Veerendra Kumar: A journey with words

Malayalam author, politician and orator Veerendra Kumar talks about his stream of consciousness style, and his magnum opus Hymavathabhoovil (In the Meadows of Snow) soon to be translated into English

December 19, 2014 09:23 pm | Updated 09:23 pm IST

M.P. Veerendra Kumar. Photo: H. Vibhu

M.P. Veerendra Kumar. Photo: H. Vibhu

M.P. Veerendra Kumar puts on his spectacles and thumbs excitedly through the pages of his thick, hard-bound travelogue, Hymavathabhoovil ( In the Meadows of Snow ). He must have done this so many times before but the thrill of a traveller is evident as he journeys once again through the Himalayas. This travelogue has sold over 50,000 copies and is into its 42nd edition, a record of sorts in Malayalam literature for a work in this genre.

An astute politician, orator, media personality and prolific author, Kumar has managed his life quite well. Initiated into politics through the Socialist movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kumar represented Kalpetta in the Kerala State Legislative Assembly and became a State Minister. Later, he was elected to the Lok Sabha, where he became the Minister of State in charge of Labour and later Finance. Since 1979, he has been in charge of the Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi as its managing director and chairman. But, as he says, it is as an author that he would like to be remembered.

Author of more than 15 titles, many of them bestsellers running into several editions, Kumar’s writings, those other than travel, are quick, stimulated literary expressions on burning issues. In these works, mostly essays, Kumar emerges as a writer in touch with an impressively wide range of topical issues. “I was drawn to the Socialist thoughts of Jayaprakash Narayan as a boy, and later worked with him. My writings on social, political and other issues are one way to reach out to a large community. Some of my works like Ramante Dukham ( Rama’s Sorrow ), which was my anguish on the demolition of the Babri Masjid, spurred heated debates. The work was well received, won awards, went into more than 23 editions in print and was prescribed by Bharathiar University, which stirred a controversy,” says Kumar.

But he went beyond these pedagogical writings to extend shape to Malayalam travel writing. When most writing in this genre is very structured, following a thematic or narrative strategy, offering a chronological sequence of anecdotal incidents, Kumar’s travelogues are an uninterrupted flow of the stream of consciousness, which produces an impression of intense verisimilitude.

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