ABSTRACT
Kaaroor didn’t focus much on love stories but he cut a bold path when his young Thankamma, with an elderly spouse, is quite drawn to a young school teacher albeit for a while (in ‘Safety Pin’). Though the Meenakshi tale is focused on a talkative matron-like Amma, it ends with a mild twist that brings in a cupid’s arrow. A roaming vendor of ‘precious’ stones who habitually quotes Ravi Varma’s Mohini to sell his ware, falls for a lively Mohini during his rounds and gets paid for it by her brothers’ hard blows, while in ‘Guest’ a young, well-meaning guest who perforce has to spend a night in the house of his schoolmate flame due to sudden heavy Kerala showers causes a swollen belly that had to be erased as secretly as it took roots – a nightmare to her elders. Kamalakshi, who is dead scared of soldiers, resists marrying a soldier-groom, chosen by her elders, as she thinks he would be carrying a pistol to the bedroom (in ‘Military’)!
