The Legend of Khasak - O.V. Vijayan

The Legend of Khasak is a ballad of re-enactment. Thasarak as the Malayalam place name go, provides the interface, rest is no real life Eden. A short book with great deal of details, first published in Malayalam in 1969, as Khasakkinte Itihasam by O.V. Vijayan, with the English translation as well by him in 1994. Though late glad I got hold of it. Wondering if it has anything similar to 100 days of solitude?

The District Board has established a single teacher school in remote Khasak, in a an effort to give the local children access to basic education, and Ravi is to be the first teacher there. Ravi is the outsider in this place, but he easily fits in the scheme of things here. The smaller stories and individual fates are appealing and well blend into the whole. It also includes, Beliefs and superstitions that make sense in this small world, co-existence of religion, modern world intrigues with tradition, not involved around just a single character, but r

Vijayan carefully avoids presenting the book too closely as an educational journey but is very evocative, covering a great deal from various aspects of life in few pages, forward clearly say the English version cannot do full justice to the malayalam one, as there are limitations, but an interesting read indeed, especially considering the time it was written. Hence the normal saying - In Malayalam literature they say - there was a period before Khasak and after Khasak.