Where Are You Going, You Monkeys? - Folktales from Tamil Nadu

by Ki. Rajanarayanan, Pritham K. Chakravarthy (Translator), Trotsky Marudu (Illustrator)

Overview

Ki. Rajanarayanan has spent the last three quarters of a century collecting the weirdest and wildest tales of the karisal mannu, the black-soil region around Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu, India.

This book contains a gallery of jealous husbands and conniving goddesses, pious sparrows and randy mice, jewel-crazy girl ghosts and angry star demons, as well as a chapter of "naughty & dirty" folktales!

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012795823
Publisher:	Blaft Publications Pvt. Ltd.
Publication date:	01/15/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	235
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Ki. Rajanarayanan (b. 1922), popularly known as Ki. Ra., is a writer and teller of tales rooted in the soil of Tamil Nadu, India, and has been a recipient of the prestigious Kalaimamani and Sahitya Akademi awards. His 1958 short story Mayamaan is often seen as marking the beginning of the Golden Age of modern Tamil literature. Veering away from the European influences which characterized much of the fiction from the Tamil revivalist period, Ki. Ra. chose to relate tales in the spoken dialect of the land in which he was born.

He lives in Pondicherry with his wife, Ganavathiammal.

Editorial Reviews

"Some stories, such as 'A Life in His Stead', are about social hypocrisies while others have a moralistic tinge, but nothing that can be called heavy-handed; there’s a marvelous lightness of touch throughout... At a time when it’s fashionable to define 'Indian culture' as a fixed conservative entity, to squeeze tradition into an airtight box, these stories are essential reading."

Jai Arjun Singh

"This delightful collection fully lives up to - enhances - Blaft’s young but confident standing."

Vijay Nambisan

"A new book that will make your ears burn if you’re prudish, Sainik or Sangh. In fact, it’s a perfect book for the Hindutvists to want banned... The stories are great fun to read, told in suitably simple, colloquial English."

Renuka Narayanan

"Some stories give you an alternative view of the epics and of gender relationships thereby showing that the conservative “Indian culture” being perpetuated today was not always the norm. Now, more than ever, these stories are essential reading.

Pritham Chakravarthy’s translation is breezy, occasionally wicked, but always urging you to read on. Folklore buffs will love this one and so will other general readers."

R. Krithika