Estha, Rahel now speak Malayalam

Kochi: Novelists Arundhti Roy and Anannd at a book releasing ceremony at Kochi on Thursday

“Please do not forget that The God of Small Things is a political novel.” This is what Arundhati Roy would like her readers to keep in mind. The novel was about politics, especially the politics of caste. In her view, the ugliest thing about Indian life is the reality of caste. She is a little upset that though the novel is widely read in Kerala, its political content has been overlooked.

Ms. Roy, who attended a ceremony here on Thursday to release the Malayalam edition of her 1997 Booker Prize-winning novel, shared her experiences about writing the book with readers.

Many translations

There have been translations in several languages, including Estonian. “But no other translation is as important to me as this.” For, it is the language of Estha, Rahel, Ammu and Velutha, the novel's central characters.

The novel get its Malayalam translation, ‘

Kunju kaaryangalude odaya thampuran,' by short-story writer A.S. Priya, 15 years after it was first published. In a question-and-answer session between the author and the translator at the book release ceremony, Ms. Roy recounted her feelings about the novel. “The novel does not belong to me anymore, it belongs to the world,” she said.

She had moved on from the novel. And, the money, awards, and adulations from it had not moved her. “It is okay to win the Booker, but the Booker does not define me. My books, my politics and my language do that.” Award, money and fame were ‘shallow and cheap.' A writer should not write for these things. “It is children who need approval of others. We are adults. We do not need the toy of others' approval.”

'Always a writer'

She considers herself a writer, not an activist. “I have never stopped being a writer.” She writes political essays “when I have something to say.” She does not mind being called a one-novel wonder. “I am not a novel-manufacturing factory. I am not in a competition with anyone [for producing more novels].” She does not want to be remembered either as a writer or activist. “I am more than happy not to be remembered at all.”

An adult child

She said she vividly remembered her childhood in Aymanam in Kottayam district where she led an unprotected child's life. She had often been haunted by the fear of the spectre of her asthmatic mother's death. She was an ‘adult child' and had observed and remembered everything — the little sights and smells of the village; fish, insects, flowers. These got reproduced in the novel, through which she “said everything I wanted to say at that point of time.”