Saturday, October 30, 2010

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

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