A tome of milestones

Suvarnalekha – Book of Kerala Records celebrates glorious and significant episodes and milestones in the history of Kerala.

May 21, 2015 05:09 pm | Updated 05:09 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Tom J. Mangattu Photo: Seema Suresh

Tom J. Mangattu Photo: Seema Suresh

A book celebrating Kerala, the achievements of Malayalis and golden moments from the history of the state. Suvarnalekha – Book of Kerala Records is all that and much more as it looks into the past with a difference, since the focus is more on rare and little-known facts.

“It isn’t a compilation of strange or interesting records made by Malayalis, which you customarily find in record books. Instead we have put in facts that will make Malayalis proud about themselves and Kerala. It is informative as well as entertaining,” says Tom J. Mangattu, co-founder and chief executive officer of indulekha.com, an online bookstore, who has edited the book.

It touches upon different facets of Kerala, dividing the information into 15 categories such as politics, finance, culture, health, agriculture, literature, media, education, cinema and sports.

Tom says that the late V. K. Krishna Menon, nationalist, statesman and diplomat, had a huge role to play in the birth of the book. “I happened to read that Krishna Menon was among the founders of Penguin and he also had a stake in the firm. That was an interesting piece of information for me. Then I started looking out for information on Malayalis who have left a mark about which little is known. It is then that I came to know about Devan Nair, the first Malayali to become the president of a country (Singapore). One thing led to another,” he says.

Thus he chanced upon interesting nuggets like how a church and bishop’s house made way for a rocket launching station at Thumba and the launch of gherao as a means of protest in Daras Mail Company in Alappuzha, which also started the practice of giving a bonus for Onam.

“Do you know that Rosamma Punnoose who got elected through a by-election had the legendary M.G. Ramachandran seeking votes for her in Devikulam? Tamil votes were significant and since MGR was shooting in Munnar, the Communist party sought his help in seeking votes, perhaps the only time he has done so in Kerala. Another interesting fact is that there was a 14-year-old guy standing in the front, listening to his speech. He was Daniel Rasayya, whom we now know as Ilaiyaraaja. Also, not many know that V.S. Achuthanandan was the election secretary of Rosamma,” Tom says.

While Tom, along with wife Swapna Thomas, collected information from textbooks, some of the findings just came out of the blue. “Dr. P. V. Cherian and his wife, Thara Cherian, were mayors of Madras Corporation and I got that information about them in a book published by Palathingal Kudumbayogam in Kottayam,” Tom adds.

P. K. Ravi who holds the patent for making a pepper thresher, Vaikkathu Pachumoothathu, the royal physician of erstwhile Travancore who introduced the first lottery and wrote the first autobiography in Malayalam, Ramavarma Appan Thampuran who wrote the first detective novel in Malayalam [ Bhaskaramenon ], Kashmikandi Kunhiraman, who brought the first talkie into Malayalam [six years before Balan was released] by exhibiting parts of English movies during a Thrissur Pooram, Felix J. Beyse, the first foreigner to make a Malayalam movie [ Vellinakshatram , 1949], S. P. Pillai, the first Malayalam actor to complete 100 films, T. S. Muthiah who produced and directed Chitramela , the first anthology of films, P. A. Eli, V. T. Chachi and K. K. Anna, the first women college students [at CMS College, Kottayam, the first college in Kerala]…the book introduces many such pioneers.

Information on many firsts in Kerala, such as ATM, supermarket, kindergarten, women’s magazine, online wedding invitation, cake, car, atlas, Onam greetings and many more such interesting facts have found a place in the book.

Well-known milestones achieved by Keralites and Kerala have not been left out.

It has brief notes about 100 Malayalam movies that have stood the test of time. Hundred observations about Kerala, written by travel writers, social reformers and cultural icons, reflect upon the socio-political-cultural scenario of the state.

The photographs were edited by Seema Suresh.

A publication of National Book Stall, the book costs Rs. 995.

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