Malayalam Poet Ayyappan / his end

The author of the essay is Mr.Kumari S.Neelakandan who wrote in Tamil in his blog; his blog link is given at the end of the essay.Those who know Tamil can follow the link at the end of the essay.

One of the respected Malayalam poets, Sri.Ayyappan passed away on 21st of Oct, his end came to be known to the people only the next day. On Thusday he was found lying unconscious in a crowded street near Thampannur Railway Station , Thiruvananthapuram. Public and police took him to hospital , after a few hours ,it was informed he passes away and put in the mortuary.On enquiry his identity was found out, already he had been to the hospital owing to his pancreatic problem worsened by his habits. He was about to come to Chennai to receive the one of the famous awards of Malayalam literature 'Kumara Aasan Award' .

He received the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award of the year 1999. Some of his main creations are, Maalamillatha Paambu,Onaa kaazhchakal,Buddhanum Aankuttiyum, Veyyil and Sumangali.He started writing poems even in his school days, he wrote 20 anthologies of more than 2000 poems.He is loved by the younger generations owing to his philosophical renderings of poems.

He was born in 1949 in Balaramapuram in Thiruvananthapuram,joined initially with CPI and worked in the party organ ' Janayugam '.

His younger days were strewn with sadness and grief , his father, a goldsmith by profession committed suicide when he was hardly one year old and his mother followed his father's trail when he was 15 yrs old.He had been living with his sister Subhalakshmi, in Nemam.

As he was a lover of being alone , he lived with his sister and some of his friends. He was found always in the side walks of the streets and parks, one of his close friends,John Abraham , who was one of the known producers of Malayalam cinema, with whom he lived sometime.Another friend ,Sathyan made a documentary on Ayyappan which took him almost two years to complete, since Ayyappan would always be found outside the frames of camera literally, since he loved being in other places like streets,and parks, a completely a bohemian poet.

He never allowed himself manacled by the societal norms and dictated by the writing world and creation; such a unique personality he had been during his life, a boundless river always flowing in its creativity and uniqueness. His creativity and the spirit of creations never allowed him to be confined within the four walls of the house and found the full expressions only in the confines of the vastness of nature and streets.

In 70's he brought out a literary magazine ' Aksharam ' which was helpful to his new and modern creativity of literature.

Even his end also a reflection of the unique blend of his life he lived,in his pocket at last he kept a piece of paper containing his statement and just a sum of Rs.350 / -
In one of his earlier poems he writes.......

A crowd hovering around
His death splashed in blood,
My eyes were on the five
Rupee note in the pocket of
The dead.

His end also happened as his poems happened not bound by any frames of society.

Original Author's work can be read by following the thread given below:

http://www.neelakandans.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post_24.html

Although the translation from the original work is over, while reading the poem which is mentioned in the last part of the translation, I am reminded of a small story ending by Sujatha, Tamil writer , who is no more among us.
That story name 'Arisi' [ Rice ] , the ending is one old man died in an accident who had been removed from the accident spot, but the blood stains remained, two boys were collecting the rice that was not stained by the blood splashes, which was thrown out from an yellow bag that old man was carrying in his old cycle owing to the accident. In that the writer shows the stark reality of poverty , the emotions that did not disturb those boys whose prime concern was hungry etc., in a brief way , that was the Sujath's style of presentation without narrating the scene which is normally done by other writers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSkJIcpGm7E&feature=player_embedded

Trees and Roads

As usual when last evening went for walking I happened to see huge tamarind trees being cut down that are more than 70 or 80 years old and cutting down them with modern gadgetry is easy , but the roots being taken out seems to be a hard task , since the trees even after digging up below the earth to the tune of 15 feet and below seemed impossible to pluck it ; so the cutters using different techniques ; one using bulldozers and cutting machines with human endeavour . One thing immediately struck me was how humans are easily disposable compared to the immensity and life of trees and its strength and service to the humanity.
Although these trees are felled down to lay the six lane roads for the convenience of traffic and future infrastructure development, something melting inside us while witnessing these trees being cut down.

Dr.Ramachandra Guha

Born in Dehra Dun in 1958, Guha studied at The Doon School and St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He graduated in Economics with a BA in 1977 and then an MA from the Delhi School of Economics, and did a PhD in Sociology at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, with a dissertation on the social history of forestry in Uttaranchal, that focused on the Chipko movement. It was later published as The Unquiet Woods. Between 1985 and 2000, he taught at various universities in India, Europe and North America, including the University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, Stanford Universityand at Oslo University, and later at the Indian Institute of Science. During this period, he was also a fellow of Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in Germany (1994-95).


Here I have given a link which takes you to the interview he has given to CNNIBN by Rajdeep Sardesai on his new book 'Makers of Modern India.
Ramachandra Guha is a prolific writer who you might have read in many magazines, or News papers.


His essay, "Prehistory of Community Forestry in India", was awarded the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society for Environmental History for 2001.
"A Corner of a Foreign Field" was awarded the Daily Telegraph Cricket Society Book of the Year prize for 2002.
He won the R. K. Narayan Prize at the Chennai Book Fair in 2003.
The US magazine Foreign Policy named him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008.[4] In the poll that followed, Guha was placed 44th.
Padma Bhushan for 2009, India's third highest civilian award[5]

Thoppil Mohamed Meeraan / Writer

Thoppil Mohamed Meeran, writer, Novelist who made his presence felt in Tamil Novels,brought out the new wave of the nation's sorrows buried over hundred years, anguishes,cryings,rests and all in his writings . He was awarded the Sahithya Academy in the year 1997.

The following is what he said in his interview to Sri Sankara Ramasubramanyam, and Thalavi Sundaram in Tamil about the creation,creator,reader ,fan and 'Sathruthayan'

He says there are only three things for a creation or for any creation;

one the reader
second the fan
third Sathruthayan , a sanskrit word.

Sathruthayan is one in consonance with the creator having the same mind set, both travel in the same path [ both the creator and the sathruthayan ]
In creations, first silences,second intervels,third there is constant search; Sathruthayan is making silence as sound; he fills the gaps among intervals and the same search is created in his mind also like the one in the mind of the creator.

Sathruthayan is not created, he is born on his own, like abiogenous. He is also artist by birth. When the artist and the creator meets, there is the confluence. Till that time the created one never becomes whole.He is the one who bridges the culture and the mind.The reader and the fan may be needed for the sale and purchase of the books of the creations.No TV or any medium can do anything with the sathruthayan.