Dissonance from Katha Publications

Dissonance from Katha

Dissonance from Katha Publications is a honest effort by the concern to bring to fore, a very famous regional writer and Jnanapith Award winner – Jayakanthan.

Jayakanthan is known for his rustic, on-the-face style of story telling and has a tendency to bring about emotions in readers that they never have experienced. We all have a tendency to live a make-believe world with all niceties and pleasantries that life has to offer. However, Jayakanthan has the natural ability to land the punch right in our gut - where it hurts most. Hurt – not because of pain but because of guilt. His stories have a tendency to strip us naked of our false beliefs and perceptions to put on a show of purity and nakedness. While many turn their faces away from raw nakedness, there are still a few who understand the beauty of art devoid of any makeup adorning nothing but its purity. Jayakanthan is truly a writer of the masses, in every possible sense.  His greatness lies in the simple fact that he uses a simpleton, lying next to the garbage bin in the platform, to convey great messages of humanity.

When you finish reading each story in “Dissonance”, you are stripped off your ego by the presentation of truth that we fail to identify or just ignore.

Being a native tamil speaker, I was able to appreciate the beauty of the stories because I have read the same ones in Tamil, the language in which Jayakanthan wrote these wonderful stories. The translators have done their best to bring about the true essence of the stories and the underlying messages. Either having a diktat to stay true to the original story or because of their respect for this towering author, they have not been able to justify their efforts completely. The translation, while immaculate in many places, becomes very vague in other places. In a few portions, transliteration instead of translation may confuse readers who do not have a tamil grounding, which is contrary to objective of reaching out to non-tamil readers. The intensity of the messages come across in most of the translated stories.

Considering the grandiose job that was undertaken, the translating authors have put on a good show. Dissonance – as the book is rightly named, does evoke raw emotions driven by strong feelings. This book is excellent because of its literary purity and the ability to hold the mirror up to us and the society that we live in.