Pettai

In my previous story about 2021 best finds, I said ‘Pettai’ novel review will follow Sarpatta’s in a day or soon. I couldn’t write it immediately because I was struggling to comprehend the experience reading Pettai in words, ever since I finished reading it couple of months ago. Yet, I can’t stop seeing Pettai and Sarpatta together so I took time to write only about Pettai next to Sarpatta.

Writing a review for a movie in English makes sense, my non-Tamil friends can watch that movie with subtitles. But why am I writing review for a Tamil novel in English? I do because I believe in the awesomeness of the internet. I just wish spreading the experience about Pettai by enough people gets circulated enough and makes someone come forward to sponsor a translated version of the novel. Of course, huge part of the experience the novel gives us is because of the regional dialect, which can’t be replicated while translating. Yet, there is a lifestyle that we all must know in order to be more inclusive and compassionate towards a sect of people.

Prologue

Pettai is named after ‘Chinthadri Pettai’, an area in Chennai. The prologue talks briefly about the inception and evolution of the place:

• This suburb was formed by the British in the 18th century by acquiring a village to accommodate migrant weavers and named as ‘Chinna (small) Thari (loom) Pettai’ which became Chinthathiripettai colloquially.
• How the streets were formed depending on the caste hierarchy and how they were named after the headmen from each caste.
• How the water of ‘Cooum’ river used to taste like tender coconut and how the waste from the looms contaminated the river that is today.
• How the governments in TN kept vacating the residents of the area due to several reasons without arranging them proper place to stay.
• How some governments even despite building houses for those people alongside Cooum river, did not care for the betterment of their lifestyle and thus they had to continue living amidst the pungent smell of Cooum and the mosquito bites.

There is no connection to the prologue and the actual story, yet prologue is an essential read to understand the lifestyle of the characters in the story.

Pettai, authored by Tamizh Prabha, is written as a novel but has the constructs of an auto-ethnography. The author shares his own life story growing up in Chinthadripettai, in a 3rd person narrative where the character Rooban is a portrayal of himself. That makes most parts of the story authentic.

Even after centuries since Chinna Thari Pettai was formed by the British, even despite the native people from the place calls the place colloquially as ‘Chintharipettai' (not even ‘Chinthadripettai’), the voice that narrates the story continues to refer the place as ‘Ramar Thottam’. Now, Ramar (Sungu Ramar) is the person from which British government snatched the land to form a loom village.

As writer S. Ramakrishnan says, even though this novel is written by a man, it is highly women centric. Let’s explore some female characters from the story:

• Kiliyambal — a self-made woman in the banks of Cooum River in Ramar Thottam who has got a Midas touch in any of her ventures, be it a money lending business or a beef snack shop (the way a character in the story narrates how this woman makes ‘Kavaapu’, a snack made from a cow’s intestine is such a mouth watering read). She is the wife of Singapooraan and the couple has 2 sons — Gunaseelan and Jayaseelan.
• Regina — Gunaseelan’s wife. While she began as a loving wife to Gunaseelan, later after she becomes pregnant and even after giving birth to Rooban, she finds a way to avoid physical intimacy with Gunaseelan. She either shows up as being possessed by her mom-in-law Kiliyamba’s spirit or she puts forth her commitment to God and Church as the reason of her abstinence. But the real reason is, she kind of finds out the act of Gunaseelan’s adultery.
• Nagamma who changes her name to Nagomi Amma after embracing Christianity. She actually is the neighbour and right hand of Kiliyamba, when she was alive. Later when Regina gets married to Gunaseelan, she protects her from him. When Rooban is born, Nagomi Amma becomes the good cop in parenting while the pious and restrictive Regina becomes the bad cop. Rooban fondly calls her as ‘Aaya' (granny) and Nagomi Aaya eventually becomes one in Gunaseelan’s family in due course of Rooban growing up to be a 29-yr old adult. More about Nagomi Aaya later.
• Kiranya — Rooban’s first serious girlfriend. It is indeed a commendable job that author never bad mouthed about this character even after Kiranya broke up with Rooban. Even after honestly stating Rooban’s social background as the reason for not being able to elevate their relationship to marriage, Kiranya makes sure Rooban doesn’t get stuck in life. Kiranya acknowledges, that job is more important to Rooban instead of her, so she resigns the job after breakup to make sure Rooban doesn’t get hurt by seeing her face daily. Highlight about this character is, the author normalizes the facial hair of women by saying how Rooban admires her moustache.
• Evangelin — The girl whom Rooban ends up marrying. Evangelin says her dream after getting married is to buy a ‘waterfalls' of their own, stating she never got chance to take bath in waterfalls with freedom like men do, because her father restricts them. Though this sounds like this is a very soft character, there are other places where she stands up for herself. Even while saying no to Rooban when Rooban wants her to go on a bike ride with him. Genuine portrayal of the emotional truffles of a non-native girl in Chennai sharing room with other girls in a hostel.

When a religion disrespects you

I used to wonder some 3 years ago, “I understand why religion needs people. But I do not understand why people need religion”. After years of thinking, I’ve come to an understanding that every person in this world needs a belief or a commune or an institution which would act as crutches, as every single person in this world is mentally handicapped. For some people, it is the religion or God to hold on to, to strike a balance and stay insane.

That is exactly how mostly Dalits in India embraced Christianity or Islam. It is actually the other way. These religions wanted to embrace people, but those people were ready to be embraced by these religions because these religions did not discriminate them based on caste or the job or the food habits.

Yet, end of the day every religion is just another religion. It is an institution that wants to keep people in their control.

These are my reflections after reading how Churches flourished and mal-flourished in Chinthadripettai.

Nagomi Aaya character arc (aka, ‘When swear words get a place in literature’)

Nagomiamma even after conversion, stays to be a quasi-Christian. She couldn’t get rid of her anti-Christ habits like applying turmeric on her face, watching movies, etc. She uses a lot of swear words casually and says “Yesappa, enna mannichidu” (forgive me, Jesus).

More than Regina, Rooban’s mom, Nagomi Aaya is more protective of Rooban since he is born. Most possibly because she did not have a kid of her own. If anything, Regina is restrictive, not protective.

When Rooban was a kid, Nagomi Aaya had restrictions for the neighborhood ladies. They can fondle him, but not by touching his genitals to kiss. They cannot comment anything about him. Despite these restrictions, when a lady sees Rooban in a shop, she asks Nagomi Aaya why she has brought him without an underwear, as his genitals are exposed. Other ladies around burst into laughter. Nagomi Aaya gets angry and breaks an egg on that lady’s head. She asks “Aen di dhavlo pulla kunji innadi panchi ungala? Ipdi namchal ethunu alaiyareengale” (Why does his little penis bother you? Why are you all roaming with such itches) 😂

When Rooban turns 5, Nagomi Aaya takes him to hotel. When Rooban insists he walks by himself and not want to be lifted by her, she lets him walk. In the hotel she makes him sit in a chair on his own across the dining table. These gestures give him a sense of matured and respected feeling.

She fights with a girl named ‘Violet' in the Church to get Rooban the part of Jesus in the Summer Bible School when he is a kid. She doesn’t agree easily when Violet says Rooban is not tall enough to hold the cross and play the part of Jesus. Ends up getting him at least the part of Simon, a guest appearance in the story.

When Rooban goes to college, one day he announces at home that he has joined atheist party and wouldn’t come to the Church masses hereon. Regina throws a soap brush at him. Nagomi Aaya scolds Regina asking why she is beating a boy who grew beyond her shoulders and later tries to nicely convince him. Now Rooban is grown up and talks against Nagomi Aaya too.

When Rooban grows up to be an adult, Nagomi Aaya insists Rooban should have seen a girl for himself and Rooban replies he is just not interested in love… had he been interested, he would have made a girl fall for him long back. Nagomi Aaya replies “mmmkkum, aada theriyadha thevdiya meda konlunaalaang” and again asks for forgiveness from Jesus (for the record, ‘thevdiya' these days means ‘prostitute’ and is seen as a swear word. But in history, they are called ‘Devar Adiyal' who used to be committed to God and the art of Dance in temples and King’s court. It is patriarchy that used those women for sex and made them prostitutes). See how Nagomi Aaya evolved from being a protector to being a critic of Rooban.

Rooban becomes mentally disturbed after the demise of his friend Sowmi and his dad Lawrence. His family thinks he is possessed by an evil spirit. Neighbors start gossiping about his illness. One fine day, Nagomi Aaya and Regina take Rooban to the Church for recovering him from his illness. A neighborhood lady asks Nagomi Aaya “Ye Nagomiyamma, Enga Poringo?” (Hey Nagomiyamma, where are you all going?) in a rhythmic fashion. Now Nagomi Aaya who never liked passing on comments about Rooban ever since his birth gets frustrated and replies to her “Aaang um purushanukku nee kavutta virikkaradhillayame, rendam dhaaram paaka poren” (Haan? It seems you aren’t stretching your legs for your husband. So we are going out hunting a second wife for him) 🤣🤣

When Nagomi Aaya comes to a point where she thinks Sowmi’s spirit has possessed Rooban, she walks to the block where Sowmi’s mom Poongodi, his uncle Boopalan and aunt Amalorbavam lives and accuse and curse them for their family causing such a trouble to her grandkid. She shouts, ‘Sowmi tortures Rooban even after passing away’. The fight went very ugly such that Regina and Gunaseelan (Rooban’s parents) condemned Nagomi Aaya intensely for picking up a fight of that sort without anyone’s consent. Nagomi Aaya became upset and went out of their house. She of course returns home later, not being able to stay away from Rooban.

Now, there’s a Maradona in the housing board who is named so because his dad Venkatesan was a great fan of the football player. When he was a toddler, any trouser he wears gets torn in a day or two. When Maradona’s mom casually told this once to Nagomiyamma, she says ‘Aruvaa mana soothan di ivan’ (Hey, he is a boti knifed ass). Aruvaa mana soothan becomes permanent name of Maradona devastating his father’s dreams of his son known after a great Football player. When Maradona grows up, Nagomi Aaya sees him waiting for his cab to the IT BPO office where he is working, just like Rooban does. Nagomi Aaya, who still calls him Aruvaa mana soothan talks to him and finds out he is doing a similar job like Rooban. When she sees the cab that came to pick up Maradona, she says “Aang dho po. Enga Roobana kooda dhan evlo periya car vandhu kootnu povum. Idhunna dhamthoondakdhe?” (Shoo. A biggg car comes to pick even our Rooban too. The one that has come for you is soooo small). Nagomi Aaya can’t give up her pride on Rooban.

When Evangelin visits Rooban’s home when he is mentally sick, Nagomi Aaya begs to Evangelin “Roobana utraadha maa” (Please don’t let go of Rooban, dear).

I would say Nagomi Aaya is the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of Pettai novel. She is a thug-life aaya (granny) that any kid would dream of having.

If you’re going to do moral policing by saying ‘how can a woman speak such derogatory language?’, think for a moment, haven’t we all accustomed to the frequent usage of ‘maadhar chod’s and ‘bakchod’s and ‘bosadiwale’s and ‘fuck’s in Netflix originals lately? In fact, those are dialogues artificially kept for the sake of giving adult content in the name of fashion. Unlike that, what Tamilprabha has recorded in the form of Nagomi Aaya’s language is authentic, real and ultimately, it is what it is. We should be seeing the beauty of such a grandmother character who always protects her grandkid despite the fact that she is no way related to the kid or her family biologically.

No matter what, I am totally in love with Nagomi Aaya😍😍😍

What else does Pettai offer us?

I would say the characters hold more weightage in the novel than the events. Some characters that are unique:

• Lawrence — Sowmi’s dad. He secures a Govt. Job in Indian Railways in sports quota because he was a national level Carrom Board champion. He aspires his son Sowmiyan (named after Arignar Anna’s Pen Name) to also become a great carrom board player. He makes sure he doesn’t fall into bad company, so he keeps him away from making any friends in the housing board for a long time. Later when he happens to allow Sowmi having friends, he notices that his friend Balu, a guy whose family is treated even lesser than a person from the Scheduled Caste in the neighborhood, plays carrom board extraordinarily. Instead of growing jealousy on him, Lawrence nurtures Balu’s talent by taking him to the Carrom Board trainer Masila. When Sowmi grows up to be an irresponsible and spoilt person because his empty mind became devil’s workshop, Balu grows up to be an international Carrom Board player.
• Boopalan — Lawrence’s brother-in-law. A great painter. Paints and creates cut-outs for Political and Cinema celebrities. Gets appreciated by Kalaignar himself for drawing him so realistically. Yet, gets exploited by party people that they extract work out of him but not pay him saying he should consider it as a voluntary work for the party. However, his career graph falls with the advent of Digital Banners.
• Jonty — Though his real name is Balamurugan, he is known by the name Jonty because he does exceptional fielding while playing cricket. When the cricket ground in May Day park of Chinthadripet was taken over by the Government to lay an extension area to ‘Government Estate’ metro, Jonty and many other youth in the locality started picking up drinking and drug consumption habits. This is the politics that Tamilprabha speaks in this interview for ExpressCinema. He puts forth a question, “When there are numerous places for elite people in Chennai like Golf Club and Guindy Race Course from which not even a stone can be taken out by the Government, why do they constantly snatch away the places of underprivileged people for development projects?”.
• Balu — traversing back to his father’s and grandfather’s and all his other forefathers’ generations, they have all been called as ‘Thavadasoru’. In the novel, Tamilprabha tells why such a nickname. They belong to castes that are located even below the 4th varna of the caste hierarchy prevailing in our country. They cannot earn money in the locality. Their only way of survival is to visit every house-front in the street and ask ‘Devuda, Soru?’ meaning “Dear God, please feed me with food”. Eventually, ‘Devuda, Soru’ transformed to ‘Thavadasoru’ coloquially. It’s really a heart-melting read when Balu grows up and eventually opens a Carrom Board club in the locality to train kids for international tournaments.
• Rooban indeed — do read the next section to know about what this character offers us, in detail

Is ‘inclusivity’ just a fancy Corporate jargon?

When we think of urban cabbagetown, our imagination immediately goes to a crime breeding area, a place where poor people always live in misery, etc. Director Pa.Ranjith in the movie ‘Madras’ broke those stereotypes well and showed housing board areas as they are.

In Pettai, Rooban goes to one of the prestigious arts colleges in Chennai (Pachaiyappan College), gets into an IT-BPO job and lives a great 20s. The novel records the struggles that a person from an underprivileged class and place must face in a corporate company.

Tamilprabha worked in an IT-BPO himself for 10–12 years. Why would someone from such an underprivileged background who managed to gain such a huge experience in the corporate want to quit? In this interview, Tamilprabha calls himself a ‘Bangla Naai’ (A bungalow dog) when he used to go to the IT-BPO job. Meaning, he is given salary and benefits, made to dress-up nicely, etc., but ultimately he is kept in the same level since the beginning. He isn’t given opportunity to grow up the corporate ladder which makes him realize that wasn’t the place where his future lies. He quits and finds another living.

So where I am coming to is, giving this novel a good read, makes us understand the lifestyle and aspirations of people from underprivileged backgrounds as well, and helps us grow some empathy towards them. It goes without saying that I do not mean ‘sympathy’ here. ‘Empathy’ as in, to treat them with respect, to respect their food habits, to acknowledge their efforts towards coping up with English language, and to give them equal opportunity to grow despite all the previous facts.

Closing words

If you are not convinced to read the novel even after reading all the above, all I’ve got to give you is a couple of reasons why ‘Pettai’ is a must-read:

1. An anecdote. I had taken a friend who is from a nearby state, to Triplicane recently as she had to collect a second hand table-fan she purchased in Olx.in from a person from the area. Since we did not know the exact place where that house was, I suggested we park her scooter in the street and walk in search of the house. Triplicane is a place in Chennai where the houses are located in narrow lanes. When I suggested we park her scooter and walk, her immediate response was, “what if we walk past the vicinity of the scooter and it gets stolen?”. I asked her what made her think her scooter might get stolen. Then I realized it is the narrow lanes and the simple-looking people of the locality that made her insecure, while there is no logical reason behind her insecurity. Not to mention, it is also the contribution of Kollywood and Bollywood which always show such areas in low light. ‘Pettai’ is a must-read to know the reality around such places and the people. That would prevent us from alienating the people from underprivileged backgrounds.
2. It is a lifelong quest for someone to understand what is good literature. When I was in search of an answer, I happened to watch this video of Na. Muthukumar (claimed as the last speech of him before his demise) launching poet Manushyaputhiran’s ‘Oozhiyin Dhinangal’ (Doom’s Days) collection. In his closing remarks, he says he is expecting a novel from Manush soon because he has got a lot of ‘Kaatchi Padimangal’ (Visual Imageries) to share. When I evaluate ‘Pettai’ in that aspect, Tamilprabha has recorded a lot of authentic Visual Imageries from his life growing up in Chinthadripet which makes the novel a ‘good literature’.

The novel left me with a huge impact for weeks together that I couldn’t forget the characters in the novel so easily, and made me wander in present day’s Chinthadripet looking for living evidences of Regina-s, Boopalan-s, Amos-s, Ebinezer-s, Rooban-s, Lawrence-s, and Nagomi Aaya-s.

Just like I mentioned in the closing notes of my review on Sarpatta Parambarai, all I wished when I read Pettai and watched Sarpatta Parambarai is: