Much more than a storyteller

Writer, editor, lyricist-composer, freedom fighter... a tribute to superwoman Vai.Mu.Ko, ahead of International Women's Day (March 8).

March 03, 2016 04:45 pm | Updated 05:38 pm IST

Kothainayaki is flanked by her cousin's daughters - M.J. Ranganayaki (sitting) and Jaai, as she was affectionately called, to her right.  Photos: K.V. Srinivasan

Kothainayaki is flanked by her cousin's daughters - M.J. Ranganayaki (sitting) and Jaai, as she was affectionately called, to her right. Photos: K.V. Srinivasan

When Neervalur Venkatachariar's daughter was born in 1901, his friend, Vai. Mu. Srinivasa Appangar, named her Kothainayaki, and said, “She will be my daughter-in-law.” And sure enough, when Kothainayaki was five, she married Srinivasa Appangar's eight-year-old son V. M. Parthasarathy.

It was a marriage that was to prove propitious, for the family Kothainayaki married into was one of scholars, and it provided the right environment for the unfolding of her creative talents.

Kothainayaki had always been good at spinning stories, but she couldn't put down her stories in writing, because she was unlettered, a deficiency that was soon taken care of by neighbour T.C. Pattamma, who taught Kothainayaki to read and write.

Encouraged by her husband, she wrote and published a play, ‘Indra Mohana.’ She was 25 years old then. Over the next 30 years, she wrote 115 books under the name Vai.Mu.Ko.

In 1925, on the suggestion of well known author Vaduvur Doraiswami Iyengar, Vai.Mu.Ko took over the magazine Jaganmohini , that he had been running for two years. Within four months of taking over, she had 1,000 subscribers.

Orthodox Brahmins, who were outraged by a Brahmin woman taking over as editor of a magazine, burnt copies of Jaganmohini . But Vai.Mu.Ko. remained unfazed.

Vai.Mu.Ko's first novel ‘Vaidehi’ was serialised in Jaganmohini , and later brought out as a book by LIFCO publishers. The Hindu praised her elegant style. Her second novel ‘Padma Sundaram’ was translated into Malayalam.

Her granddaughter Vijayalakshmi recalls that S. Ramanathan Chettiar, one of Vai.Mu.Ko's fans, moved by her book ‘Aparaadhi’, which advocated widow remarriage, arranged for the remarriage of many widows in his conservative community.

“He lived in Saigon. He used to visit us whenever he came to Madras, and he would buy multiple copies of grandmother’s books, to give to his relatives and friends in Saigon. Even after grandmother’s death, he continued to visit us,” she says.

In her play, ‘Vatsakumar’, Vai.Mu.Ko criticised those who frowned upon Bharatanatyam as being an immoral art. The play was staged at Presidency College, and Carnatic vocalist N.C. Soundaravalli played the heroine.

In 1925, after meeting Gandhiji, Vai.Mu.Ko. took to wearing khadi, and even hawked khadi on the streets of Madras. She gave speeches against British rule and went on protest marches. “Once during a protest, the police tried to stop her by dousing her with sewer water, but she continued to raise slogans. So they arrested her and sent her to the Vellore prison,” says Vai.Mu.Ko’s daughter-in-law Padmini. “But she wanted her serials in Jaganmohini to continue. So she would write on scraps of paper, and smuggle them out through her husband, when he visited her in prison.”

Her husband was a man with progressive views, and helped in every way possible. “He even rigged up something like an intercom system for grandmother, so that she could summon us, without having to climb up and down the stairs,” says Vai.Mu.Ko's grandson Narasimhan. Vai.Mu.Ko. addressed her husband as ‘V.M.,’ rather daring in those days, when woman had to be obsequious where their husbands were concerned.

Jaganmohini’s circulation increased, and it sold in the thousands in Malaysia, Penang, Rangoon and South Africa. In 1937, Vai.Mu.Ko. bought her own press to print Jaganmohini .

“During the evacuation, we lived for a year in Venkatapuram, a village that had no electricity. So when we were there, the machines had to be manually operated,” says Padmini.

For the first 13 years, Vai Mu.Ko shouldered the entire burden of running the magazine, and was the only writer in Jaganmohini , taking care of everything from short stories to humour! It was only later that others began to write in the magazine and many women, who went on to become famous authors, cut their teeth on Jaganmohini .

Vai.Mu.Ko later introduced sections on music and travel, and set aside space for women and children. Padmini was in charge of the women’s section for many years.

Vai.Mu.Ko. also ran a women’s magazine called Nandavanam , for a year.

Although she was not formally trained in music, Vai.Mu.Ko had a keen ear for music, and she composed many songs in Telugu and Tamil.

Together with DKP, she cut three discs under the Columbia label, all the songs having been composed and tuned by Vai.Mu.Ko. “She also cut three solo discs,” says grandson Venkatakrishnan. M.S and Bangalore Nagaratanammal were among the many musicians who sang in Vai.Mu.Ko's house.

“When All India Radio was started in 1938, Rajaji asked my grandmother to sing the prayer, and that was the first ‘singing’ voice heard on the radio,” says Narasimhan. “Later grandmother did many radio programmes, with my mother and sister Vijayalakshmi.”

Upon Gandhiji's death, she started the Mahatmaji Seva Sangam at North Tank Street, Triplicane, and here girls were taught music, dance, public speaking and Hindi. She organised concerts and lectures at the sangam.

Vai Mu.Ko was also on the Film Censor Board for 10 years. “She had censored a scene in the film, ‘Adhrishtam’. But when the film was released, she found that the scene had been sneaked in. Furious, she ensured that the scene was cut, and also asked agents of Jaganmohini in other towns to check,” says Narasimhan.

On Vai. Mu. Ko’s books and where to find them, Venkatakrishnan says, “Some years ago, I saw at least 72 issues of Jaganmohini and 65 of grandmother's novels in the Calcutta Central library. I don't know if they still have the books.”

“Such was the magazine’s popularity, that in 1962, three years after it closed down, and two years after grandmother's death, a letter that had no address, except the words ‘Jaganmohini, Madras,’ was delivered at our house!” adds Venkatakrishnan.

There is a small board outside the family’s ancestral house in Triplicane, Chennai, which says ‘Jaganmohini,’ the only vestige of a once popular magazine, which had been published uninterruptedly for 35 years.

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