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"Extremism, now
more widely termed, terrorism, is on the
lips of every human being and on the
front pages of the world’s newspapers
every day. But we still long for love
and love still thrives. This poetic
novel by Moncy Pothen plunges us
directly into the forests and paddy
fields of Kerala, India from the 1960s
to the 1980s, describes the delicate and
heartfelt awakening of love in two
lives, and has roots in ancient Indian
tradition. Can you forgive a terrorist,
if he has participated in the murder of
your own father? Like the heroine,
Ahalya, we live in complicated times,
where black and white give way to shades
of gray, and in Beneath the Clouds and
Coconut Leaves, we hold our breath to
witness which will win the battle, love
or hate? Like the hero, Arjunan, we are
fighting to win that battle within
ourselves."
-Allana Joy Bourne. Newspapers in
Education Program Specialist, The
Seattle
Times.
Adjunct faculty, Seattle
Pacific
University
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"I
was very touched by Moncy Pothen's
excellent presentation of life in Kerala,
the southern Indian state, and every
incident he narrates happens there every
day. Beneath the Clouds and Coconut
Leaves offers not simply glimpses into
life in Kerala but deep insights into
how the people there think. It
skillfully uses Malayalam words, for
which no equivalents exist in any other
language, leaving no room for
ambiguity."
"Beneath the Clouds and
Coconut Leaves is a very refreshing
work, and it is not an exaggeration to
say that every Malayalee would wish to
have authored it."
"A job excellently
done. I rank Beneath the Clouds and
Coconut Leaves a notch above every other
book written in English about life in
Kerala, including The God of Small
Things, by Arundhati Roy, which won the
Booker prize in 1997."
-P.V.Vivekanand.
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"A
simple story of people who retrace their
steps to pick up life's broken threads
to restitch them into a healthy picture
of reunion. Using a unique style and
structure, Moncy Pothen's vintage tale
set in Kerala, the land of monsoon
clouds and coconut palms, projects the
human virtue that no one is alone."
-Dr. Sukumar Azhikode
Sanskrit/Vedic
scholar. Calicut
University
professor and pro- vice chancellor,
till 1986. His philosophical book,'Tatwamasi,"
has been
awarded many prestigious awards in India.
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"Author
Pothen should be applauded on his
ability to handle such
revolutionary ideals as social
enlightenment and welfare issues in such
a backwater setting; a rather laid-back
rural community where change is frowned
upon and things can only move at a snail’s
pace. Linguistically, the book should
delight all with its generous imagery
and plethora of picturesque
descriptions. The kaleidoscope of exotic
characters, Hindus, Muslims and
Christians, living side by side in peace
and amity, also adds to the overall
warmth of the novel."
-Safi Abdi (Safia
Mohamed), well known Somalian writer, has been living in
Dubai for the past five years. Her
books, A Mighty Collision of Two Worlds and
Offspring of Paradise are popular.
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P.V.Vivekanand.
Chief Editor, Gulf Today Daily, Sharjah, UAE and
the recipient of the Journalist of the year
award in 1997 by International Journalists
Congress.
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Moncy Pothen’s
novel, ‘Beneath the Clouds and Coconut
Leaves’ gives a panoramic view of the
socio-economic life in Kerala in a
realistic manner, threading along the
warp and weft of the Kerala community.
Arjunan the hero and Ahalya the heroine
are mythological names. Arjunan is the
ideal fighter in the eternal battle
between right and wrong; Ahalya stands
for the curse-befallen society that
needs a stone-like persistence for its
final liberation.
The novel is full of meticulous
descriptions of the coconut land filling
the air with the flutter of the Coconut
fronds and the fragrance of the paddy
fields. The vernacular expressions in
the novel add to the Kerala flavor of
the story.
-Prof. Bridget
Joseph M.A.M.Phil.
Retired Professor,
Assumption
College, Changanacherry, Kerala. Former
Co-coordinator of undergraduate courses,
School of distant education,
M.G.University. Former Resource person
for Post Graduate Courses in English,
M.G
University. Former faculty at the
International
Embassy
School,
Dammam
,
Saudi Arabia.
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Author Bio
Moncy
Pothen was raised in a village in Kerala. Born
in 1959 as the youngest and only brother of four
sisters, Pothen started writing poems at 18.
Many of his poems in his mother tongue have been
published and broadcast over local radio
stations.
Raised by his
father, a schoolteacher who left to eternity on
February 29, 2004 and mother, who
survives. Pothen is a member of the
Orthodox Christian Community in Kerala. After
completing his education in Kerala, Pothen
started a career as an accountant in UAE in
1985. Now he lives in Sharjah, United Arab
Emirates and works as Chief Accountant at a
private firm. He is one among the many
millions of overseas Indians.
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NOVEL DESCRIPTION
Lies as a
tiny state in the extreme south of
India, gifted abundantly by nature's
bliss, surrounded by coconut groves,
paddy fields, greenly hills, valleys,
rivers, canals and backwaters, Kerala
signifies the term, 'the God's own
country'. This Novel portrays the lives
of the people in Kerala; belong to
various castes and creeds, using an
imaginary village called ‘Brahmapuram’.
Brahmapuram means the place of Brahma or
the creator. It is an extremely odd
society co-exists peacefully for
centuries irrespective of their
uncompromising beliefs and
customs.
The story
starts at dusk when Arjunan, the hero,
gets down from a
passenger bus at the village junction
after serving a jail term for his
Naxalite activities. His saga of
existence starts there with the variety
of strange village characters. He
wishes to patch-up with his friends,
relatives and neighbors. He tries to
expiate for his past, which devastated
the Brahmin Mana, the once rich and
pompous Brahmin family where Ahalya, the
Assassinated Ramabhadran Nambuthiri's
daughter, her bed-bound mother and
younger brother live pathetically. Could
he rescue them from ruin? Could he
succeed in his efforts to prove his
virtues? What are the strange events
aviating him in his course of action?
How will his timely actions change the
desperate village women's destiny too?
The author invites the readers to
his beautiful village to experience the
lively smell of screw pine, pala and
elangi flowers under the sanctity of
coconut and banyan tree leaves. Hear the
songs of cuckoos and the perpetual
melody of breeze and rains in the
rhythmic dissonance of crickets and frogs.
Won't this be a different literary
experience?
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