Oru Desathinte Katha

Oru Desathinte Katha

Author	S. K. Pottekkatt
Original title	ഒരു ദേശത്തിന്റെ കഥ
Country	India
Language	Malayalam
Publisher	D. C. Books
Publication date	1971
Pages	566
ISBN	978-81-7130-570-4

Oru Desathinte Katha (English: The Story of a Locale) is a Malayalam novel written by S. K. Pottekkatt in 1971. It sketches the men and women of Athiranippadam, drawing the history of the country while detailing the micro-history of a place. It won the Kendra Sahitya Academy Award in 1972, and the Jnanpith Award in 1980. The story take place in a span of about 55 years. It has a huge canvas of Athiranippadam to North India to Africa and Switzerland. It is a nostalgic novel and an autobiographical stance haunts the reader enormously.

Plot

The story revolves around a boy named Sreedharan who was a resident of the village of Athiranippadam. The story depicts the life of the villagers through the views of Sreedharan also through the other characters. The novel is set in British India where the protagonist was born and tells the stories of the people around Sreedharan's entire life.The novel begins with Steedharan's return to Athiranippadam after some 40 + years he left his home suburbs.He is dropped out from a public transport near a huge petrol overhead tank,which is situated on the plot where his teenage love's house was situated,from where he as the protogonist takes the readers to the exact life of dwellers of Athiranippadam,and Sreedharan is the story teller.The novel is devided into 5 parts,narrating the childhood,teenage and early youth of him and a concluding part as "marmarangal" the story told by Velu Mooper,a history telling witness after Sreedharan left that place after his father's demise and a long spell of his solo trips to North India,Africa and Europe.He meets with several persons,by whom,deep impressions of variable human states of life is etched on his memory!Emma of Switzerland,The Bengali Babu,His half brother,Kunhappu,Gopalettan,his half brother,who made the life miserable by contracting Syphilis,the mother goddess psyche of his Tamil Brahmin lady who happens to be his admiration,the one side love of a girl,who died of TB,Supper Circuit Set pranks, lost loves,severe solitude he faced,his father's legendary life at the village,who passed away with the grief that Sreedharan failed to fullfill his dreams,and finally his long journey through defferent continents,which began as a final one,he started by dropping his widowed mother at her father's home,"at first to Elanhippoyil,to drop mother there,and then to Bombay,a solitary voyage,and from there to the vast bewildering world" as SKP's own words!!A haunting auto biographical novel,detailing some 60 years of history of a locale, which contains history, nostalgia, plight,dreams,and finally, numbness created by life situations of a Man!The novel ends with a monologue"forgive me,the representative of the new generation of Athiranippadam, Forgive me for my trespass to your land,and consider me as just an antique collector,a non native person!!!"