I've been reading U.A Khader's Thrikkottoor peruma.  I have great respect for U.A Khader as a story teller and a novelist, I did read Chempavizham when I was in 7th standard or something. But this time when I read Thrikkottoor peruma, somehow it left me petrified. I was horrified by brutality of feudal Kerala.

I happened to have seen a short film recently about the crimes against women , and it had left me quite disturbed. I had worried about the fate of every little girl in India. Now I wonder how it would have been back then, when the dead bodies of unfortunate women were found every other day, in rivers and ponds, when the law was in the hands of the landlords, who could silence anyone with a wave of their hands.

I often worry about the way women were portrayed in our literature, it makes me sad beyond reason. But perhaps it was because most of stories come from another time, when the women were thought about only as bodies, their beauty was the only thing that made them special, either to be cherished as a priced possession or to be ripped off and thrown into a river. Of course there were this other lot of women, who knew how to use it to their advantage, they entertained their admirers for their wealth. Apparently prostitutes were not casted aside by the society. They had power and wealth.

Sadly we cannot change the outlook of women by nicely shot videos and revolutionary quotes. We have our whole history to be challenged.