Latest news with #Kanyakumari
Time of India
4 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Pride and prejudice: A Kanyakumari love story:
In 1964, the novel 'Puththam Veedu' sent ripples through Tamil literary circles. First, it was written by a woman; second, it focused on the Nadar community, who were then considered part of the depressed classes; and third, it centred on a love affair that defied social norms. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Written in the distinctive Kanyakumari dialect, a terrain few writers of that time ventured into, the book also questioned patriarchy and raised a voice for women. Those were the times when the Tamil literary world was beginning to draw boundaries between "serious literature" and "commercial writing". While the former found space in niche literary magazines, the latter was nurtured by mainstream publications. Amidst this emerged Hephzibah Jesudasan, an English lecturer at the govt College for Women in Trivandrum. 'Puththam Veedu' was her debut novel, and she wrote it in just 15 days. It was writer Sundara Ramasamy, founder of Kalachuvadu magazine, who recommended the manuscript to Tamil Puthakalayam, which first published it. Since 2009, the book has been published by Nagercoil-based Kalachuvadu Publications. Born on April 9, 1925, at Pulipunam in Kanyakumari district, Hephzibah completed her early education in Burma (now Myanmar). After World War II, her family returned to Tamil Nadu. She began writing poems in English at the age of eight. Later, she married Jesudasan, a Tamil professor who encouraged her to write and translate in Tamil. Though she wrote only four novels in Tamil and 11 books in English, Hephzibah, in her centenary year, is not as recognised as she should be considering her debut book has been in print for more than 70 years. Set in Panaivilai, a fictional village in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari district, the story centres on 'puththam veedu' (new house), once a symbol of wealth and pride. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Over the years, due to poor management of the household, the Nadar Christian family that owned it slipped into poverty. Though no longer affluent, the family still commanded respect in the village because of the palm trees they owned. The head of the household was Kannappachi, an ageing patriarch whose word was law. His elder son was an alcoholic, and the younger one was struggling in business. Despite all the ups and downs, it was Lissy, the only daughter of the elder son, who held everything together. Lissy was not like her grandmother and mother, whose lives were confined to the kitchen, nor was she like her niece Lilly, who completed her SSLC and represented a new generation. She stood between two worlds. When she fell in love with her childhood friend Thangaraj, a Nadar palm climber, it sent shockwaves through the household. The family tried to break the relationship, while Lissy tried to hold on to both her love and her loyalty to family and tradition. Whether she succeeded or failed, and what she gained or lost along the way, forms the heart of the story. 'Puththam Veedu' was, in many ways, a first-of-its-kind Tamil novel. One of its earliest reviews came from C S Chellappa, editor of the literary magazine Ezhuthu and author of the acclaimed novella 'Vadivasal'. Chellappa reviewed the book at the Tamil Writers Association's Novel Festival in Chennai in 1966, and later published his speech in his magazine, calling 'Puththam Veedu' the first Tamil novel to depict the lives of palm climbers, the first to centre on a Christian family and community, and the first to bring the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border region into Tamil literary fiction. The novel also revealed a rarely discussed fault line within the Panayeri Nadar community: while some owned palm trees, others worked as palm climbers. This class divide was the main issue in Lissy and Thangaraj's troubled romance. Peppered with details about the festive Margazhi season (Dec to Jan), which was also the season for toddy-tapping, the prime economic activity here, to how it was often the only time women wore new sarees and cooked kilathi fish (leather jacket fish), the book also highlighted the limited understanding of Christianity among the community, with many churchgoers knowing little beyond the basics — that Christmas marked Christ's birth and Good Friday his death. At a time when Christianity was slowly spreading into southern Tamil Nadu, the novel also served as a social and ethnographic study. "In Kanyakumari district, CSI churches brought women into schools and made education more accessible. It gave them access to jobs, it gave them freedom. The novel details those aspects," says Tamil journalist Arul Ezhilan, who interviewed Hephzibah for a commercial magazine in the 1990s. He just bought his first camera, and Hephzibah was the first person he photographed, one of the few images of her available in Tamil literary circles today. "The novel was published in the 1960s, when education was slowly beginning to reach Nadar Christian women. It captures that shift," says Ezhilan. Hephzibah went on to write two more novels — 'Dr Chellappa' (1967) and 'Anaadhai' (1977). Though these works revisited characters from her debut novel and were also set in the fictional village of Panaivilai, they were not as popular. One reason was that the books were out of print for many years. They were recently republished by Chennai-based 'Her Stories', a publication known for publishing women's writings. Her Stories also organised a centenary celebration for Hephzibah. "Panaivilai was her native place Pulipunam. Another reason her later novels didn't grab attention was perhaps the dialect she used," says Nivedita Louis, publisher, Her Stories. "With her first novel, readers were drawn to the dialect. But when she used the same language in later works, the novelty wore off. Also, it's unclear how well those books were promoted. The later novels explored male psychology, and they were ahead of their time, which could be why she was largely unrecognised. " Hephzibah stopped writing Tamil fiction after four novels and shifted her focus to English non-fiction, believing that writing on history was a divine calling. "She was not just a writer," says Niveditha. "She wore many hats of translator, poet, children's author, publisher (she ran Emerald Press), educationist (she founded Thangakan Memorial Ideal English School) and historian (she authored a four-volume history of Tamil literature with her husband)." Hephzibah remained unknown beyond her debut novel because she didn't write in magazines, says R Prema, researcher and former Tamil professor at Ethiraj College, Chennai. "Back then, writers gained recognition mainly through magazines. They published short stories or serialised their novels. Hephzibah entered the literary space directly, which is why there was little awareness about her," says Prema. 'Puththam Veedu' was translated into Malayalam and later into English as 'Lissy's Legacy'. Now, under a collaboration between the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation and Rupa Publications, 'Putham House', a new English translation by G Geetha, has been released. Email your feedback with name and address to
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Are those jobs for real? Where do the crew sleep? Your Race Across the World questions, answered
Launched in 2019, initially on BBC Two (before graduating to BBC One), Race Across the World has a simple premise. Five duos – married, mates, siblings or parent/child – have to get from one global location to another. For the current, fifth, series, the starting point is Huanghuacheng, in China, and the finish line is Kanyakumari at the south of India, 14,000km away. With air flights banned, the competitors have to complete the journey on the same budget as the price of a one-way plane ticket to their destination, which this time is the equivalent of £22 each to spend per day. The only other travel equipment they're permitted is a world map, a GPS tracker and a travel guide with local job adverts. They give up their smartphones, bank/credit cards and access to the internet. If they run out of money, it's race over. They can take jobs if funds are running low but they're racing against the clock. Each episode ends with a timed check in, and the first pair to arrive at the final check-in win £20,000 (a sum that hasn't changed since series one). How are the routes decided? The show's producers ensure the routes are possible to complete by first sending two researchers out on the road on the same tight budget. 'They really have to stress-test that route, so they can come back and provide us all the knowledge,' says the BBC's Michael Jochnowitz, who commissioned the series, 'meaning we know what the choices and challenges will be that the contributors face.' The method is inspired by the dry run for series one (London to Singapore), where one researcher's miserable videos stuck on the Caspian Sea due to bad weather were so gripping, producers made sure that route was included, only to have the same researcher stuck in the same location with the contestants when it happened again. How are contestants picked for the show? 'We interrogate would-be contestants' motivations very hard to make sure they're not just taking part for money, or to boost their Instagram following or to get some product endorsements,' explains the show's senior line producer Maria Kennedy. 'They are not normal TV contestants, and they wouldn't apply for anything else.' The auditions are tougher than most. Would-be racers come to London where their phones and wallets are taken away and they have to see how far they can get in an hour. What motivates people to apply? 'We knew we were racing but that wasn't why we did it,' explains Stephen Redding, 62, who raced with his wife Viv, 66 in the last series (Japan to Indonesia). 'We didn't want to dribble into old age, we both have health issues, we loved the Canadian landscape in season three and we thought we still have some adventure in us.' What are the rules about safety? The production team set some safety rules – about travelling at night and crossing borders safely, for instance – and organise visas and vaccines in advance, but leave everything else in the hands of the players. 'Every bus and train option is researched,' says former executive producer Stephen Day. 'But we can't predict what's going to happen, so we have to be ready to adapt. Until someone does it for real, you don't know what will happen.' How big is the camera team accompanying each duo? Each pair has a director, a producer/camera operator who uses a small handheld camera and carries a GoPro for tricky shots, plus a local fixer and medical support – which follows them about an hour behind. There's also a director of photography and a series director following all teams to shoot the big sweeping drone shots that capture the beauty and scale of the countries they're travelling through, but also the hustle and bustle backdrop of travelling, as the contestants often move too fast for establishing shots. Where are the rest of the production team? The show has what it describes as two 'war rooms'. 'There's one in London and one on location,' explains former executive producer Mark Saben. 'So in series three, [producer] Maria Kennedy and I were out on location [Canada] at each checkpoint. And then there's another team of story producers who are getting the [camera] feed coming through and taking notes. It's a huge logistical undertaking.' What happens if a team secures a ride but there isn't enough room for the crew? The show rules state that they always have to have at least one production person with them. 'We wouldn't just let them go and hope to see them again at the next gas station,' says Kennedy. Do the camera crew know how rival teams are getting on? They do not. Kennedy explains, 'We keep a decent firewall between them to keep it authentic for everyone. It's only if they're all coming into the same transport hub, for instance, that we'd give them a heads up.' Do the producers ever intervene? Kennedy says that the entire team is hands off, even when some of the contestants' decisions are so bonkers, or the mistakes they make so screamingly obvious, that you assume it's a bit of a setup. They're not even allowed to provide hungry contestants with food. What happens if it's late at night and a team hasn't found somewhere to sleep? Kennedy confirms that, in some cases, they have had to intervene for safety reasons. 'Sometimes that happens, but most of the time we prefer them to find their own accommodation.' Do the crew get luxury accommodation along the way? The crews don't get to sleep in luxury hotels or eat in fine restaurants, they're slumped in coaches or hitching on the back of trucks along with the contestants, although they do get some downtime at the checkpoint where they're allowed 48 hours to crash, to rest and recover. Are teams reunited with their phones at checkpoints? No. Are they allowed any contact with home? Only if there's what's termed as a 'significant issue' with their loved ones back in the UK. At that point, they would be allowed to speak to a nominated person. Are the jobs the contestants take on actually real? Jochnowitz insists they are, and that they're sourced during the production team's initial recce. 'They'll find out where there are local job opportunities. We don't approach places asking if they'd create a job for the purposes of the show. Those are real jobs for real money. Or, if it's not money, then it's bed and board – things like that.' What's done to look after the contestants' mental welfare? At each checkpoint, there are psychologists available on video chat (via the producers) to talk to the contestants and make sure they're not suffering. They also check in when filming is over and just before the series airs, when the media pressure starts to build. 'Because we will intervene if they're in danger, and we have a real duty of care,' says Day. 'If contestants – and there have been some – who are so focused on budget that they're not eating, then you have to get them to spend money on food.' Are the contestants allowed any luxury items? Yes. From this year's line-up, Tom (travelling with his mother, Caroline) brought an MP3 player, Letitia took wipes, while her sister Elizabeth had essential oils; Melvyn packed a calculator and also an MP3 player, and his brother Brian brought earplugs with him. And lest we forget 20-year-old Alex in series one, who ferried two large bottles of Versace cologne in his backpack.
