Book 7: Poonachi or The Story of a black Goat by Perumal Murugan

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    I speak Tamil very fluently but when it comes to reading Tamil, especially literature I stumble & fair miserably. Till i was in Xth standard the day before my Tamil II exams, I used to go to my Aunt who was a Tamil professor to learn from her. When my results came & I scored 90 marks in Tamil she was shell shocked. She blamed the correction methodology for me getting high marks. In her evaluation i would have only scored 60. Believe me this is not a fashion statement or something I'm proud about. There is a world of tamil literature I'm missing because of this serious flaw. I search for English translations of tamil works. The ones I really enjoyed so much are Ponniyin Selvan series & books by Perumal Murugan.
    When you read his works, you'll be subjected to see our beautiful state in a different eye. His books have always left me feeling strong emotions & makes me question the tolerability of everyone around me.
    Coming to this book, its the story of a female goat from birth to death & everything in-between. This book was written after his self-imposed literary exile. One particular comparison that left me laughing was that of the government informers(media). The author draws barely disguised analogies to human behavior.
    The informers question to the old couple & their reply left me laughing at the middle of the night. In the end the author rips off the bandage & the readers are left feeling raw. A very deep, thought-provoking & tearful book. I would rate 5/5.

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