Where Are You Going, You Monkeys?

Where Are You Going You Monkeys, the collection of Tamil folk tales by Ki Rajanarayanan, thankfully is one that tries really hard to reduce the distance between oral and written formats of story telling. There is no interference from the collector's or translator's side, except certain footnotes that illuminate certain aspects of the stories that may be alien for today's readers. Author doesn't shy away from stories that portray the primeval value system of the narrators and that makes reading this collection a raw experience. The innocent sensibility of villagers- their prejudices, superstitions, social and economic behavioural patterns and above all their sharp humor, oozes out of the stories.