Mamooli Cheezon Ka Devata

The God of Trivial Things In a purely practical sense, its probably fair to say that it all began when Sophie Mol arrived in Ayemenam. Perhaps its true that things can change in a single day. That a few hours can influence the outcome of entire lives. And that when they do, those few hours, like relics salvaged from a burned-out housea chipped clock, a burned-out picture, charred furnituremust be gathered from the ruins and examined, cherished, and accounted for. Small events, trivial things, broken and reassembled, filled with new meaning. Suddenly, they become the bare bones of a story. Still, saying that it all began when Sophie Mol arrived in Ayemenam is just one way of looking at it. It could also be claimed that the episode truly began thousands of years ago. Long before the Marxists arrived. Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch rise, before Vasco da Gamas arrival, before the Zamorins conquest of Calicut. Long before Christianity arrived by boat and spread through Kerala like tea from a tea bag. That it all began in the days when the laws of love were made. Laws that determined who should be loved, and how. And how much. Anyway, in a purely practical world... It was a sky-blue day in December 1969 (nineteen hundred was still unpronounceable). A sky-blue Plymouth, with the sun in its tailfins, was speeding towards Cochin, leaving behind young paddy fields and old rubber trees...