What happens when you are imprisoned in a foreign country for a crime you did not commit?
When Malayalam writer and teacher Jayachandran Mokeri was arrested in the Maldives, his life changed overnight. He spent eight months in Maldivian prisons, separated from his family and trapped in an unfamiliar legal system, uncertain of when or whether he would be free again.
Thakkijja is his extraordinary memoir of wrongful imprisonment, survival and freedom. With honesty and remarkable restraint, Mokeri recounts the harsh realities of prison life, the loneliness of incarceration and the solidarity of the Malayali community that helped bring his plight to wider attention.
A powerful story of injustice, resilience and hope, Thakkijja offers a rare inside view of life in a Maldivian prison and of what it means to fight for freedom far from home.
About the Author
Jayachandran Mokeri is a Malayalam writer, journalist and teacher whose work draws deeply on lived experience, social realities and the lives of ordinary people. Born in Mokeri in Kozhikode district, Kerala, he began his career as a freelance journalist before working as a teacher in India and abroad. He continues to write for various periodicals.
Mokeri's literary work encompasses memoir, narrative non-fiction, children's literature and writing rooted in the social and cultural history of Kerala. He also wrote the screenplay for Mayyazhiyude Vimochakan (The Liberator of Mah ), a documentary broadcast by Doordarshan.
His acclaimed memoir Thakkijja: My Life in Prison (2016) grew out of his experience of imprisonment while working as a teacher in the Maldives. The book records his ordeal of eight months and twenty-two days in Maldivian prisons while also looking beyond his own experience to the vulnerabilities of expatriate workers navigating an unfamiliar legal system. Thakkijja won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Biography and Autobiography, in 2017, and subsequently received several other literary and cultural honours.
His other books include Kadalneelam (2021), Pappu Doctor (2022), Ullolangal (2025), a collection of memories edited by him, and Chippiyude Kauthuka Lokam (2026), a children's novel. Kadalneelam received the first Malayalam Literature Forum Award and the Valluvanadan Award, while Pappu Doctor received the Sahithi Award in 2023.
Among his other distinctions are the Tattvamasi Dr. Sukumar Azhikode Cultural Academy Award.
Sreeja Raman is a bilingual writer, poet and translator. Based in Thrissur, Kerala, she has postgraduate degrees in English Literature, Mass Communication and Journalism. A freelance writer and translator for over a decade, she has worked across literature, journalism, essays, features and other forms of non-fiction. She also writes English subtitles for short films.
Her translation portfolio includes five completed book-length translations from Malayalam into English and one from English into Malayalam, alongside shorter literary and non-fiction translations.
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