Kanneerum Kinavum

Late V.T. Bhattathiripad was one of the leading social reformers of modern Kerala. My Tears My Dreams is his celebrated autobiography that maps his transformation from a young boy schooled in his ancestral calling of priesthood to a radical writer and activist. It is both the story of a young Namboodiri man and that of a community told in a style that is unique in Malayalam. The narrative is in the form of interconnected essays that invoke the tragic plight of the majority of Brahmin households in Kerala mired in convention and ignorance and locate V.T. Bhattathiripads own self-awakening in the collective struggle of committed progressive young men and women. Though it is an autobiographical narrative the focus is on the society as a whole and on the Namboodiri community in particular. Besides the main text the book includes an in-depth interview that two historians conducted with the author in his last year and rare photographs related to the authors life and times.