Vanavasam & Manavasam

Recently I happened to read the book Vanavasam and its sequel Manavasam, both written by Kannadasan. These two books happen to be a chronological listing of the main events in his life. Both the books made an intresting read, Like many I am also a fan to some of his songs. I do listen to some of the old songs mainly for its lyrics. When I hear some of the old songs I wonder that we know all these words individually, but wonderfully he has joined them to bring out such a nice rhyming songs. To say for example "Muttukal sirikkum nilathil thittikum ninaipai vidhaikkum..."

Definitely he is a gifted Genius. But in this autobiography-Vanavasam he cliams that he got that skill through practice. Its a surprise to know that he has studied only upto 8th and with that he gained to manage such a mastery over Tamil and its grammer and vocabulary. Vanavasam talks about his early life and his political life in DMK party. After reading this book only I came to know that Kannadasan had an active, but unstable and unsuccessful political career. Vanavasam ends once he quits the DMK party. Manavasam start after that and it doesnt end. That is, he didnt complete Manavasam. Among these two, it was Vanavasam that I found more interesting. I was surprised to know the background and early life of some of the political leaders who are top leaders now.

In many places one call can get the feel of reading a third grade cheap books. Especially in those areas where he narrates his visit to prostitution houses along with his friend, both were budding entrants to politics at that time. I have read such situations even in some of the stories of R.K.Narayan. This makes one to come to the conclusion that Men visiting such places has been a common, partially accepted activity in those times. Even in older tamil movies quite often we can come across the dialog "Aambalaigna kalyanathukku munnadi konjam appadi ippadi than iruppanga...".

In his preface the author declares that he has the said the truth throughout the book, but at the same time he admits that he has not revealed many of the incidents that happened in his life, since he feels that it cannot be revealed in public. He claims that the truth is like one being naked and one cannot be nake everywhere. I could understand his reasoning. Even in Gandhi's autobiography too, Gandhiji has mentioned that there are some incidents which only he and God knows and he wishes to keep them within him and God and not reveal to others.

We can understand this to some extent. Being human beings, guided (or rather tied) by social and cultural laws we all will have some part of our lives which only we and God know. Vanavasam starts with Kannadasan as a grown up boy with ambitions to reach the sky and rule the world. Then continues with his early days leaving his native, searching for jobs in Trichy, settling in odd jobs, primarily in the publishing industry which was in its infacy those days. Then moving to Chennai, then to Salem, coming back to Chennai. In all these places and cities he narrates the men he met, ladies he met, and lived with most of those ladies - varying from single night and sometimes upto six months - which is sure will make many jealous :-).

The author claims that the many leaders in political parties didnt practice what they preached - a fact that we can understand by seeing many leaders having more than one wife now. Manavasam describes his political life in Congress and also his abroad visits. Unlike other autobiographies, the script in these books have a different style, partly because it was written by a poet. Each of this book can be read once, and it helps to understand the ups and downs in the life of the gifted Genius - Kannadasan.

- Pavala.