At last, Thimmakka stops dancing and collapses on the floor. The villagers look empty-eyed at each other. Parvati gets up, revived but disoriented. Ajji peers through the smoking walls and can see nothing. Honni quietly makes her way out of a smoking window to Krishnegowda’s side.

Krishnegowda stands strong, handsome and proud, his dark skin gleaming in the rain, the sole male heir of the headman’s family.

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

ulldozers crush the wall.

Ashes everywhere. No shrubs, trees, wells or lakes…

The dry wind whispers: Kamanna kattige, kattige ge kolu, kolige benki, benkige dahana.

Lord Rama holds the deeds to the Kamadeva temple land, says Krishnegowda.

Wait.

Eerie white flowers fight their way out of the cracks in the concrete.

It must rain…

Note on The Wall

A NOTE ON THE WALL

CHANDAN GOWDA

n charting a course for Indian writers in English, Raja Rao’s famous preface to his debut novel Kanthapura (1938) noted that their work had ‘to convey in a language that is not one’s own thea spirit that is one’s own.’ The Wall abides by this obligation.

Sowmya Aji shows a passionate commitment to retain a Kannada sensibility in her novel: ‘…and he is running after some low-caste girl, declaring that he wants to marry her’. Besides syntactical distinctness, the local speech styles embed a form of social reasoning too. Consider how a character justifies the choice of a groom for Chikthayi: ‘The young man’s antecedents look good, the family is well off, his mother is said to be kind, he has no sisters to plague her and Chikthayi will be very happy.’ This is illustrative of what Rao had wanted his Indian writer colleagues to convey: ‘a certain thought movement’ of a language community. Drawing freely from Kannada expressions and cadences, The Wall bends and enriches the world of English.

Folk stories from Karnataka are known to accord a special recognition to the strengths and wisdom of women. Aji situates her novel within the terrain of major Kannada folk stories and asks that the power of women be recognized in other ways. The Wall works with the narrative liberty found in oral literature, which lets it stay responsive to changing social and political milieus. Throughout the novel, history, myth and modern political events mingle freely.

Folklore is a repository of the self-images of communities. It is an archive of social truths, moral priorities and foundational ethical dilemmas and anxieties. A careful engagement with folklore, therefore, cultivates a robust sense for moral heterogeneity in a society and helps fashion a living politics. The latter aspiration marks the pages of The Wall.