All About God And Human Desires

The Muvattupuzha-based lawyer Baby Kattackal has just released his third novel, 'The Divine Lust'

Photo by Albin Mathew

By Shevlin Sebastian

The late Yohannan Kattackal was one of the leading lawyers in Muvattupuzha. So, it was no surprise that when his son, Baby, grew up, he also became a lawyer. But, along the way, Baby developed another love: this was for writing.

His elder sister Chinamma would encourage him to read. She would bring him books to read, whenever she came from college in Chennai. “Sometimes, I would find the words tough to understand,” says Baby. “So she suggested that I should consult a dictionary. As a result, my vocabulary improved steadily.”

Soon, Baby began writing letters to the editor in 'The New Indian Express'. “I also contributed numerous middles also,” he says.

In his later years, Baby turned to story-writing and published many stories in national magazines like 'Alive' and 'Woman's Era'.

And, recently, Baby published his third novel, called 'The Divine Lust'. The story is about Robin, who got married to the religious-minded Romula. “She would always say she wants to live and die in God,” says Baby. “As a result, Romula was frigid. But, in the first month, she got pregnant and then got divorced from her husband.”

The novel is about how Julie, the daughter, grows up, becomes a researcher in psychology, and then questions her mother about her religious beliefs. Following the questioning, this is the conclusion that Julie tells Romula: “Your love was fixed on God long before you reached a marriageable age. Then your mind refused to accept the normal sexual development, which, according to [Sigmund] Freud, [the father of psychoanalysis], was oral, anal and genital. Your sex couldn't develop into the normal final stage, which was genital. If your mind had reached this final stage, you wouldn't have had the problem of frigidity.”

Another character, who dispenses advice, is an unnamed Bard, whom Julie befriends, at the foothills of the Himalayas.

'The Divine Lust' is a novel of ideas, thought-processes, philosophical and psychological value systems. And it can be thought-provoking, too.

Unusually, the novel is set in Lisbon. “I just wanted to give it an exotic feeling,” says Baby, who has never been to the Portuguese city, although he has travelled all over Europe. “I got the locations through research on the Internet.”

Baby had published two novels earlier: 'The Crusaders', and 'The Guardians of Evil'. But he is a bit worried by the declining reading habit among the people. “When I gave 'Divine Lust' to my friends, they just could not find any time to read it,” says Baby. “People are leading busy lives.”

But that has not discouraged Baby. “I plan to continue writing more novels,” he says. 

(Published in The New Indian Express, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)