Tag Archives: Vaikom Muhammad Basheer

A literary salon by the wayside: Shukoor Pedayangode’s teashop in Kerala is a literary hub

Pedayangode Village , KERALA :

Symposium: Shukoor Pedayangode (centre) has been holding literary gatherings at his tea shop for four years. | Photo Credit: S.K. MOHAN
Symposium: Shukoor Pedayangode (centre) has been holding literary gatherings at his tea shop for four years. | Photo Credit: S.K. MOHAN

Welcome to Veranda, a teashop in a Kerala village, where ideas flow as liberally as the tea, run by school dropout-turned-littérateur Shukoor Pedayangode

At first glance, the roadside tea shack with a blue poly tarp stretched on wooden poles seems nondescript. Shukoor Pedayangode, its 50-something owner, looks equally unassuming as he tosses the sweet milk tea back and forth from saucepan to glass before serving it to his customers. But don’t be fooled: both this chayappeedika (teashop) in Pedayangode village, about 35 km from Kannur, and the tea-seller are as special as it gets. Over the years, this teashop called Veranda has become a literary hub, with celebrity authors not just from Kerala but also from neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu gracing it with their presence.

When I meet Pedayangode, it is late August and he has just reopened Veranda after a longish break when his shop was submerged under the waters of River Bavali when it breached its banks earlier in the month. But Pedayangode’s spirit hasn’t been dampened: he is all cheer as he talks about the next literary gathering at his teashop, scheduled for September 29. The special guest at the event? Tamil author Perumal Murugan — copies of the Malayalam translation of Murugan’s Poonachi are displayed at the teashop.

Free for all

The school dropout Pedayangode began to organise informal monthly literary gatherings at his teashop some four years ago. And he has so far hosted 34 discussions. Among the Malayalam writers and poets who have visited are Paul Zacharia, M. Mukundan, Khadeeja Mumtaz, P.F. Mathews, Kalpetta Narayanan, Rafeeq Ahmed and N. Prabhakaran, a veritable who’s who. Kannada writer Vivek Shanbhag and Tamil writer B. Jeyamohan have also been there.

“I announce every event in advance on my Facebook page,” says Pedayangode. The events generally last three hours and the audience is free to express views on the book under discussion and interact with the author. For non-Malayalam writers, Pedayangode gets friends who speak the language to act as moderators.

A bookworm from childhood, Pedayangode used to devour anything he found in print. “I read Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s Mucheettukalikkarante Makal (Card Sharper’s Daughter) when I was in Class V,” he says. He hated Maths, and after Class V, he started skipping classes since he dreaded his teacher’s wrath. Eventually, he stopped school altogether.

One of 12 siblings, Pedayangode started odd jobs to help the family along. He worked in quarries, sold fish. “I earned some money selling fish; that’s when I started buying books both to read and to sell,” says Pedayangode.

In fact, even as a teenager he used to write poems for richer friends who would buy him books in exchange. His published poetry collections are quite a few: Onpathu Pennungal (Nine Women), Nilavilikalude Bhasha (Language of Screams), Mazhappollal (Rain Burn) Azhangalile Jeevitham (Life in the Depths).

Novel idea

He even wrote a novel called Veranda, which would later become the name of his teashop. It’s apt, given the idea of open space it connotes. Pedayangode envisaged his shop as a free space for discussions. “I wanted to encourage the reading habit and create an ambience for healthy discussions devoid of restrictions or posturing,” he says.

The monthly gatherings are open to all. “Around 30 to 50 people usually attend,” says Ashraf Macheri, Pedayangode’s neighbour and close friend. Macheri, who used to run a printing press before moving to the Gulf, recalls how Pedayangode would visit his press to collect waste paper to write poems on.

Publishing houses give copies of their books for sale at the teashop; books of the author under discussion are sold on the day. Pedayangode funds the literary meets from the commissions he gets from book sales.

He also organises book fests in Kannur schools to promote reading among students. Pedayangode misses no literary event in the area. These days, he is regularly invited to local colleges to inaugurate literary events. And he does all this while reworking a novel he had finished and left unpublished four years ago.

mohamed.nazeer@thehindu.co.in

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Tea Time / by Mohamed Nazeer / September 07th, 2019

Basheer remembered at his birthplace

Thalayolaparambu (Ernakulam), KERALA :

Staying forever: Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan watering a Mangosteen sapling at an event organised by the Basheer Smaraka Samiti at Thalayolaparambu on the writer’s 25th death anniversary.
Staying forever: Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan watering a Mangosteen sapling at an event organised by the Basheer Smaraka Samiti at Thalayolaparambu on the writer’s 25th death anniversary.

Adoor lauds the writer for etching extraordinary life with ordinary characters

On the 25th death anniversary of ‘Beypore Sultan’, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, auteur Adoor Gopalakrishnan remembered the inimitable writer as a genius who created an extraordinary world using the daily lingo and ordinary life of the common man.

“The characters he created steered clear of the western stereotypes and became a part of our conversations,” he said at a remembrance meet organised by the Basheer Smaraka Samiti at the writer’s birthplace Thalayolaparambu, some 36 km east of Ernakulam, on Friday.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan was honoured with the Balyakalasakhi Puraskaram at the event.

While several works of Basheer’s had caught the attention of critics who conducted in-depth studies on them, the umbilical connection between Basheer the man and his works had not been put to a comprehensive study by anyone. Basheer had not written an autobiography, but there were autobiographical sketches in several of his writings, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.

A total of 25 cultural activists were honoured at the event with saplings of Mangosteen, a tree species that graced his courtyard and grew popular among readers for its association with the writer.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Thalayolaparumbu (Ernakulam), July 06th, 2019

From a child labourer to an award-winning translator

Colachel (Kanyakumari ), TAMIL NADU :

KulachalYousufMPOs06feb2019

Kulachal Mu. Yoosuf bagged the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for 2018

It has been an arduous journey from a child labourer to the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize 2018 for Kulachal Mu. Yoosuf, 60. His translation of Malayalam writer G.R. Indugopan’s Maniyan Pillaiyuda Athma Katha into Tirudan Manian Pillai in the Tamil has won him the distinction. The story has already been made into the successful Malayalam film Kallante Katha.

The laurels have arrived not a moment too soon. Mr. Yoosuf was forced to discontinue his studies after Class V when his family fell on hard times. bad days. A passion for reading, picked up in school, stayed with him. “There was a library run by the Hindu Ilaignar Iyakkam in my native town of Colachel. I sat in the library and read while other students played,” says Mr. Yoosuf, who became a child labourer when his family moved to Kanniyakumari.

Malayalam language and literature arrived serendipitously while he worked in a provisions shop in Nagercoil.

Tamil and Malayalam

“Customers would sell old books for raddi and among them were Malayalam books. I would read them. I was fascinated by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s short stories. One customer suggested that I should read them in Malayalam and I followed his advice,” recalls Mr. Yoosuf. Gradually, he gained mastery over the Malayalam language. “The sentence patterns are similar in Malayalam and Tamil. If there were a cinema poster, I would stop for a second to read it,” laughs Mr. Yoosuf.

He recalls that books on revolutionary movements like the Punnapura-Vayalar upsurge in Kerala, the life of naxal leader Ajitha, and Basheer’s works, motivated him to learn Malayalam with greater determination. His first article supported the Supreme Court verdict in the Shah Bano case.

As he gained confidence, Mr. Yoosuf tried his hand at translation. His first work was a translation of Sahitya Akademi-winner Punathil Kunjabdulla’s Smarakashilakal into Tamil as Meesan Karkal in 2004.

Over time, he translated more than 30 works, particularly by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, from Malayalam into Tamil.

“Even though there were [other] translations, friends, particularly [publisher] ‘Kalachuvadu’ Kannan, were particular that I translate Basheer’s works. I have translated his [Basheer’s] short stories, novels and letters,” says Mr. Yoosuf.

His translations restored the legendary writer’s fame among Tamil readers.

Other important works

His translation of M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s Naalukettu as Naalukettu and Nalini Jameela’s autobiography as Oru Paaliyal Thozhilaliyin Kathai, and the rendering in Tamil of the autobiography of social activist K. Ajitha were other important turning points. Mr. Yoosuf has written a detailed book on the Great Poets of Persia, Paarasika Mahakavikal, and taken Tamil Sangam works to readers in Malayalam.

“My translation of Naladiyar [post-Sangam Tamil poetic work] was appropriated by a writer from Kerala. I sent it to a writer to read the proof, but another writer published it in his name. I have filed a case,” he says.

When asked what it means to be a full-time writer, Mr. Yoosuf says, “Literature cannot be considered a revenue-generating venture.”

He adds, “I have a good publisher and they are paying me well. Literature never leaves me poor.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by B. Kolappan / Chennai – February 05th, 2019