Women are serious thinkers and are moving forward with self confidence and independence. Though this is a very positive sign, its spark is missing in the women writings in Malayalam, opined author and poet Kalpetta Narayanan. However, a paradigm shift has taken place in the way how women think and perceive things. He was talking at the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters 2020 at the session "Chinthavishtayo Innathe Sita". Writer Sithara and Poet Madusoodhanan Nair were also present at the session.
Talking on the centenary year of Kumaranashan's work "Chinthavishtayaya Sitha", Kalpetta Narayanan added that in these many years, he could only find the moonlight of enlightenment in the writings of poet Balamaniyamma. He underlined that he could not even find it in the writings of Madhavikutty.
Talking on the topic, Sithara said that while asking the question whether Sitha exist even today, her answer would be "yes". Sitha, she said, as an epitome of love, sacrifice and victimisation exist in both men and women today". Speaking about Kumaranashan's Sitha, Sithara observed that Ashan has created two Sithas in his work, one who is thinking, protesting and raising her voice as well as questining on the happenings around her and the other who justifies her husband purely out of love for him.
Madusoodanan Nair expressed his views on how women are taken for granted in family and relationships. "The love women show to their partners and the things they do out of this love are never reciprocated", he added. Ashan's Sitha is nothing but the refelection of Ashan's thoughts about women, their independent souls and thoughts. Ashan could write in a feminist perspective during such a period only because of the fact that he was a student of Sree Narayana Guru.
Content Highlights: Malayalam women writings, Kalpetta Narayanan, Sithara
