Retired school teacher Dr S. Nagesh has been an enthusiastic member of the academic and technical team that worked voluntarily for two years to get UNESCO’s City of Literature tag. Nagesh took The Wire on a whirlwind tour of the Literature Park in Mananchira, in the heart of the city, pointing to some of the sculptures; and to the adjoining S.M. Street, to reveal a fascinating yet barely acknowledged literary aspect of the city.
1. As the plaque reads, “These are the cradles of our culture; those who discovered the mystery of karma, those who plunged into the tide of life and turned to stone”.
Novel: Nellu
Author: P. Vatsala
Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
Nagesh says: “The book was set against the backdrop of rice farming in Wayanad, so it’s very relevant right now. Was it a kind of radical, revolutionary story? I think [like] all novels written in Kerala after the 1960s about proletarian workers, [Nellu] was [also] humanistic.
“Nellu is the story of a tribal family facing the rich new settlers who came from the plains and who set up farming in the hills of Wayanad, inhabited by tribals. It evocatively showed the brutal exploitation of the tribals by the new settlers and shed light on their lives even as she wrote of the pristine and magical beauty of the Wayanad hills.
“Vatsala even built a home in Thirunelli to live with the tribals and see first-hand their lived lives … It has been said her humane stories even forced the government to announce several welfare and protection schemes to uplift tribals.”
2. The plaque reads: “I assumed she would love the lake’s charms and say something. Instead, she handed Yudhishthira the flowers he had bought, even without smelling them.”
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Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
Novel: Randamoozham
Author: M.T. Vasudevan Nair
“The novel is a retelling of the Mahabharata without the divine aspects of the old epic, and from the perspective of Bhima, who has not been given his rightful due. It’s one of the few books that has been translated into English (as Second Turn).
“Bhima has always been seen as this bulky bouncer in the original epic and has never been idolised like his older brother, Yudhishthira, and younger brother, Arjuna, despite his valour, strength and sacrifice. For instance, while everyone mourns the death of Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son; Bhima’s son, Ghatotkach, is led to his death in saving Arjuna’s life, but he is unsung.
“The sculpture depicts Draupadi, also Bhima’s wife, but she barely looks at the flowers Bhima has brought and hands them over to Yudhishthira, her favourite husband. Draupadi is always seen as partial to Yudhishthira and Arjuna … MT’s book is a radical re-writing from the point of view of Bhima, and we realise that he has been given a raw deal in the epic. The book was to be made into a film starring superstar Mohanlal, but Nair pulled back the script after a long legal battle.”
3. The plaque reads: “Lazar is a character in Pottekkat’s novel, Story of a Street, who had two names, Onthu, meaning chameleon, and the other, Manthukalji, one who has elephantiatis in his legs. A character called Chandu made it Omandji; it later became Omanji.”
Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
Novel: Oru Theruvinte Katha
Author: S.K. Pottekkat
“Lazar is a central character in Pottekkat’s novel, Story of a Street, an officer in the customs division whose life also revolves around two other main protagonists, Kurrupu and Radha, but who dies of smallpox eventually. However, the book is a testament to the boisterousness of S.M. Street or Sweetmeats Street, where Pottekkat’s bust looms over as you enter the pedestrian-only street.
“The book is very important as it gives the social history of the time. It talks of the iconic restaurants and meeting places for writers, Butler Hotel and Wheat House – both no longer exist, alas. It was called Wheat House because during the Second World War, rice was rationed and the British encouraged the use of wheat, which was used here too. Alakapuri still exists, and all the writers hung out either in Wheat House or in Alakapuri. V.K. Nair set his story, ‘A European Hotel’, in the Wheat House. Both restaurants had a bar attached …
“There are a lot of anecdotes about the unsavoury aspects of a writer’s life. Once a manager was stabbed to death, though it had nothing to do with the writers.
“Pottekkat has written over 60 books, which include novels, short stories, essays, poems and plays, but he is probably hailed as one of Kerala’s most prolific travel writers. Pottekkat was a globetrotter having spent many years abroad, from Nepal to Bali and London to Frankfurt, and he published books including Bohemian Chitrangal and Bali Dweep, apart from many travel diaries.
“Pottekkat brought his sharp observations from his travels as well as his sense of humour and irony through his travelogues, and this seeped into his fiction too. The murals on the walls of the street are lines from his books and characters that leap out at you.”
4. Novel: Pathumeyaddu Addu
Author: Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer
Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
“Ah, Vaikkom Basheer, another of Kerala’s progressivist writers; and the novel Pathuma’s Goat has become so iconic that on Basheer’s birthday, schoolchildren in Kerala are asked to come dressed as one of Basheer’s characters. But they all end up dressing as the goat, and even dress up as Pathuma dragging a goat to school.
“Basheer settled in Kozhikode, though he came from Vaikkom in Kottayam, central Kerala; but he adopted and wrote in the dialect of north Malabar Muslims, a kind of speak-easy, punchy language that is so typical of all folks in Kozhikode-Kannur. Unlike writers who wrote in formal Malayalam, Basheer wrote in this zesty language, which is neither Arabi Malayalam nor is it slangy.
“In fact, the late British linguist and specialist in Dravidian languages, R.E. Asher, who translated Basheer’s works to English, used the English dialect of the uneducated working class; but Basheer’s Malayalam was not of the illiterate, it was just not formal, and he gave this dialect respectability.”
Translations from Malayalam to English by Iyra Gopinath.
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The libraries:
There are over 600 libraries and reading rooms in Kozhikode district alone, the heritage of a library movement that began as early as the beginning of the 20th century, when grants were first given to open reading rooms and libraries. The Library Act came in 1948 in Malabar in a first for the country; this makes Kerala distinct and is perhaps also the reason why it has the highest literacy rate in the country.
The libraries are open to the public, and it’s not uncommon to see students, workers, teachers and public transport drivers reading newspapers and books there. They are housed in buildings and even in small kiosks next to bus stands, autorickshaw spots, offices and schools; in the centre of town and in the outbacks.
The Wire went to two libraries on the busy Mavoor Road that cuts through the city – the Kovoor Library and the Snehadeepam Library, barely a mile apart.
Gireesh K.P. is the Kovoor Library’s secretary and Jameela is the librarian, who has been with the library for 24 years. It’s a modest but generous space, spread over two floors, and the upper floor is also rented out for cultural programmes to subsist the budget.
The reading room in the Kovoor library. Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
The Kovoor Library gets a grant from the state government of a princely sum of Rs 32,000 a year, and the librarian’s salary, which is decided by the number of books in the library, ranges between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000.
Says Gireesh: “We have locals come here through the day reading, or students referencing; we are Grade ‘A’ as we have over 20,000 books. We have many activities; the other day, S.K. Pottakkat’s daughter came to speak to us.”
Jameela shows the neatly stacked books in the library, which are mostly in Malayalam, including all the classics by renowned authors from Basheer to Nair. “The annual membership fee is Rs 150 and lifetime membership is Rs 500,” informs Jameela.
Gireesh and Jameela. Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
The reading room has a couple of people sitting on the neat benches at 6 pm in the evening – an insurance agent reading the newspapers before he heads home; the salesman from the local chemist enjoying a quiet time reading a magazine; a young student taking notes on current affairs preparing for her PSC exam.
Down the curve and going down the slope is the Snehadeepam Library and reading room housed in the E.P. Achutha Nair Memorial building, another two-room modest library.
The Snehadeepam Library. Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
Librarian Sheeba P., who works in the late afternoon, says her library is of Category ‘D’ as it has only 10,000 books. Most of the visitors are young school students from the neighbouring Chevayoor School, who troop in at 4 pm when the library opens, and there are books by Nancy Drew and Eureka Science magazines, even as daily newspapers are neatly laid out on the reading table.
Sheeba. Photo: Vrinda Gopinath.
She admits that budgets to buy books and periodicals have come down and that even visitors have shrunk after the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. “Yes, books have become more expensive and interest has come down as children have their phones and computers. It depends on parents to insist that children should read more books than play more games on computers.”
The libraries of Kerala get a boost in June-July every year during the annual weekly P.N. Pannicker celebrations, commemorating the stalwart who ushered in the library movement in the state as early as the 1920s. In fact, June 19, his death anniversary, has been celebrated as Reading Day in the country since 1996.
While technology may be threatening to make libraries irrelevant, the libraries of Kozhikode are certainly getting a boost after the city has been declared a City of Literature. The action plan includes establishing a ‘Reading Street’ where people can read, discuss and have spot debates; re-imagining and reinvigorating community libraries to enthuse both children and adults; including the imposing state public library in the proposed literary circuit; establishing a mini library in coffee shops, the new haunt of the urban young; and other plans.
Yet, there’s a long way to go before the team can turn the first page to making Kozhikode the country’s first City of Literature.
Vrinda Gopinath is a senior journalist.
