In\u00a0Ezharai Pangali Vagaiyara<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 his first novel \u2013 Arshia writes about Ismailpuram \u2013 the little-known part of Madurai, populated by Muslims, where he grew up. In\u00a0Poikaraipatti<\/em>, Arshia speaks about the onslaught of real estate business on pristine Madurai. Another novel,\u00a0Abbasbai Thoppu<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>is again a testimony to the finesse with which Arshia could paint the life of Muslims in Madurai.<\/p>\n

Chottangal<\/em>, Arshia\u2019s last novel, revolves around the life in Goripalayam Dargah. Even if it is not as celebrated as its counterpart Meenakshi Amman temple, the Goripalayam Dargah in Madurai has a life and culture of its own. It is a silent witness to the various possibilities of human life \u2013 from manipulative politicians to conniving real estate brokers, destitute women, men who fall in love with the wives of others, men who lust after properties that are not theirs. The Goripalayam Dargah sees them all in all their rawness. Through a varied cast of characters, Arshia vividly weaves the history of the thirteenth century dargah. In the process, he brings alive the Madurai that once was \u2013 a Madurai that witnessed the bitter rivalry between fans of Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, a Madurai that was resilient to a devastating flood in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Political and perceptive<\/h3>\n

Arshia\u2019s love for Madurai and its various aspects finds their full expression in all his works \u2013 his short stories too have consistently documented Muslim life in Madurai, a facet that has hardly found its rightful place in Tamil literature. His words explored a Madurai that not many outsiders knew. \u201cHis knowledge of Madurai and its history was astounding. When you read him, it is as if he is holding your hand and leading you across Madurai \u2013 rich, haunting, varied and yet largely unknown\u201d said Eniyan, a cultural activist and a friend of Arshia\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all his works had a very sharp political clarity\u201d said N Murugesa Pandiyan, a veteran Tamil critic. \u201cHe wrote of harmony among Hindus and Muslims that was not forced, that was very organic. Even now I see burqua-clad women worshipping at the Pandi Muni temple in Madurai and destitute Hindu women seeking refuge in Goripalayam Dargah. Arshia brought them into Tamil literature with such impeccable candour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\n

In his foreword to <\/span>Chottangal<\/em>, Arshia speaks about how Madurai has transformed. \u201cThere used to be (Hindu) festivals and various aspects of it happening almost every day. Every street would have some kind of ritual and every community was part of it. But Madurai has changed in all ways…There are of course festivals happening, richer than before. But they are not the same. Every sub-caste now is readying to have its own festival\u201d he writes. It is perhaps this change and the Madurai that once was that Arshia had sought to relentlessly document in all his works.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A journalist and novelist<\/h3>\n

Before he became a writer, Arshia was a journalist and had worked with the now-defunct investigative magazines\u00a0Tharasu<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Kazhugu<\/em>. His experiences as a journalist between 1987 and 1994 will soon be published as a book and his publisher Karthik Pugazhendhi said the work will be as \u201cracy as his fiction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite being a prolific Arshia was shy of being called one. His Facebook page defines him as a journalist turned agrarian. \u201cThe times we are living in made me write. I am a mere instrument in the hands of times. I still cannot introduce myself as a writer anywhere\u201d he once wrote.<\/p>\n

But it is as a writer that Arshia will be most missed. As Pandiyan said: \u201cIn Tamil literature, he built an honest and sensitive narrative about Muslims that took on the false narratives spun by an irresponsible mainstream media. In the times we are living in, polarised more than ever before, Arshia will be missed more for just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The obit of a Tamil writer Arshia, superbly written by Kavita Muralidharan reminds us. In\u00a0mainstream Tamil cinema and literature, Madurai has almost always been defined by clich\u00e9s. It is either the exotic temple city characterised by colourful festivals for each ancient street or the rustic locale that offers a perfect environment for bloody gang wars. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-blog","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5308"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5487,"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions\/5487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.vijeejournalist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}