Title: Embracing The Winds
Author: Sunith Puthur
Publisher: Evincepub Publishing
In Embracing the Winds, Sunith Puthur constructs an intricate world that operates simultaneously on mythic, historical, and personal levels. The novel’s strength lies in how it weaves together memory, ritual, and identity into a single narrative current that mirrors the cyclical nature of life itself.
Set across generations in Kerala’s agrarian heartland, the novel reflects the evolution of a culture — from oral traditions to the printed word, from bullock carts to buses, from familial gods to modern uncertainty. Through the eyes of Kesu, the reader witnesses the transformation of both land and self.
Puthur’s use of sensory realism is masterful. Every detail — the smell of steamed rice, the hum of monsoon winds, the call of a koel — situates the reader firmly within the world of the story. His prose is cinematic yet contemplative, painting not just scenes but sensations.
Thematically, the book operates on three intertwined axes: heritage, faith, and impermanence. Heritage appears not as nostalgia but as lived continuity. Faith is explored through the diverse spiritual practices of the community — from Kalaripayattu rituals to temple oracles to Sufi wisdom — all coexisting in quiet harmony. And impermanence is embodied in the very title — the wind that carries everything away, yet connects all that remains.
The death of Kesu’s mother marks the novel’s emotional and philosophical core. It is here that Puthur’s restrained, compassionate writing transcends the narrative to reach the metaphysical — life as an eternal cycle of loss and renewal.
In a time when much of Indian fiction chases urban angst or political rhetoric, Embracing the Winds stands apart for its rootedness and serenity. It is a work of profound cultural memory — reminding us that the modern world is built on the silent endurance of forgotten villages, unnamed rivers, and unsung people.
By the time one reaches the final pages, one feels that the wind that once brushed across Kotamala now blows gently through the reader’s own mind — carrying whispers of love, loss, and timeless belonging.
