Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan is well known in literary circles in the city. She has translated many a modern classic from Malayalam into English. Now the translator turns author with a collection of short stories titled Elephants Stories that Ammu Heard , published by Z Library of the Paridhi Group.
It narrates stories about elephants, both imaginary and real. The seven stories in the book are in the form of tales that are narrated by a grandmother to entertain her granddaughter, who has come from Kolkata to spend the holidays with her.
Childhood fascination
Vasanthi says that her fascination for elephants goes back to her childhood in Kannanbra, Palakkad, the place of the renowned Kannambra vela, which is a downscale version of the Thrissur Pooram and the finale of all the velas and poorams of North Kerala.
“For many of us the fascination with elephants goes back to our childhood and this book is the result of that fascination. This is a gift to my grandchild who lives in the United States and for all other children too. For decades, elephants and humans have co-existed peacefully in Kerala.
“Although I do not have a definite opinion on the enslavement of elephants, there is something fascinating about the relationship between captive elephants and the humans in close contact with them,” says Vasanthi.
She has narrated tales from mythology such as the story of the origin of Ganesha, triumph of Ganesha over Subrahmanyan to win the Janappazham and even the Gajendramokasham episode from the Bhagavatam.
One story is about ‘The Tailor and the Elephant' and another one about the bond between the renowned elephant Kulathoor Ramachandran and his mahout Gopalan Nair.
In between the stories, the author narrates how the grandmother and her grandchild go to see the Thrissur Pooram. Plus there are also references to elephants from history and literature such as quotes from Vailoppilli's poem, ‘Sahyante Makan,' in which a captive elephant dreams of his carefree days in the forest, and Vallathol's ‘Sishyanum Makanum.'
Finally, at the end of the stories, the city-bred grandchild yearns to become a mahout, and adapts to the joys of village life.
