Little Sarah is elated to pose for a photograph with her great grandmother. The girl says she will one day become famous, knowing full well the proud achievements of the woman sharing the frame with her. Mariyumma gives her a smile.
Probably the oldest Muslim woman in the Malabar region to have received an English education, Mariyumma Mayanali of Maliyekkal House in Thalassery replays her memories. Being born as the daughter of an erudite father was the first blessing, she says.
The commission agent on a tea estate got his daughter admission at Sacred Heart English Medium Convent School way back in the 1930s, an act unheard of till then in Muslim families. Facing stiff opposition from the religious circles, Mariyumma pursued her education.
“Having studied in a Malayalam-medium school in the lower primary section, the English language troubled me awfully in the initial days,” she says.
Above all, the taunts of religious groups against a Muslim girl opting for English education and the suppressed laughs of schoolmates on seeing her emerging out of the hand-pulled rickshaw in a burkha depressed her. But nothing could douse her spirit.
Mother Gertrude, Sister Alicia and Sister Josepha, among her teachers, made her love the language, she says. Even after marriage, Mariyumma continued her education for six months, completing her fifth form.
A supportive husband helped her take the plunge into social service, with the Muslim Mahila Samajam, established in 1935, initiating her into it.
Leafing through photographs showing eminent persons like Kuttimalu Amma and Panampilly Govinda Menon at the eventful ceremonies organised by the Samajam, Mariyumma fondly remembers how the literacy sessions and the free tailoring classes brought in people in large numbers under the fold of the samajam.
At 85, memory fails, Mariyumma says even while clearly recounting the speech she delivered at a meeting organised by the Muslim Educational Society at Mananchira in Kozhikode in 1970. The English speech on Muslim women’s education won loud applause till the end, she says.
Mariyumma regrets not having taken up any full-time employment. She took keen interest in her children’s education, and proudly says how the third-generation women of her family had followed in her footsteps, reaching greater heights. Gaining knowledge is one of the important teachings of the religion, without differentiating between the sexes, she says.
Being a judge to select announcers at the Kozhikode radio station in 1976 is another memorable episode of her life. Probably, those experiences are behind her judgment on present-day announcers and newsreaders. She shuns the “musical news reading” of some. Doordarshan news is her favourite. She has a strong liking for The Hindu , a fondness she has acquired from her father.
