Harish Kumar

Politics of Eponyms Harish Kumar

Pattur and Noolur are two mutually interdependent silk-weaving towns in South India. While Noolur made patturis for Pattur and fed Pattur's silk looms with value-added silk yarns of superior quality, Pattur lent its eponymous tradename patturi to Noolur's silk saris for greater visibility in global markets.

This interdependence worked fine for both towns, until one Venkatraman, a first-generation English lecturer, appeared on the scene. Venkat was visibly enraged by Pattur's Big Brother attitudes and actions, its dominance and its merciless exploitation of Noolurian silk weavers and silk co-operatives. Venkat assumes the role of an iconoclast and the responsibility for smashing the status quo. He goes about raising the war flag for Noolur's generic independence and for liberating the nooluri eponym from the clutches of patturi.

Venkat's contagious war cries force Noolur and Pattur into ugly confrontational situations. Where and how do they end? What was the outcome of the face-offs? Did Venkat succeed in his mission? Whatever happened to the murky politics of eponyms?

A novelette with an unusual plot that spins around this murky politics of territorial eponyms, Politics of Eponyms is a must read for anyone who likes to delve deeper into how eponyms evolve and exploit. To weave offbeat plots in the bargain.