T.D Ramakrishnan’s Alpha

T.D Ramakrishnan’s Alpha

Alpha is a Malayalam utopian novel by the author T.D Ramakrishnan. The story is set in an imaginative island called Alpha. The leading character in this novel is Professor Upalendu Chattergee, a reputed Anthropology professor.

The novel talks about an unusual experiment of twelve persons, who belongs to different stratas of society, led by the professor. They have decided to live in the island for 25 years, cutting all the relations with the outer world. They have burned their boat, dresses and all equipment and decided not to use the language that they have used up to that moment.

Professor Chattergee believed that they could achieve all the progresses within 25 years that the humanity achieved through centuries.

No one in the real world, except Professor Sathish Chandra Banergee, knew about this experiment. He was supposed to visit the island after the 25 years and evaluate the progress of the experiment. He entrusted this duty to his disciple, Avinash, at his death bed.

Avinash reached after the prescribed time, wherer he witnessed a barbarian community. They have found that only three are alive among the first 12. They took the three out of the island. The novel progresses through the recollection of the survived persons, Malini, Santhosh and Urmila.

The novel is short, but surprising and memorable. T.D Ramakrishnan has done justice to the author in himself. Though utopian novels are very rare in Malayalam language, Alpha by its quality, can fill that gap.