I am an NRK, non-resident Keralite. While my parents grew up in Kerala, the South Western state of India, I was not. My father grew up close to rivers and ponds, playing in the waters and swimming like a fish. When I was 10 years old he taught me to swim. This was one of the most essential life skills, he thought.
Water is the life line of people in Kerala. In fact, I would say water flows in their veins instead of blood. It is hardly likely that you would find a Kerala/ Malayalee boy or girl who does not know how to swim. Besides having a very long coastline it also has a large number of perineal rivers and backwaters. Backwaters are salty water that is flushed upstream into canals and little rivulets and form brackish water lakes. These backwaters lie parallel to the Arabian Sea.
The existence of these large bodies of water also means that fishing is a major economic activity in the region. And Malayalees of Kerala are fish eaters of course.
Abraham Verghese's novel is about a man or rather a family in Kerala living among the backwaters and canals, but for whom water is an anathema, vehemently disliked! 'Parambil' is a House (family name) and an estate of such a family cursed by the covenant of water! And this is the mystery around which the story revolves.
Molay, meaning daughter, arrives at Parimbil as a child bride. One never quite gets to know this child bride's name as no one addresses her as anything except her relationship to the person. Much later her son from her husband's earlier marriage names Her Big Ammachi! Ammachi, meaning mother and Big being the first English word her son learnt.
Molay travels by boat through the river, the large lake, backwaters really, and a series of Canals to reach the Parambil estate. The first thing she notices about the house is that it is constructed way back into the estate rather than on the bank of the canal. It takes a long time for her to find out the reason for this and when she does she calls it 'the condition'.
'The condition' ensures that her husband never goes near the water. She finds this strange while her greatest joy is to jump into the cold canal water and take a swim. What could be more relaxing than that?
Another storyline in the novel is about an English doctor. It doesn't take much time or intelligence to realise that the author must be a doctor. The intricate details of the procedures carried out by this English doctor in a Madras Hospital soon reveals this. I wondered where this storyline was going but knew that it would finally tie-up with the story of Molay and Parambil.
The novel tells many fascinating stories about plantation life over a long period of seven decades from 1900 and over three generations. One such story is when Molay encounters, or feels she encounters, the spirit of the first wife, who is the mother of the boy. This ghost lives in the cellar where Pickles and other items for the kitchen are stored. Strangely, she makes friends with this friendly ghost. She feels that the ghost is watching over her to see how she looks after her stepson. When the ghost is convinced that she loves the boy, she turns into a friend. Molay begins to rely on the ghost who communicates with her through various signs, such as dropping a spoon or knocking down a jar at the appropriate moment.
Molay and her husband are blessed with a son Ninan. The father is obsessed with keeping the child away from the water. The child also has no interest in entering the water and in fact prefers to climb up the trees and swing like a monkey. Unfortunately, the covenant of water, 'the condition', finally finds the boy. The mother and father are devastated. The father shows Molay a family tree where those who died by the covenant of water were marked by a sign of waves and a tree.
Many tragedies follow the Parambil family and finally a granddaughter is born to Big Ammachi. The daughter of son Philipose and wife Elsie. Elsie is not able to tolerate various traumas in their relationship and she walks into the canal and disappears. Big Ammachi however rejoices and the birth of the baby girl and lights a lamp against all traditions. She calls the child Mariamma. This child is not cursed by the covenant of water. In fact, she loves to swim in the canal, hiding this fact from her father.
Big Ammachi sees all the pain and suffering around her and feels the need for a hospital nearby. She convinces Mariamma that she should become a doctor. Mariamma grows up and fulfils her grandmother's dream. She is curious about 'the condition' and with a pathologist doctor, who is her mentor, discovers a possible reason for 'the condition'. It has to do with a tumour in the brain that press down on the nerves that control balance in the body. Suffering from 'the condition' creates difficulty in balancing, it affects vision, and in the water, the person completely loses her sense of balance, causing her to drown.
By chance Mariamma discovers that there are many other families in Kerala who suffer from this 'condition'. With my Malayalee background I was amazed at the idea. Could it be possible the persons living in Kerala surrounded by water could be afraid of water? Again by chance Mariamma finds and struggles to save her friend, who was in exile, from this 'condition'. She is forced to perform surgery in a hospital that cares for the lepers. And wonder of wonders, who could be managing this hospital and home for lepers? Yes, the English doctor who was introduced earlier?
And what is the doctor's connection to her and her mother? That is the mystery of 'The Covenant of Water'. Read the book to discover the amazing tale that enfolds over a long 700+ pages. Available on Kindle!! Happy discovering friends!
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