Kozhikode:

It has been 17 years since Vaikom Muhammed Basheer left us. But that wouldn’t serve as a reason not to remember him on his 103rd birth anniversary. The ‘Beypore Sultan’ is indeed always in the minds of Malayalis. And that is precisely why literary figures and critics and even children in schools organize programmes to commemorate him every year, some even visiting his family and home at Beypore.

Basheer was born on January 21, 1908 at Thalayolaparambu in Vaikom. He studied initially in a Malayalam medium school and then went to an English medium school in Vaikom. Attracted to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the Swadesi movement, he left school and joined the freedom struggle when in fifth form. As the princely states of Kochi and Travancore were not much in the freedom movement, Basheer went northwards to Malabar.

In 1930 he went to Kozhikode to take part in the Salt Satyagraha and got arrested along with several others. Basheer was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment at the Kannur jail. He, along with hundreds of other political prisoners, was later released as per the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in 1931.

Soon after his release Basheer again got involved in anti-British struggles and edited a revolutionary journal named ‘Ujjivanam’ (meaning Uprising) for which he was issued an arrest warrant. He soon left Kerala and began his long journey of seven years across the country and abroad.

Basheer wandered doing all sorts of works that helped him keep away from starvation. He worked as a cook, newspaper seller, fruit seller, watchman etc. He even spent a few years at the Himalayas and the Ganges basin with Hindu saints and Sufi mystics.

When he came back to Kerala, he again got involved in political works and got arrested. He was jailed in different places and the stories he heard from the police and fellow prisoners there later appeared in his novels and short stories.

He wrote ‘Premalekhanam’ (Love Letter) from jail in 1943 and published it on release. He wrote ‘Baalyakaalasakhi’ (Childhood Friend) also from jail, but published it only in 1944 after making revisions after his release. The novel is said to be ‘a piece torn from his life’. ‘Mathilukal’ (meaning Walls) is a famous work which tells the story of the love of a male prisoner and a female prisoner who never saw each other as they were on either sides of a wall.

Basheer left active politics after India won freedom. He married Fabi who was much younger to him in his forties. Afterwards, he settled down for a quiet life with his wife and two children Anees and Shahina at Beypore in Kozhikode, though continuing his writings. And the man, born and educated in Vaikom and settled in Beypore, became the ‘Beypore Sultan’. As common with great writers, Basheer too suffered from mental illness and had to undergo treatment in mental hospital twice. He died in Beypore on July 5, 1994.

The writer in Basheer was a strong critic of social customs and practices, as well as superstitions especially in the Muslim community of the time. And he said it all in the down-to-earth style unique to him only, which attracted him to the literary critics as well as the common people alike. Basheer wrote about the social conditions and situations in his own thought-provoking yet humorous style. Highly appreciated is his novel ‘Ntuppooppakkoranaendaarnnu’ (1951) which RE Asher (who translated most of Basheer’s work into English) translated with the title ‘Me Grandad ‘ad an Elephant!’. It deals with the mid 20th century Muslim community in Kerala, such as boasting about the past glory without doing much in the present, through the story of uneducated Kunjippaathumma and poet Nisaar Ahmed. Other notable works are Shabdangal (Voices), Paaththummaayude Aadu (Paathumma’s Goat), Bhaargavi Nilayam, Sthalathe Pradhaana Divyan, Muchcheettukalikkaarante Makal, Aanavaariyum Ponkurishum, Ettukaali Mammoonju etc.

Basheer never differentiated between the written language and the spoken one. He wrote in the language of his characters, who were mostly traditional rural Muslims, and a majority of them were uneducated. Their local dialects and natural style of talking were brought as such into his writings. Basheer gave importance to emotions and telling the story, without considering the grammar and structure of sentence.

Basheer was awarded the Padma Sri in 1982. He got the Kendra Sahitya Academy Fellowship and the Kerala Sahitya Academy Fellowship, besides the Vallathol Award and the Muttathu Varkki Award in 1993, and the Lalithambika Antharjanam Award in 1992.

source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home / by  Najiya O, TwoCircles.net / January 21st, 2011

Perch Collective’s ‘Under The Mangosteen Tree’ will now play Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s favourite music.

 Malayalam writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer was known to be an incredible storyteller. When he settled down to a quiet life at Beypore in Kozhikode, visitors would call on him every day. No one was turned away. They would just move to his favourite spot—the author in his easy chair, under the mangosteen tree in his house, and the expectant audience seated around him, waiting to hear his next story.

This is the 10th year of Chennai-based theatre group Perch Collective’s journey with the late Basheer. They opened with a play in 2004, Moonshine And Skytoffee, which was based on two of Basheer’s love stories. Perch’s play Under The Mangosteen Tree (UTMT), a tribute to the iconic writer, opened in 2008, Basheer’s birth centenary year. It weaves together six of Basheer’s short stories, and includes the character of Basheer as narrator, participant and witness.

Perch’s revised UTMT, which will be staged this weekend, has two-three changes. When it premiered, it had a cast of 11; there are seven now. Plus, the play will feature some of Basheer’s favourite musical compositions in the background—Basheer loved his records, stacked in multicoloured buckets in his house; his gramophone; and his easy chair.

“He created a new idiom in Malayalam writing by breaking away from the Sanskritized version of the language and coming up with a vocabulary that was colloquial and accessible. He invented words like badukoos which could mean anything—an idiot, a fool, or anything that you wish to make of it,” says Rajiv Krishnan, the director of the play.

While most of the play is in English, it contains a smattering of Malayalam to keep the flavour of Basheer’s language. The play, which touches upon different aspects of Basheer’s writing, is largely humorous in tone, tinged with sadness and satire.

Poovan Banana, one of the six stories, tells the story of a man who fancies himself as the local gangster but becomes a pawn in the hands of his wife after marriage. He tries to reassert his independence, in the process creating room for a considerable amount of repartee. Voices, the story of a soldier back from war, launches a philosophical enquiry into how human beings can be capable of such brutality. The World Renowned Nose is a rather contemporary story of the media and political attention showered on a man whose nose starts growing, drooping to his navel. Walls, which was made into a film by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, is said to be based on Basheer’s imprisonment by the British for seditious writing. In the story, the character of Basheer hears the voice of a woman named Narayani across the wall of his prison cell, and builds a relationship with her.

“We did a lot of research when we conducted a festival in Chennai to celebrate Basheer’s centenary in 2008. We spoke to several members of his family and friends. One of them told us that Basheer actually looked for Narayani after he was released but he couldn’t find her. Of course, that could be part myth,” says Krishnan.

Under The Mangosteen Tree will be staged on 25-26 April, 3.30pm and 7.30pm, at Edouard Michelin Auditorium, Alliance Française of Madras, 24, College Road, Nungambakkam. Tickets, Rs.200, available onin.bookmyshow.com and www.eventjini.com. For details, call 9445961425.

source: http://www.livemint.com / LiveMint> Hindustan Times / Home> Leisure / by Karthika Gopalakrishnan / Thursday – April 23rd, 2015