Friday, 25 November 2016

PYRE - By Perumal Murugan



It’s Devastating and very intriguing. Reading about the diseased mind of the people of Kumaresan’s village makes you feel claustrophobic and sympathetic for Saroja. Saroja was always with me and is still with me after I finished reading the book. She was so pure at heart and so simple minded that you want to be close to people like her. In today’s world of innumerable prejudices, she is worth a company to have. There was always a parallel thought running through my mind. The thought that why could Kumaresan not protect her. If he had loved her so much, why he could not shield her? One perspective was that he too was a child at heart and loved her passionately and he wasn’t matured enough to understand the extent of orthodoxy and narrow-mindedness of the people of his village. But, I would even consider him a fool to have risked Saroja’s life like that. I am agonized to feel the extent he subjected himself and Saroja to be victimized by the village people.
A woman left everything for you and then it’s your biggest responsibility to give her the life she deserves. Waiting for things to be fine proved catastrophic.
I feel very sad for Saroja and I want to take her out of that pyre before it turns her into ashes. I want to take her away from her father and brother who were not bothered about her and away from Kumaresan who could not protect her. 

Was heaven the only place left for a person like her?

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