Textile activist Sabita Radhakrishna’s novel, The Looms of Arivoor, is a compelling attempt to drive home the current predicament of traditional weavers. Retired IAS officer and handloom aficionado Tilak doesn’t want the weavers to become part of a government cooperative, which he believes will stymie their creativity. This starts a battle of will between him and his friend, master weaver Kulasekhara. For the weaver community, hunger is more urgent than artistic freedom, a fact that seems to be lost on Tilak. How the two parties deal with this dilemma unfolds in this short read.
Tilak and Kulasekhara may well be the protagonists, but it is mostly the women of Arivoor, a fictional village in the outskirts of Chennai, who drive the story. Sundari, Tilak’s wife, and Ponni keep the wheels turning for their families. Of the two, Ponni is handed the rough end of the stick. She laments at one point that she, the wife of the master weaver, has to live off Sundari amma’s hand-me-downs, and you cannot help but feel for her.
The Looms of Arivoor lays bare the contrast in priorities of the haves and have-nots. For all of Tilak’s talk about being Kulasekhara’s lifelong friend, their relationship never rises above that of a benefactor and beneficiary, defined by their social realities.
The village of Arivoor is teeming with fascinating characters, and it’s a shame that we get to know so few of them. The ones we do meet rarely get a chance to reel us into their lives, disappearing instead with scant regard for closure. For instance, Alamelu, the gorgeous — and starving — wife of one of the weavers and one of the more memorable characters, gets less than her due. Khursheed, Tilak’s college flame, gets a parallel storyline with a lot of potential but it gets an unimaginative and predictable ending.
Radhakrishna’s descriptions of village life are a delight. Herein lies her strength as a novelist, as opposed to dialogue-writing, which is laden with dramatic outbursts and feels more suitable for a play. In fact, the novel has been adapted from Radhakrishna’s play, Song of the Loom . Her background as a food researcher shines through as does her passion for the textile industry — combined, they light up the most mundane scenes.
navmi.krishna@thehindu.co.in
The Looms of Arivoor; Sabita Radhakrishna, Bigfoot Publications Pvt. Ltd., ₹225
