What parting lines did the soft amber rays of the setting sun write on the verdant earth? The same as the tales told by the gentle footprints left behind by a poet who walked the same earth. A poet who did not just live his life but the lives of the flowers and trees around him and the raw soil underneath, one who contained multitudes and unfolded the little lives of many others who were born in that age and in that land. ONV Kurup’s memoir poignantly titled Pokkuveyil Mannilezhuthiyathu embraces a great sweep of history.
Through him a land speaks, an age speaks, and the uniquely expressive prose reveals the life of a poet in all its everyday glory. A riot of fragrances, hues, sounds and tastes veritably sketch the socio-political history of Kerala in the thirties, forties and fifties and then move on to speak with more subdued grace about its post-independence destinies. Thus the history of a land blends seamlessly with the life of a poet who was part of that larger history, then spills over effortlessly and dwells with infinite nostalgia on the slow fading away of a bygone era, which had its unique angst and charm.
The intensely fervent political activism of his youth is tinged by an idealism that was also so characteristic of an age that seems no longer valid today. And yet ONV’s passionate accounts of those days when youth was idealistic, teachers were prophets and politicians were visionaries, make one wonder of what it is that we have lost.
The poet talks about his childhood, his adolescence, his boyhood dreams, the passing of seasons, the rituals of his village, his alma mater, of great literary and artistic personages who influenced him. The first staging of KPAC’s renowned play Ningalenne Communistaakki, his initiation into the progressive reform movements, the birthing pangs of his magnum opus Ujjayini , his brief stint with electoral politics, his experiences in Kerala Kalamandalam, the sublime days spend at the University College under the tutelage of great masters, are all highly engaging to say the least. Narrated largely in a chronological manner, these memoirs reveal a slice of the social history of Kerala during some of its most turbulent and eventful phases. Personal encounters become springboards for offering slices of larger political histories and anecdotes on some of the greatest writers, poets and reformers of twentieth century Kerala.
No life can ever be exact and comprehensive. That is the charm of this memoir too, that it reveals life in its entire contingency, in the sweet indeterminacies of being and becoming. This is life remembered, life as a series of vignettes, often fuzzy, sometimes meandering, with many details missing, but nevertheless as fascinating as a mural panel etched with bright coloured memories.
The appendices contain speeches made by ONV when he accepted the Honorary D.Litt. from the University of Kerala, the Ezhuthachan award and the Gnanapeeth. What is most compelling about this volume is the directness of the poet’s passion for life. Scrupulously honest, with hardly any tinge of bravado the narration is indeed candid and powerful. As the reader is sometimes lulled by the poetry in his prose and stirred by the urgency in his language, one realises that this elegantly rendered captivating memoir offers us a slice of our own past. Here is a poet musing gracefully in the evening of his life, offering a tribute to the warm glow of a setting sun that has run its full course, and left wondering at the enigmatic combinations of mundanity and poetry that so characterise human life.
(A column on some of the best reads in Malayalam. The author is director, School of English and Foreign Languages, University of Kerala)
Pokkuveyil Mannilezhuthiyathu
ONV Kurup
Chintha Publishers
