Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (July 2, 1930 – March 30, 2005) was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature. Best known for his first novel Khasakkinte Itihasam (1969), Vijayan has six novels, nine short-story collections, and nine collections of essays, memoirs and reflections.

Khasakkinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak; 1969)

The first novel of Vijayan appeared in 1969 and took twelve years' writing and rewriting to reach its final form. It set off a great literary revolution and cleaved the history of Malayalam fiction into pre-Khasak and post-Khasak. It was serialised first and appeared in book form later. The novel is about Ravi, a teacher in an informal education centre in Khasak, and his existential crises. The central character is a great visionary in astrophysics who completed his post graduate programme in Physics from a famous college at Thambaram. The novel ends when Ravi begins his journey to some other realms of existence. The existential puzzle of man as to why he should exist is thoroughly explored in this novel.

I didn't expect much of this book because the description on the back wasn't very enticing. But I got pleasantly surprised. The story about schoolteacher Ravi, his pupils in a remote Indian village and the different fractions of Muslims, Hindus, dragonflies, hidden secrects, sorcerers, betrayal, love, loss, joy is very touching. "Real" legends and myths of the region of Palakkad are interwoven with the life stories of the villagers and Ravi himself.

Counts for India.

For further details about Palakkad, read:

http://www.indnav.com/servlet/Browse?mt=goToName&name=Palakkad&smt=guide

Update 2. Juni 2013: Das Buch hatte wohl Heimweh ;-) Ich hoffe, Ihr hattet bei den Mammutbäumen genausoviel Spaß wie wir!

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Liebe Finderin, lieber Finder,

Gratulation, dass Du dieses Buch gefunden hast! Ich hoffe, es gefällt Dir. Du hast nicht nur ein Buch, sondern eine ganze Gemeinschaft von Leserinnen und Lesern gefunden, die Bücher lieben. Schau Dir die Seite mal an! Vielleicht willst Du Bookcrossing ja beitreten? Das ist anonym, kostenlos und macht Spaß!

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Ich habe es erst angefangen, aber es ist ein wirklich schöner schreibstil. War total gespannt darauf das Buch aus den USA nach Deutschland in neue Regionen zu führen. Grad habe ich festgestellt dass der/die letzte/r Besitzer auch aus Hessen kommt. Klein ist die Welt...