Comfortably Numb

Sheila Kumar's Storehouse

Published on: 01/23/20 6:08 AM

Book review: The Sixth Finger by Malayatoor Ramakrishnan

 You would imagine that the origin story of a nascent godman would make for a compelling read. This, unfortunately, is not entirely the case here.

Malayatoor Ramakrishnan`s protagonist Vedaraman is introduced to the reader as an urli  thief, when the young man is caught stealing the bronze vessel from a temple of all places. We come to know that he is possessed of an extra digit on his left hand, and this finger is the cause of his eventual fame, notoriety gloom and doom.

Vedaraman leaves behind the maid Kozhukatta Paru who both breast-fed and attempted to bed him at different times in his young life, and sets off seeking newer pastures.

Characters drift in and out of the story, in and out of his life, and he learns to capitalise on the seemingly supernatural power contained in that sixth finger, becoming a godman of some repute. Thus Vedaraman becomes Vedan Baba.

For all the material benefits accruing to him, Vedaraman remains a deeply unhappy man, his head filled with questions no one can possibly answer. The end is inevitable and the reader sees it coming long before it arrives. Vedaraman performs the ultimate iconoclastic act, chops off his powerful — and glowing — sixth finger. What happens to the Baba, then?

And therein lies the rub. Because by then, the reader has lost interest in Vedaraman, his sixth digit, the crafty, foolish, conniving, gullible people who swim into his ken, and the events that occur.

This is indeed a reluctant godman but even though his character study is by no means a superficial one, it doesn’t endear him to the aforementioned reader. The humour is in distinctly sardonic vein, and mildly entertaining in its own right

The translation is an accomplished one, and one that translator Prema Jayakumar did back in 1996, two years after the author`s Malayalam story was released.

The stark tale carries huge undertones of sadness because Vedaraman is by no means a wicked man/godman; he is just another opportunist who is soon surrounded by smarter opportunists who then proceed to make use of his powers.

The Sixth Finger: Malayatoor Ramakrishnan, translated from Malayalam by Prema Jayakumar

Publisher: Ratna Books

Genre: Fiction

Extent: 372pp

Price: Rs 399

book reviewfictionMalayatoor RamakrishnanThe Sixth Fingertranslated by Prema Jayakumar

Sheila Kumar • January 23, 2020


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