The house he lived in still stands on Thukkampalayam Road, but the reader of the novel will be disappointed as it has undergone many changes and is now beyond recognition.
If any character in Tamil fiction can come close to portraying the ideal wife, it is probably Yamuna. She comes alive on the page. Janakiraman’s legendary novel Mohamul.
Yamuna is attractive enough to seduce men, but not only that. The author also ensures that she is an independent thinking woman who can take care of a man like a mother. Apparently Yamuna’s character is based on a flesh-and-blood woman, who has lived for many years in a Marathi-style house on Kumbakonam’s Thukkamplem road, vividly narrated by Janakiraman.
“She is eight years older than me. Well read and an all around beauty. I have a chance to interact with her. She has sharp intelligence, deep peace and she is not disturbed by anything and I began to admire her respectfully. Eventually it became love and when She realized this, she smiled at me and left me to marry an electrical engineer,” Janakiraman writes in his essay novel Pirantha Katha (Birth of the Novel). Mohamul).
Almost all the characters, including the dead ones, are based on real life. The house he lived in still stands on Thukkampalayam Road, but the reader of the novel will be disappointed as it has undergone many changes and is now beyond recognition. Emptiness surrounds Yamuna’s fan just as it surrounds Babu, the young hero who pines for her.
“You don’t have to go to the road if you don’t have a house on the Yamuna. Why did father buy a house on the road,” Janakiraman writes in the novel expressing his father’s feelings.
The father looked around the house. How beautifully they are taking care of the house! It looks like a new house. It is actually an old house bought six months ago,” reads the novel about how Yamuna acquired unimaginable beauty at her hands.
Writer Indira Parthasarathy, a student of Janakiraman at Town High School in Kumbakonam, said that she asked Thija (Janikeraman) about the house and that although the author’s character is based on one person, many identities can be identified based on imagination.
“Janakiraman himself might have heard about it and his story might have inspired him to write in Swadeshmitra,” he said.
Former IAS officer Gnanarajasekaran, who made the novel into a film, the woman who became the inspiration for Yamuna’s character lived at home with her three daughters when the film was made.
“Karichankunju, a writer friend of Janakiraman’s, asked me if I was interested in meeting him, I declined saying that I did not want to spoil the image I had created by reading the novel. Yamuna is a concept,” said Gyan Rajasekaran, former IAS officer and director of the film Mohamul. Similar to Yamuna’s house, this film was shot at Rayar House in Kumbakonam.
In the novel, Janakirman portrays Yamuna’s mother Parvatibai as an attractive beauty. “Even a child would say Parvati bhai is very handsome. Yamuna is not as beautiful as her mother. His facial features are inherited from his father. Otherwise, she resembles her mother in every way,’ reads the novel.
Writer Ravi Subramaniam also recalled Karichankunju’s comments about the Yamuna and the house. Rani Thilak, who has collected a collection of stories in Kumbakonam, also said that this is the home of the characters.
Writer Sukumaran said he went home many years ago. “Another friend of Janakiraman’s, Swaminath Athreyan, drew a map on a piece of paper so that I could identify the house without any difficulty,” he said.
Kalyanaraman, Principal of Presidency College and author of Janakiraman, a collection of Janakiraman’s writings and his works, said that Janakiraman’s writings will continue as a historical document of socio-cultural aspects. Attractive destination.
published – December 18, 2024 at 12:13 pm IST