Book Review: 19, Canal Road

Women with good sense of humor are as rare as ripe mangoes in winter. More so when it comes to Malayalam literature. Or so I thought till I grabbed a copy of 19, Canal Road by Sreebala K Menon who is famous these days as Assistant Director to Sathyan Anthicaud, the celebrated Malayalam film maker.

19, Canal Road are the memoirs of the author during her life in Chennai as a paying guest and the title of the book is rightly sourced from the address in Chennai at which the author used to live. When one says Memoirs, there is nothing philosophical about Sreebala's writings. Instead, her joltings have more to do with her keen sense of observation and understanding of the psyche of the average Tamilian. This, coupled with the cultural differences between Tamilians and Malayalees and the breezy and subtly humourous language that Sreebala uses in her prose make 19, Canal Road an interesting read!

Starting with the author's hunt for hostels to how she ends up at 19, Canal Road and progressing with the stories of the interesting set of people she meets- her room mate's love affair with the next door grocer's son, to her computer classes to Jayanthi, the servant girl and her love story; to Kanna mami and her dogs; to the old mama visiting from Denmark; to Anandham Mami; to the American kids; to Shakeela on the train- Sreebala draws up one interesting anecdote after other and in the process takes us through the stories of all her acquaintances in Chennai- all this not even with a gentle touch of exaggeration!

As writer- director- actor Sreenivasan remarks in his preface, Sreebala has the ability to dig deep into the minds of fellow human beings and take out everything that they have hidden up there. Add to this, her free flowing vocabulary and endearing narrative style- 19, Canal Road is a winner and it is for no reason that Sreebala was honored with the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award for this one! Go for it...