Amazon Best Selling Novel “Malabar A Flame” in Lima World Library
PREFACE
I must admit that as in the case of most writers there is
an element of myself in my writings. A slice of my life, a
dichotomy of what I am made of is woven into the fabric
of my tales. This is especially true of ‘Malabar Aflame’, my
debut novel in English.
A traveler throughout my life, I go places with insatiable
curiosity about life around. I meet new faces, make friends
with most of them and learn from their adventures and
misadventures. This process of learning and unlearning has
made me what I am today so that I can make my own codes to
evaluate historical events and try to interpret them. It is also
a process of deconstruction of the events past and bringing
them in direct contrast to the current situation.
As a youngster, I ran away from home as the police
was after me as a tip off from someone had made me the
scapegoat of an extremist. The sole reason was my first
writing, a play I wrote for public presentation. I travelled the
length and breadth of India, the vast country of my birth.
It was also a learning process. Armed with new wisdom, I
returned home to continue my writing. I was fortunate
that my passion for writing as an expression of my social
commitment bore fruit.
West Asia was my next oasis. Apart from the new Asians
friends I met, it offered a microcosm of my own nativeplace. People of all hues crammed into the little space do
wonders in building up a kind of new civilization based on
oil. Differences of caste, creed or faith were forgotten. Work
was the common culture. But as for a few like me, writing
was the passion. I produced the first play by a non-resident
Indian, widely accepted and wildly approved.
United Kingdom was my next haven. I happened to meet
two of my protagonists, may be hero and antihero, basking
in the sunshine of their older days. They were past eighties
and recollected the pangs of their very arrival immediately
after the end of the World War II. Their stories of adventure,
success and failures, tears of joy and sadness, form the
backdrop of my present book.
I happened to be a second generation migrant to the
United Kingdom. But I went around the island nation to
learn about the first generation experiences. The rest came
must easier, as I was part and parcel of the new experiences.
As it is evident, I drew my picture with flashbacks on the
country of my origin. Thus Kerala, Kashmir in India is
inextricably woven into the larger fabric of London as the
nerve centre of the new Europe free from the political
shackles of East and West. I also found a place for the new
challenge of extremism and terrorism trying to rip apart
society in my new environment.
My approach and answer is positive and hope that my
readers including the non-Indians not to speak of non –
Keralites will recognize it and appreciate it. Bravo, the new
world!
10, January, 2015 Karoor Soman
East Ham, London
About The Author
