thought, “Why not use my own community as the backdrop? This is an uncharted territory. So let me explore it”. That's when my novel was born. I had almost completed writing it when Arundhati Roy's novel took the world by storm bringing laurels to her and to our country when she walked away with a Booker. I loved her book right from page one but the similarities in the theme and the family set up amazed me in the first place. We come from the same Syrian Christian background and anyone belonging to this community would know the kind of incidents that could raise eyebrows in a highly conservative society like ours. This could be the reason for the similarity in the theme.

The novel, By the River Pampa I stood provides an insight into the life of the Syrian Christian community of Kerala – an ethnic Christian community with a two millennium old heritage in the southernmost part of India, where nature has endowed the land and the people with an abundance of grace and beauty.

This story is about the stark realities of life – about love and betrayal, about pride and prejudices, about human beings' eternal obsession with pedigrees and family honour, about barriers built between human beings based on caste, creed, gender, language spoken et al.

A typical Syrian Christian family of Kerala is portrayed here - its great history, its traditions, its joys and sorrows, its ups and downs and its secrets.

The story spans over a century and is woven around an octogenarian named Annamma who is on her deathbed and is revealed through the reflections of her granddaughter, Molu who is traveling to Kerala to visit her for the last time. Molu is the protagonist in the novel who takes you on a nostalgic trip down the decades to the pre-independence era when the family had been at the pinnacle of glory, and then moves on forward to unravel the tale.

The description of customs and traditions, the feudal set up of the society, the social discrimination, the descriptions of lifestyle and the historical backdrop are all original though the plot is a fabricated one.

I have put in a fine thread of satire in the warp and the weft as the story weaves its way spanning almost a century taking the Gold House from glory to imminent degradation and decay.

The River Pampa has always remained close to my heart. I grew up hearing legends about the Pampa and during the hot summer days we cruised on its serene waters through the plains of Kuttanad. It has always inspired me. What is particularly appealing about Kuttanad is its old world charm, its slow pace of life and its child-like innocence which remain unchanged in a fast changing era like ours. It has always remained a magical world for me. Even today Kuttanad is a hot tourist destination where scores of house-boats glide majestically on the Pampa while old traditional houses (like the one described in my novel), with some face-lift, masquerade as riverside resorts for the tourists.

River Pampa in Kuttanad

The man-made barriers prevalent in society on the basis of caste, creed, gender, language spoken – it's a universal phenomenon. You could find it in any society. But I chose this background mainly because I am familiar with the community I was born into and brought up in. I was very particular that the descriptions of lifestyle and traditions should be original; only then does the book have a literary value. Instead of treading on unknown territory, I chose to walk confidently on familiar grounds. I did not need much research for portraying the community's characteristics.

When I tell a story, I have to paint a picture of the backdrop so that the reader will be able to visualize the story. I love to read and understand the traditions of different communities in the world. So I thought the traditions of this community would appeal to my readers from other parts of the country and the world, at large. The story would seem bare without the description of the traditions and lifestyle of the community. As for the kind of life that existed in the pre independence era, I picked a lot from conversations with people from the older generations of the community.

It took me around two years to complete the novel. In one of my creative moments I must have conjured up the plot. The conceptualization of the storyline must have taken only a couple of months. When I relocated to Dubai, the manuscript travelled with me and lay dormant in the bottom drawers of my closet. About a couple of years ago I keyed it on my laptop and gave it a few finishing touches before dashing it off to publishers.

I have always believed that the world is a treasure trove of stories waiting to be told. Each human being, in fact, is a treasure chest of stories, which keep accumulating as he grows older. Whenever an old person dies, I am saddened by the untold stories that die with him.

The Syrian Christian community is a close-knit community in which the young and the old gather together for social functions like baptisms, weddings, death. At such gatherings, the older members sit together and reminisce about the good old days. And if you keep your eyes and ears open, there would be no dearth of material to trigger your imagination.

These pictures of the Pampa in "God's own country” are sure to capture your imagination.

Houseboats on the Pampa

Geeta Abraham Jose is a post-graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. She is an engineer by profession. Click here to know more about Geeta Abraham Jose. Click here to read her blog.

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