A Fable on the Modern World: A Rumination on Solitude
Mahalakshmi Jayaram
DATTAPAHARAM: CALL OF THE FOREST By V.J. James. Translated from the original Malayalam by Ministhy S. Vintage Books/Penguin Random House, 2023, 164 pp., INR 599.00
January 2024, volume 1, No January 2024, volume 48, No 1

Dattapaharam is a coming of age novel, a search for the self of five young college students who confront themselves and their inner demons. And this quest for a better/higher/authentic self whether through education and training as engineers in a civilized/modern world or in a realization of the ‘true’ nature of the human self, shorn of the trappings of civilization,

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