempt he is more convinced that his wife is a Yakshi who is trying to drink his blood and every deed she does ends up strengthening this belief. His research about Black Magic starts driving him into delirium and he finds absurd explanation to everything happening around him that adds to his conspiracy theory. Sreenivasan plots to kill his wife through various methods and ends up in an asylum. The novel ends with a court room set in the protagonists mind, where the Judge asks if anyone has any objection to executing Sreenivasan and a beautiful, white hand is raised which is none other than Ragini’s.
Malayattoor has resorted to first person narrative of the story in Yakshi and the decision i believe has added immensely to the beauty of the plot. Sreenivasan, remembering his life from the asylum, is very clear on his thoughts and memories of his early life, but his memories become increasingly distorted and the thin line between reality and delusions slowly fades. The author has dealt with this very subtley and at times i was left confused whether Sreenivasan’s version of the story, that Ragini is a Yakshi, is true. This fabian approach to bringing in the increasingly distorted mental state of Sreenivasan leaves the novel simply gripping and it edges on the hope of transforming into a fantasy novel till the very end. In fact many a times i held my hopes high, and expected the heroine to turn into a deadly devil who would simply sip the last drop of blood from some of the characters of the novel.
Even though Malayattoor resorted to first person narration where the protagonists version portrays Ragini as the thirsty Yakshi, the maestro paints the most beautiful of pictures about her in the readers mind. Her smile reminds you of a thousand bangles clinking and when she cries it leaves you sad. The way Malayattoor explains her is simply breathtaking and leaves the imaginative mind gasping. Ragini is portrayed as the epitome of female beauty .Like they say well described female body is classicism whose counterpart is simply porn. In Malayattoor’s case he simply paints a picture before you so that every word she speaks, her walk, everything springs to life in your mind. You are left looking for her in the crowd and expecting her in the weirdest of places.
What makes Yakshi relevant today is Malayattoor’s portrayal of the male tendency of pointing fingers at women for their inablility to justify their deeds and incapability to admit their mistakes. The undertone of the novel is strongly critical of the deeply disturbing male chauvinistic attitude of finding reasons to blame his better half for his inadequacies. Sreenivasan, though criticized and explained to about his senselessness, fails to be self-critical and is firm in his belief that Ragini is a Yakshi and that is the reason for his impotence. To prove his point he even stoops so low as to persuade a very old woman to indulge with him. In today’s society where rapes are attributed to women’s attire, her freedom and her “stupidity” of trusting her friends and falling into the trap, Malayattoor’s work stays all the more contemporary. It also shows how the society has not evolved much from the 1960’s even though we claim to have made huge advances in terms of women’s freedom and rights.
Leaving all the undercurrents and subtleties aside Yakshi is highly recommended for other reasons. A small book which can be finished in 3-4 hours and can be read at a leisurely pace (even though you might be tempted to fast forward 3-4 pages to see what is coming ahead) Yakhi is the perfect read for the reader with a penchant for mysteries and Malayalam. If not for any of these read the book for Ragini, who will leave you in a trance at least for some hours 🙂
For the passive audience, Yakshi has twice been adapted to movies a 1968 version “Yakshi” starring Sathyan and Sarada and a 2011 version “Akam” starring Fahad Fazil.
To those of you who don’t know, Yakshi is the indian female counterpart of the Vampire. The male counterparts are “Yakshan” and “Gandharvan”. There are a lot of myths and folk tales about these beautiful super-human creatures. While Gandharvan is the divine singer, Yakshi and Yakshan are attendants of “Kubera” the lord of wealth. There are tonnes of stories in Indian Literature about Yakshis. Typically the modern tales and movies don’t care much to differentiate between the Yakshi, Brahmarakshassu, Raktharakshassu, Bhoot and sort. The present day films simply merge all of them into the simple, white saree clad category, while the literature is full of subtle yet clear descriptions which make some of them attractive and some repulsive. In the myths of almost all lands i think some gods or goddesses can be identified which bear a very close resemblance to the Yakshi, be it the Bactrian goddess Hariti or the pantheon of Greek and Roman Godesses that follow suit. However Yakshi should not be confused to be a single goddess. Yakshi is just a category in which there are sub categories and each one of these are different. But one thing generally cuts across all these divisions(atleast in the Kerala version). They generally have long dark hair, amorous looks, broad shoulders, wide hips, heavy and spherical bosoms and the acrid smell of “Palappoo”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alstonia...). Well, let us not divulge too much from the topic and get back to our Yakshi.
The novel unfolds through the thoughts of Sreenivasan, the protagonist, who is in a mental asylum. Sreenivasan was a handsome chemistry lecturer and hearthrobe of many a young women in his college. He was the object of envy of most male professors in his college too. A terrible accident in the laboratary leaves the left side of his face deeply scarred and horrible looking(In short he becomes an Indian Harvy Dent) This leaves him deeply demotivated and introverted and a shadow of his previous self. His lover Vijayalakshmi doesn’t meet him after the accident and the girls whom he had rejected now takes perverse pleasure mocking him. Sreenivasan, a teetotaler previously, is now consumed with lust and many a times he has to restrain himself from groping his students and women around him. He finds joy in adult magazines and even has a picture of Terry Higgins framed and kept next to his bed. He also acquires a new habit, the study of Black Magic and Yakshi’s in Kerala. In order to satisfy his ever increasing lust ,Sreenivasan decides to go to a brothel and finds himself unable to perform at the moment. He attributes this to the repelling smell of the cyprian. On his way back home he meets a beautiful young woman ,Ragini, whom he finds more attractive than Helen of Troy,Venus and Terry Higgins. The relation takes off and blossoms into union of the two but Sreenivasanfinds himself unable to consummate his marriage and attributes this to his wife being a Yakshi.With each failed attempt he is more convinced that his wife is a Yakshi who is trying to drink his blood and every deed she does ends up strengthening this belief. His research about Black Magic starts driving him into delirium and he finds absurd explanation to everything happening around him that adds to his conspiracy theory. Sreenivasan plots to kill his wife through various methods and ends up in an asylum. The novel ends with a court room set in the protagonists mind, where the Judge asks if anyone has any objection to executing Sreenivasan and a beautiful, white hand is raised which is none other than Ragini’s.
Malayattoor has resorted to first person narrative of the story in Yakshi and the decision i believe has added immensely to the beauty of the plot. Sreenivasan, remembering his life from the asylum, is very clear on his thoughts and memories of his early life, but his memories become increasingly distorted and the thin line between reality and delusions slowly fades. The author has dealt with this very subtley and at times i was left confused whether Sreenivasan’s version of the story, that Ragini is a Yakshi, is true. This fabian approach to bringing in the increasingly distorted mental state of Sreenivasan leaves the novel simply gripping and it edges on the hope of transforming into a fantasy novel till the very end. In fact many a times i held my hopes high, and expected the heroine to turn into a deadly devil who would simply sip the last drop of blood from some of the characters of the novel.
Even though Malayattoor resorted to first person narration where the protagonists version portrays Ragini as the thirsty Yakshi, the maestro paints the most beautiful of pictures about her in the readers mind. Her smile reminds you of a thousand bangles clinking and when she cries it leaves you sad. The way Malayattoor explains her is simply breathtaking and leaves the imaginative mind gasping. Ragini is portrayed as the epitome of female beauty .Like they say well described female body is classicism whose counterpart is simply porn. In Malayattoor’s case he simply paints a picture before you so that every word she speaks, her walk, everything springs to life in your mind. You are left looking for her in the crowd and expecting her in the weirdest of places.
What makes Yakshi relevant today is Malayattoor’s portrayal of the male tendency of pointing fingers at women for their inablility to justify their deeds and incapability to admit their mistakes. The undertone of the novel is strongly critical of the deeply disturbing male chauvinistic attitude of finding reasons to blame his better half for his inadequacies. Sreenivasan, though criticized and explained to about his senselessness, fails to be self-critical and is firm in his belief that Ragini is a Yakshi and that is the reason for his impotence. To prove his point he even stoops so low as to persuade a very old woman to indulge with him. In today’s society where rapes are attributed to women’s attire, her freedom and her “stupidity” of trusting her friends and falling into the trap, Malayattoor’s work stays all the more contemporary. It also shows how the society has not evolved much from the 1960’s even though we claim to have made huge advances in terms of women’s freedom and rights.
Leaving all the undercurrents and subtleties aside Yakshi is highly recommended for other reasons. A small book which can be finished in 3-4 hours and can be read at a leisurely pace (even though you might be tempted to fast forward 3-4 pages to see what is coming ahead) Yakhi is the perfect read for the reader with a penchant for mysteries and Malayalam. If not for any of these read the book for Ragini, who will leave you in a trance at least for some hours 🙂
For the passive audience, Yakshi has twice been adapted to movies a 1968 version “Yakshi” starring Sathyan and Sarada and a 2011 version “Akam” starring Fahad Fazil.
January 9, 2019
A very convincing depiction of the mind of someone with a psychiatric disorder. A masterpiece, especially if one consider the fact that the author probably didn’t have any psychiatry/psychology training, to help him to convincingly describe the thought processes (delusions and hallucinations) of someone with mental disorder.
April 15, 2020
A good psychological thriller.
July 20, 2020
The detailing is wonderful.
A good reading experience.
A good reading experience.
January 2, 2025
ഒരു മികച്ച സൈക്കോളജിക്കൽ ത്രില്ലെർ തന്നെ ആണ് ഈ പുസ്തകം, അവസാനം വരെ ഒരു പിടിയും തരാതെ മുമ്പോട്ട് പോകുന്ന കഥ, വളരെ ഫാസ്റ്റ് പേസ് റീഡിങ് എക്സ്പീരിയൻസ് ആണ്.
October 2, 2020
The best book I have read all year.
January 25, 2024
It was a good reading experience, you won't regret it!👍🏾
November 3, 2014
വേരുകൾ വായിച്ചപ്പോൾ മലയാറ്റൂരിന്റെ മറ്റു കൃതികൾ വായിക്കണമെന്നു തോന്നി അങ്ങിനെയാണ് യക്ഷി തിരഞ്ഞെടുത്തത്. ചില മുൻധാരണകളോടെയാണ് വായിക്കാൻ തുടങ്ങിയതെങ്കിലും അവയെല്ലാം നിഷ്പ്രഭമാക്കി മറ്റൊരു ലോകത്തേക്ക് മലയാറ്റൂർ എന്നെ ക്ഷണിച്ചു. രാഗിണിയുടെ സ്വത്വം എന്താണ് ? ശ്രീനിവാസന് എന്താണു സംഭവിക്കുന്നത് എന്നറിയാനുള്ള ആകാംക്ഷ എന്നെ ചൂഴ്ന്നു നിന്നു. ഇ ത്വര എൻറെ വായനയുടെ വേഗത കൂട്ടി.
സത്യം എന്താണ് മിഥ്യ എന്താണ് എന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിയാനാകാത്ത വിധം ഞാൻ പലപ്പോഴും കുഴങ്ങി. രാഗിണിയും ശ്രീനിവാസനും ഒരുപോലെ നിഷ്കളങ്കരും അതിനെക്കാളേറെ സങ്കീർണത ഉള്ളവരുമാണ് എന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവ് എന്റെ ഭാവനകളെ കടിഞ്ഞാണില്ലാത്ത കുതിര കണക്കെ സഞ്ചരിപ്പിച്ചു. ഇതോടൊപ്പം പരസ്പര സ്നേഹത്തിന്റെയും വിശ്വാസത്തിന്റെയും പ്രതീകമായ രാഗിണി എന്നെ സ്പർശിച്ചു.!!!!
സത്യം എന്താണ് മിഥ്യ എന്താണ് എന്ന് തിരിച്ചറിയാനാകാത്ത വിധം ഞാൻ പലപ്പോഴും കുഴങ്ങി. രാഗിണിയും ശ്രീനിവാസനും ഒരുപോലെ നിഷ്കളങ്കരും അതിനെക്കാളേറെ സങ്കീർണത ഉള്ളവരുമാണ് എന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവ് എന്റെ ഭാവനകളെ കടിഞ്ഞാണില്ലാത്ത കുതിര കണക്കെ സഞ്ചരിപ്പിച്ചു. ഇതോടൊപ്പം പരസ്പര സ്നേഹത്തിന്റെയും വിശ്വാസത്തിന്റെയും പ്രതീകമായ രാഗിണി എന്നെ സ്പർശിച്ചു.!!!!
July 29, 2013
There are few books which tells us read me again after few months and I will be new again.
Yakshi from Malayatoor Ramakarishnan falls under this.
An awesome read. The best part for me is the name "Ragini". The name alone makes reader confused about her identity and integrity. Srinivasan, the protagonist has been placed brilliantly by the in situations that makes even readers think wild. Especially if you happen to belong to people who thinks a lot.
A must read :)
Yakshi from Malayatoor Ramakarishnan falls under this.
An awesome read. The best part for me is the name "Ragini". The name alone makes reader confused about her identity and integrity. Srinivasan, the protagonist has been placed brilliantly by the in situations that makes even readers think wild. Especially if you happen to belong to people who thinks a lot.
A must read :)
April 2, 2013
No words to say. I have never read a psychological thriller like this. The book is n malayalam. i dont knw whtr der s an english translation for it. Good story telling. And am n love with Raagini. ;)
June 11, 2020
Malayattoor takes on one of the most common paranormal being in malayalam culture, Yakshi, and builds a compelling psychological thriller around it. Even though the novel starts of pretty clearly expounding the unreliable nature of the narrator, it still manages to hook us up with its narrative.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2014
ഇതിലെവിടെ യക്ഷി??!! :P
March 27, 2014
it let's you answer the question the way you want. nice reading IMHO.
March 17, 2018
For me this book hasn't passed test of time.
June 5, 2016
അങ്ങേയറ്റം തീവ്രത നിറഞ്ഞ ഭാഷ. ഒരുതരം ഭ്രാന്താണോ അതോ മനസീന്റെ വിഭ്രാന്തിയാണോ എന്ന് വായനക്കാർക്ക് തന്നെ സംശയം തോന്നിപ്പോകുന്നു ചിലപ്പോൾ.
August 8, 2019
I'm a hardcore Malayattoor fan. But this was one of the novels that disappointed me. It was too predictable and clichéd.
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