Homage to a City : A Review of Kolakaluri Enoch’s Ananta Jeevanam
Professor Kolakaluri Enoch is an
eminent writer, critic, scholar,
educationist, winner of many awards such as Padma Shri, National sahitya Academy, Moorti devi
Award for Jnanpith. He has
touched all the forms of writing such as story, drama ,novel, biography
, translation , criticism and made a distinguished mark in all. He also acted as
a Vice chancellor of SV
University. He also worked as an emeritus professor of UGC and writer in
Residence of Sahitya Academy, New Delhi.
As a doyen of the marginalised , he was
prolific with more than one hundred works to his credit and his works were
translated into many other Indian languages
and foreign languages such as French and German.
Kolakaluri Enoch’s Ananata
Jeevanam ( a translation of his own work from Telugu and published by Ratna
Books ) describes the life of Anantpur city caught in the incessant rains in drought-prone
region He portrays how the
life of the people of the town has got
overwhelmed by the devastating downpour. He
reminds one of James Joyce whose work Dubliners has captured the essence of Dublin. The
present novel also has embraced as well as unearthed the stories of the unwept
and the unsung many along with the fortunes of the feudal family of Nelagallu Zamindar. The Nelagallu
Fort, the Bangalore palace and
Reddy bungalow have at last fallen but not before relating us their stories of dark chambers. The power-drunk
and mass murderer Govinda Reddy , the shrewd criminal lawyer cum criminal Rampi
Reddy and the lusty and politician Venkateswara
Reddy- these three brothers of a feudal royal family represent the
nexus among feudal power, lawyering
and politics in hiding the crimes of the ruling family committed before and after Indian Indepencece .
But the times change and the marginalised are suffering and biding their
time when the rains of doom threaten the
lives of the city. The old order collapses through arrest and humiliation of Govinda Reddy by Bazaranna , the dalit police inspector whose father was killed and whose skeleton had kept along with many skeletons of victims in the cellar of the Fort . We also see the physical decay and
the utter physical and psychological
helplessness, human isolation and
loneliness of Ram P Reddy whose survival
depended on the mercy of Uthappa and Salamma
and the dissipation and
death of the hedonist
Venkateswara Reddy. The clash between tradition and unorthodoxy is
also shown in
refusal of recognition of ‘marriage’ of Rampi Reddy and Elizabeth who
personifies the rebellious vivacity and
the utter devotion and sacrifice by Govinda
Reddy who never enters Reddy
Bungalow. The obnoxious system of caste, the forlorn hopes of the small people,
the heroism of the sanitation workers, the plight of hostel students missing
while playing in deceptive rain waters , the deaths of the unfortunate, the
thoughtless construction of the houses in the vulnerable areas, the prayers to
God for relief from doom , the earlier efforts by godmen such as Satya Sai and
Ferrer , the missionary cum social worker for the welfare of the city , the eventual
relief from excessive rains -all
these present a panorama of human community pitted against the fury of nature in Anantapur of Rayalseema
region known for factionalism and feudal exploitation and atrocities against
the marginalised. The novel includes factual elements in the narrative in
referring to real political leaders and
religious figures of the day.
The novelist’s knowledge of geography of Anantpur and its people is amazing. As the
rains continue, the reader also navigates his or her way through the submerged and endangered city
with trepidation. Whom do we remember at the end ? We remember Ankalappa , the
shepherd who weeps over the lost rams in water flow, the Madiga maistry Yeddirappa who laments the collapse
of the house of his fifth wife that challenges his credentials as
a self-made builder, the dead woman of Ambedkar Nagar who ‘donated her breath
to the wind’ , timber merchant Nagana,
the reckless bank clerk Sinobulesu
who got drowned to the indifferent
stares of the onlookers, the potter Uligappa , the seller of empty cement bags
Narayana, the flower seller Imam Saheb ,
the shoemaker Akkulappa, a Madiga and a father of three sons, the
sanitation workers one of who were
expected to carry on rescue work despite the death of their near and dear – these are the representative of the
vulnerable sections who bear the brunt
of the natural disaster. The irony is that the people of once a
drought -prone area which used to organise reading of Virat
parva, marriage of frogs and donkeys or yajnas prayed to the rain god for
relief. The writer also criticises the
indifference, superstitious and dependent nature of the people who do things thoughtlessly and bow before
the theory of Fate.The novelist describes
that the Pandameru was ‘flowing
with the destructive passion of a
burning inferno, like a herd of mad elephants running amok’ and like” a
cannibal, swallowing humans too”.(131)
Ambekar Nagar, Rani Nagar, Drivers’ colony ,
kamala Nagar, theatres, Stalin Nagar get submerged. The rich people’s area such
as Sai Nagar, Ram Nagar Maruti Nagar, and
Ramachandra Nagar remain rather safe colonies
. The novelist brings out how endless rains
affected the lives of the lower castes
more. At the end, the
marginalised people begin to pick up the pieces of life shattered by the
incessant rains. The novelist writes at the end “Anantapur ,
like a beautiful lady , was drying her hair, after a luxurious bath. It was
like a simple farmer who had woken up
with a jolt from a bad dream and
discovered that his fields had more than enough water for cultivation.” (306)
The novel written in a racy, moving, evocative, picturesque style exposing the exploitation and the caste and class contradictions of the city is the author’s finest homage to Anantapur. He calls it “a foster mother” , and ‘a benevolent goddess” which gave him a caring wife Bhagirathi, studious children, Vice Chancellorship and fame as a writer.
Rev.of ANANTA JEEVANAM Kolakaluri Enoch. Translated from the original Telugu by the author Ratna Sagar, New Delhi, 2023, 320 pp., INR 599.00 .published in The Book Review, 2023: Vol.47. issue 12)
