കണ്ണാടിയുടെ കാഴ്ച | Kannaatiyude Kaazhcha

A common theme repeated in stories and novels of M Mukundan is the never ending conflict between modernity and tradition. He seems to explore different aspects of this theme in most of his stories that I read.

Kannadiyude Kaazhcha also deals with the same. It asks at what expense do we embrace modernity by showing us a merchent who sells dreams and a man who sells plastic replications of flowers, plants animals and ultimately humans.

He explores the pathos of youth who cannot bear the transitory nature of modern living and escapes it in stories about sons becoming Aghoris and man-gods. There is a clever story about the conflict between development and preservation of nature seen through the eyes of aliens visiting Kerala for a vacation.

Most of the stories are clever and makes the reader introspect about the times that we live. There are some of them which are pretty flat and does not provide any impact. But still the better stories of the collection compensate for them.