COMALA
Santhosh Eachikanam,
is a short story writer and scenarist who has received the Kerala Sahitya
Academy Award for his short story Comala in 2008. He also won Padmarajan Award, Cherukad Award
and Basheer Award. Many of his short
stories were translated into English, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Telegu. His ‘Comala’ is one of the critically
acclaimed short stories of Malayalam Literature of the twentieth century. It was written in the context of the rise of
suicidal tendency among the people in the post-globalized world. Apart from this it is also criticizing the
discussions of news channels that don’t contribute anything good to the
society.
In ‘Comala we come to know how Sudhakaran, an insincere
friend of Viswan, gets him into the debt trap. By quoting the words of their
teacher Mr. Pothuval, ‘helping others is an act of holiness’ Sudhakaran
cleverly got Viswan sign as the surety for his loan of Rs. 50,000. After 3 years Viswan got a notice from the
bank demanding him to pay Rs. 90,345 including interest. He met Sudhakaran and asked him to pay but he
didn’t. So, Viswan’s wife worked hard
and got Rs. 7000 that was paid to the bank.
But the bank sends a notice to Viswan saying that his house and land will
be confiscated. As he has no other way,
he makes the threat of collective suicide on 15th August by
displaying a board in front of his house.
However, this attracts attention and becomes the topic of discussion in
News time. The unsympathetic attitude of
the panelists in the discussion and the society is clearly shown here.
Madhavan Nair the secretary of the bank argues for his bank
where as Dr. Nandakumar tries to prove that Viswan wants to live through this
threat. Alex Punnoose talks about the highest
rate of suicide in the country. He also
refers Comala in the novel ‘Pedro Paramo’ by Juan Rulfo saying that Kerala will
become Kerala Comala in near future, filled with dead. Advocate Fathima Begam
argues that the attempt to commit suicide is an offence. Unfortunately nobody takes part in the
opinion poll on the issue next day. Thus
the entire discussion becomes absurd.
However, a week before August 15, Viswan decides to look
for Sudhakarn. He travels for 5 days and
searches for Sudhakaran. But he can’t
find him. On the 5th day,
when he is about to drink a black coffee from a thattu kada near a highway, an
accident happens and a motor cyclist is seriously wounded. But nobody in the thattukada or on the way
seems to bother. Viswan takes the injured
man to the Medical College in a jeep. On
seeing the unsympathetic jeep driver and the selfish man who gets a lift on the
way, he doubts whether it is ‘Comala,’ a dead peoples land. On the way the man shows signs of death. Viswan gets two drops of water into the dying
man’s mouth. Then he says ‘My debt was
two drops of water. I have repaid
it. So, I have to remove the stupid
board that I have displayed in front of my house.’ Thus the story has a fine ending with the
realization of Viswan who decides not to commit suicide at the end.
------Thulasidharan V
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