Writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair on Wednesday compared himself to Bruce Lee, the late Kungfu expert and hero in many martial arts films.
“Bruce Lee had a small handicap in one of his legs. It was shorter than the other. But it turned out to be his greatest advantage as his Kungfu opponents could not predict his next move because of the positioning of that leg,” he said.
“In the early days of my writing, people used to criticise that all I wrote was about rural life. At first I felt bad, but then realised that it was what I knew best and hence my advantage. If I write again, it will be on rural life,” he added.
The occasion was the launch of MTyude Vazhikal, a compilation of writings and studies on him brought out by Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University. Former Vice Chancellor of the university K. Jayakumar edited the book that consists of hundreds of articles collected from various publishers by two research students of the university, Smrithi Mohan and Suresh Puthanparambil.
Mr. Jayakumar himself presented the book to the writer in the presence of writer and academic M.M. Basheer.
“This book is the result of the varsity’s publishing policy that involves publishing of forgotten or unavailable works without any profit motive,” Mr. Jayakumar said. The university has published more than 20 such books in the past five years. Most of them are of academic importance and have been chosen by an expert advisory committee, he added.
The book will be of use to research scholars studying M.T. “A lot of research students come to me for information. Now I can ask them to refer this book and come to me only if they had further doubts,” Mr. Nair said.
