Where The Rain Is Born - Anita Nair

Where the rain is born - its an anthology consisting of short stories, essays, poems and some really good book extracts.Its compiled by anitha nair and its a collection of writings about Kerala. I first saw this book on the stands at Gangarams and I was drawn towards it by its aesthetically designed cover and not to mention, the title - ''Where The Rain Is Born'', it had a kind of romantic appeal to it. And when I flipped to the back and saw the list of writers, boy check this out for a collection - Arundhai roy, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, O V Vijayan, M.T Vasudevan Nair, Kamala Das, M Mukundan, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer and many more! I was looking for a collection of short stories and hence bought this without furthur book gazing(Gangarams was totally crowded that day). The book begins with an Introduction titled ''Making Do'' by Anita Nair.

Its a humour filled account of the typical malayalee ways of life and mallu attitudes. Some of the works, those by malayalam writers are translated from their malayalam originals, providing non-mallus & mallus bought up outside state who (sadly)don't know how to read their mother tongue, a good oppurtunity to get a peek into the high quality that malayalam literature is. ''Charlis and I'', an anecdotal story by Shashi Tharoor from his book ''India : From Midnight to Millenium'' is among the best of the lot. Apart from that MT's ''Karkidakam'' , ''The Bonsai Tree'' by David Davidar, ''The Garden of Antlions'' by Bangalore based Paul Zacharia - all are real gem of stories. Those more inclined towards literary writings will definitely enjoy reading these short stories. Apart from these there are a few more very good short stories included.

The book has a good collection of essays ranging on topics from travel, tourism, history and social studies to personalities. ''Chasing the Moonson'' by Alexander Fraser is a romantic account of the writer's experiences in Kerala coasts as the moonsoon strikes in the month of June. William Darlymple's essay ''In Search of Doubting Thomas'' talks about the history of christianity in Kerala. Bill Aitken studies the success of tourism in kerala. There are essays on popular personalities from the state like communist leader EMS (By Ramachandra Guha),footballer I.M Vijayan and singer Jesudas(By Suresh Menon). Then there are some witty ones mocking the quintessential mallu and his idiosyncrasies and ways of life. Book extracts are from some famous books.

The chapter ''God's own Country'' from Arundhathi Roy's famous novel is included(After reading this chapter I have now started my second reading of The God Of Small Things). There's an extract from translation of M Mukundan's ''On the Banks of Mayyazhi'', which is on of the greatest malayalam novels. The list goes on - extracts and chapters from Ancient Promises (JaiShree Mishra's novel..by the woman, for the women), Moor's Last Sigh(Salman Rushdie) and one of the better chapters from Pankaj Mishra's travels through small town India, ''Butter Chicken In Ludhiana''. The complete anthology the book is, it has poems by well known mallu poet Balachandran Chullicad(The corridor), the controversial Kamala Das(titled The Swamp) and one exotic titled ''Mattancheri in Manhattan'' by Ayyapa Panikker. But Iam not really into poems, so skipped these.

In all the book has 34 articles and most of them make real good quality reading. If you are a book lover then do read it for its definitely one for the collections - the kind you can pick up from the shelf for re-reading on a lazy sunday afternoon, lie down on the bed and read with Jagjit Singh in the background.

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