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A. Saj Mathews pays a tribute to legendary writer Vaikom Muhammed Basheer in his centenary year
FATHER, for what purpose Christ who was nailed to death needs a golden cross" pleads the petty thief who was caught red handed for stealing the golden cross from the local church. There is another one who mistakes a sleeping elephant as a heap of cow dung and tries to clear it by transferring it into a bamboo basket to dispose off. They are among the typical down to earth, ever-familiar local characters who had come alive in the stories of late Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, the legendary story teller of Malayalam literature whose birth centenary is now being celebrated recently in Kerala. Basheer who enriched Malayalam literature with his distinctive simplicity of style, next-door characters and themes was a storyteller who walked before his times. He died leaving an immortal literary legacy of unique dimensions. The very fact that he continues to be the most debated bygone writer of vernacular literature is a testimony to the lasting value of his contributions. Basheer who passed away saying "you are now going to be all alone in the real world in which we were together..." was an ardent admirer of Sufi music. He used to always listen these verses Do pyase dil ek huye hain aise bichden ab kaise (Two passionate hearts have become one; now how they could separate...) In Mathilukal (Walls) which was made into a widely acclaimed cinematic masterpiece by noted film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Basheer depicts the touching romance between a male and female prisoner separated by the huge wall of their respective jail enclaves. They never see each other. In Thenmavu (The honeyed mango tree) he arouses environmental concern about the value of trees. His life also was equally simple. A major part of his life was spent in Kochi where he ran a book stall, first on the portals of a bakery and later on the boat jetty and the press club road. Most of his contemporaries included writers, petty shop owners and journalists. Those who are alive are organising memorial meetings in the city. The most noted was the open air story reading session held in front of the now defunct bakery on the portals of which Basheer ran his bookshop. The Smamatha Kerala Sahithya Parishad also organised a memorial meeting where writers like M.K. Sanoo, Kakkandan, Sethu, Chemmanm Chacko and Balachandran Chullikadu nostalgically recalled his contributions and their association with the late writer. Born at Thalayolaparambu, a tiny hamlet in Ernakulam district in 1908, he shifted to Beypore in Calicut in the later years. He remained immersed in writing under the shade of his favorite Mangostine tree till he died in 1994. An ardent follower of Mahatama Gandhi, Basheer went to see him when Gandhi came to Vaikom to participate in the historic Vaikom Satyagraha. In fact, he managed to climb on to the car in which Gandhi travelled just to touch him. He also had undergone a three-month long jail-term for participating in the freedom movement. Basheer undertook a long journey which took him across the length and breadth of India and many places in Asia and Africa, a journey which spanned seven years, doing whatever work that seemed likely to keep him from starvation. During these days of wandering, he took jobs ranging from that of a loom fitter, fortune-teller, cook, newspaper seller, fruit seller, sports goods agent, accountant, watchman, barber, hotel manager to living as an ascetic with Hindu and Sufi Mystics in their hermitages in Himalayas and in the Ganga basin. It was on his return from this enlightening journey that he took to full time writing. In his forties, he raised many an eyebrow by marrying a woman much younger than him, Fabi Basheer. Eventually he settled down to a reserved family life with his wife and two children, Anees and Shahina, in Beypore, on the southern edge of Kozhikode. Basheer is fondly called as Beypore Sultan. His works have been translated into English as well as 18 Indian languages. Basheer was awarded the Padma Shri(1982). He had also won the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and numerous other awards. Kerala is in the grip of a revived Basheer fever these days. A massive literary and cultural festival is scheduled to be held in Kochi between February 25 and 28 in connection with his birth centenary. Kerala wants to pay a tribute to its own Beypore Sultan.
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