As per Indian subcontinent mythology, there are seven worlds below our feet – அதலம், விதலம், தலம், கபஸ்திமல், மகாதலம், சுதலம், பாதாளம். We get our food and water from there. We can’t see them. Similar to those seven worlds below us, are there worlds within our society we are not aware of? We see different classes of people daily but never stopped to ask how their life would look like. We may have limited exposure to lives of few from other classes due to interaction with domestic helps, and other laborers like plumbers, gardeners, electricians. We thank our stars when we get to hear the hardships they go through. ஏழாம் உலகம் is about people who we see around places of worship. We may give alms to them when we visit temples. It is highly likely that we get detested by their looks. Have we ever stopped to think what their world would be like? How did they end up there? Their body deformities, are those by nature (genetic birth defects) or forced upon them? Writer Jeyamohan immerses us in that world, beggars, and their owners, in ஏழாம் உலகம். This is the story about people who live beyond the cliff, beyond the edges of the society.

Story revolves around PothyVelu Pandaram. He lives with his wife and three grown-up daughters in Nagercoil. He is very affectionate with his family. He is into the business of buying and selling beggars. He makes them beg at temple entrances and takes the collection. Based on festival season he transports his beggars to different temples – Pazhani, Sabarimala, etc. Trading of beggars happen between owners like him in temple towns. Value of உருப்படி (Uruppadi – how the beggars are referred to in trading) goes up by their collection potential – more the deformities higher the collection. For women beggars, value goes up further if they are capable of breeding – they are prized breeders. They are forced to mate with persons with deformities to produce babies with abnormalities, who are pushed in to collection after a week of birth. Babies also get bought and sold. Pandaram also sells selected few ones to people who are into organ harvesting and trading.

How do we slot Pandaram’s character? Good, bad, or ugly? He believes in god and his business runs around places of god. He keeps uttering the name of Lord Muruga. Pandaram or his wife don’t have any sense of guilt about what they do. When his second daughter runs away, he says I have done only good things in my life, I haven’t done any harm to others. In his consciousness beggars are not humans. When it comes to his family, he is a normal person like us. He showers them with love. He goes out in the middle of the night to buy bangles for his third daughter. He is hurt and angry when his second daughter runs away from home with the jewels but later goes and stands outside her new house taking a glimpse of her. So, when he says I have done only good things in my life, it strikes a bell in us since all of us say the same thing few times in our life. But are we true to ourselves when we say it? The book disturbs us. Raises lots of questions in us. Are we civilized or humane as we claim to be? How we can be so oblivious to our surroundings? It wakes up and whips our consciousness.

With no one to speak up for this section of society, cops don’t have any inclination to protect these people or interfere with the business. Rather, they participate in it for not acting. One of the beggars, Erukki, is taken by cops for overnight fun. Pandaram visits the police station next day to get her back. A game of one upmanship gets played out there – cops strip searches him to steal all the money he has and he trying to lose as less as possible by hiding the currencies in places they can’t guess.

Story starts and ends with Muthamma’s, one of Pandaram’s Uruppadi, ordeal. She gives birth to a baby who has deformities. She names him ரசனிகாந்து (Rajnikanth). Even though initially she was upset that she was forced to bring him into this world, then motherly feelings take over. She takes care of him and get attached to him. But at Pazhani, ரசனிகாந்து gets sold to another owner from Kerala. She is devastated and refuses to eat. But who can fight hunger? She comes back into the fold again. Pandaram knows this since ரசனிகாந்து is her eighteenth child. She doesn’t know the whereabouts of our previous children. She is Pandaram’s prized breeder. Story ends when Muthamma is forced to mate again. We can’t even comprehend what she goes through. This is the kind of book that increases your heartbeat while reading.

Book is not just about hardships. We get to know how the beggars view the world. Their take on belief of god. Their desires and feelings. How they handle the natural instincts. Jeyamohan takes a crisp and unflinching approach to the narration. I got the feel that Jeyamohan let the characters write the story. Nowhere in the novel writer pauses to give his personal opinions or messages. We get to visualize their lives through their conversations. Except few characters, for most of the other characters no description is given about them, for example how they look, – this is a big plus since we can easily imagine them in our head based on what they say. Thanu Pillai’s wife, the would-be mother-in-law, she gets only few lines in the story, but she will linger in our minds because of the harsh language she uses. Similarly, Unniyammai, the prying old lady. Kuyyan, Mangandi, Ramappan, Erukki, Thorappan, Ahamadhu – names that will continue to stick around in our thoughts.

For all the ill-treatment the beggars go through at the hands of the Pandaram, they don’t hate him. Rather they call him மோலாளி (Boss), with affection and respect. Is this because they are at his mercy or existential longing? They feel happy for his daughter’s marriage. Ahamadhu warns Pandaram about the job of the groom – which turns out to be true. Ahamadhu character is an interesting one. Ignore his deformity, he is well read, knows multiple languages, and is an expert in law of the letter and law of the land. The local inspector consults him for case points 😀 For all his knowledge, unfortunately his deformity can’t be medically operated upon. Life is cruel, isn’t it?

Conversations between beggars are laced with humor and satire. One beggar quips we beg outside the temple….rest beg inside. Don’t want to highlight the humor in how they view god and spoil the fun while reading. Once you have read the book we can discuss and dissect them. It stuck me hard to realize beggars have never been inside the temple. Will they be allowed? What does liberation mean for them? God only knows.

Note 1: Books is written in Kanyakumari district dialect. If you are not familiar with the dialect, read the appendix first for the list of dialects with their meaning in common Tamil.

Note 2: English Translation available: The Abyss