Is Love a Curse?

On the first day of the Kerala Literature Festival, the session on `Love and Romance in Malayalam Novels` by Jacob Abraham, Sudha Thekkemadam, Rihan Rashid, Alwin George, and Bineesh Puthuppanam turned out to be a crowd-puller. The talk revolved around the significance of love and the existence of love since antiquity. A reflection on ‘Why do people fall in love?’ by Bineesh Puthupanam kicked off the session.

Jacob Abraham discussed the divine nature of love through the narratives of Adam and Hawwa, Krishna, and Radha. On the other hand, Sudha Thekemadam provided an outlook on the role of novels in shaping the perspective on love. Alwin George approached love as a force that traverses the borders of social constructions like time, family, and culture.

A re-reading of love as something that exists regardless of gender altered the conventional definitions of the word. Recent love deaths also reminded the audience of the social realities of love. Jacob Abraham commented on the old Malayalam novelists whose explorations of the correlation of love, body, and feelings influenced the notion of love. He considered the work `Sakshi` by Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai significant to the discourse. The session ended by upholding love as a continuation that liberates itself from the shackles of religion.