Analysis of the Short Story Turumpu Mullaaniyude Hridayam by Shihabudheen Poythumkadavu Part-2

Click here to read a summary of the short story Turumpu Mullaaniyude Hridayam part-1

Turumpu Mullaaniyude Hridayam as a Marginalised Narrative

The short story titled Turumpu Mullaniyude Hridayam is based on the events in the life of a mukri and it presents the conflict between religion and art, homogeneity promoted by science and difference, and individual and society. The author has selected a character (mukri) from a socially marginalised community and within it a marginalised group of people and has effectively employed the linguistic and cultural resources of the community to narrate a story in which the crisis faced by the protagonist is both regional and universal.

i) Selection of Character

    The protagonist of the story is a mukri. The word ‘mukri’ refers to people who are employed in mosques to recite religious texts, call for prayer (adan) five times a day and general housekeeping. Mukris depend on the meagre income they get from the mosque committee for survival. Though mukris get gifts from believers for participating in various religious rituals, they are the lowest paid people employed in the mosque and they struggle to get both ends meet. An usthad (teacher) in the religious school is a slightly better position, though their salaries are disbursed from the offerings of the believers.

    Malayalam literature and film often present mukri/mollaka (used synonymously for mukri) as epitomes of orthodoxic religious practices among muslims of Kerala due to their presence in the social life of muslims. The lower positions of mukri are often unknown to outsiders as a result they are often misrepresented. For example, in Khasakkinte Ithihasam, Allapicha Mollakka is polygamous, illiterate and a stalwart of orthodoxic religious values. Shihabudheen Poythumkadavu’s story has brought out the real position of a mukri in the religious organisation as the writer has an insider's view of the community’s socio-cultural life. He compassionately portrays Mammu Mukri’s struggles and his helplessness to defend himself. This theme is effectively suggested in the title by referring to the mukri as ‘turumpu mullaani’ ( rusty stack). This selection of characters makes the story a narrative of the marginalised.

ii) Selection of language and cultural context

    The author has selected the linguistic variation (dialect) used by the muslims in their everyday life and the cultural conflict of the community is empathetically portrayed. This should be contrasted to the stereotypical presentation of muslims and their dialect in film and literature. The author is sensitive to the cultural nuances of the community as a result, his narrative offers a fresh perspective to understand the life of the community. The narrative also offers insights into the working of the community, its value systems and cultural differences. Thus, the story presents the lives of people of the margins whose stories are often untold or misrepresented in mainstream Malayalam literature.

iii) Victim of the Conflict between Religion and Arts/ Individual and Society.

    The story dramatises the conflict between religion and aesthetics as the mukri’s natural urge to draw pictures of living creatures is against the Islamic concept of arts. Though the head Usthad (Khateeb) treats arts as a creation of Jinn and Valiya Thangal understands the artist mukri’s predicament and consoles him by saying that he is ahead of his times, Mammu Mukri is a victim of this conflict and he loses his job and sanity. The author is on the one hand empathetic to the ethos of the community and on the other hand problematizes this conflict. The life of the mukri is made miserable not only by the religious instructions alone but also by the social practice of religion. It seems that the author is confident of God's acceptance of the artist as the quotation from The Quran testifies.


iv) Victim of the Conflict between Modern Medicine and Human Nature

    The narrator recounts instances of visiting the mukri in his cell in the mental hospital. Unemployed and hospitalised for madness, the mukri relieves himself by drawing pictures on the walls of the cell and the warden permits him to do so. Later, all the drawings on the wall are washed off and the doctor subjects him to take shock treatment. The narrator explains the reason behind the violent behaviour of the mukri as the denial of permission to draw pictures, but the doctor does not listen to his words and continues the treatment. The narrator realises that the heterogeneity of his usthad is not acceptable to the mental hospital as well. The narrator feels empathy for the inmates of the hospital as they are victims of society as well as the homogeneity imposed by science.

Summary of the Short Story Turumpu Mullaaniyude Hridayam by Shihabudheen Poythumkadavu Part-1

Hello all,

    This post is a summary and analysis of the short story titled Turumpu MullaaniyudeHridayam (The Heart of a Rusty Tack) by Shihabudheen Poythum kadavu.  This story is included in the syllabus of the course Literature of the Marginalised of BA English programme of the University of Calicut. I guess an English translation of the story is not available so far (though I'm told that J Devika is translating some of the stories of Poythumkadavu into English), hence this post is prepared after reading the Malayalam original of the story.

Outline of the Story

    The story begins with the narrator waking up from an early morning dream (which is believed to come true!) about Mammu mukri, a man in charge of adan, (call for prayer five times a day) and housekeeping in a Muslim mosque and a teacher (usthad) in the religious school called madrasa. In the dream, Mammu mukri is confined in a cell and he is breathing his last dragging himself through mud and faeces. Prompted by the dream, the narrator recollects his intimate relationship with Mammu mukri and reveals the complicated relationship between art and religion, difference and science and individual and society.

    Mammu mukri is a kind hearted teacher who makes new students admitted to the madrasa feel at home on their first day at the religious school. He gives away sweets to the kids and calms them down by drawing pictures on their slates. He draws funny pictures of various birds and animals such as crow, Indian cuckoo, camel etc on the slates of his students and this breaks the ice between the kids and their usthad. 

    

    The narrator fondly remembers the picture of Jesus Christ  drawn by the usthad on his slate in which the oppressed face of Jesus resembles that of the usthad himself. Triggered by the funny pictures, the children bring the house down which brings the head teacher - the Khateeb- to the class who forcefully silences them. Usthad erases all the pictures he drew on the slates before the kids leave the madrasa and promises them to draw more pictures in the coming days.

    Mammu mukri finds himself in a crisis as his talent for drawing pictures of living creatures is against the concept of art in Islam at the same time, he can not refuse the urge to draw. The fear of being caught haunts him every moment of his life but his restless fingers always draw spontaneous images everywhere. The Khateeb, the head usthad, notices the image of a buffalo drawn on the backside of a paper in which details of the food provided to teachers in the madrasa is recorded. 

    

    Enraged by the image in which the head of the buffalo resembles that of the Khateeb, the Khateeb convenes an informal meeting and demands to know the person who drew the picture. Though no one responds at the beginning, Mammu mukri confesses his crime and the khateeb removes him from the post of usthad. He is now restricted to the charge adan and housekeeping in the mosque. 

    Later, Khateeb confronts the mukri and charges him of doing irreligious activities such as drawing a minaret of a mosque and below it many donkeys. Mammu mukri agrees with the charge and expresses his helplessness to stop as he has an unconscious urge to draw them. Intrigued by the revelation, the Khateeb assumes that the pictures are not drawn by the mukri, but a jinn (being of flame or air who is capable of assuming human or animal form) which is neither good nor bad and can make humans do many things including drawing and dancing.

     He directed Mammu mukri to Valiya Thangal and asks him to wear a talisman prepared by the Thangal. Though the talisman provided by the compassionate religious head Valiya Thangal, who consoles Mammu mukri saying that he is far ahead of his own time, relieves him for the time being, the restriction imposed on his creativity intensifies his inner urge to express and he loses his job.

    The inner conflict between religious and artistic values and the hostile reactions of the people of his time turn Mammu mukri's life miserable and he gradually loses hold of himself and is taken to a mental hospital. The narrator gratefully recalls that his artistic talents were activated and nourished by the pictures drawn by the usthad. He feels that in his journey as an artist and the exhibitions and interviews he organises in major cities such as Madras, Bangalore and Delhi are attended by the disturbing presence of Mammu mukri, the usthad. 

    Pained by the turn of events, he recollects his meeting with usthad in his cell in the mental hospital. They have spoken for sometime and usthad informs him that he is happy in the prison as he is free to draw any number of pictures on the wall of the cell. The compassionate warden of the cell provides him with chokes with many colours. At the end of the visit, the artist narrator gives him drawing papers, painting tubes and brush and usthad accepts them with delight. In the meanwhile, the warden who supported usthad with colour chokes is transferred and the new warden finds drawings on the wall dirty and pumped water to the cell inorder to erase the drawings which has converted Mammu mukri a violent patient. 

    During the narrator's last attempt to visit the mukri in his cell, authorities deny entry to him and inform him that the mukri is violent and undergoing shock treatment. He meets the doctor in charge and tries to convince him that the usthad's violence is caused by the actions of the new warden. Offended, the doctor refuses to reconsider his diagnosis and asks the narrator to leave. The narrator returns feeling sorry for the inmates of the hospital.

Click here to read an anlysis of the short story Turumpu Mullaaniyude Jeevitham part-2