K. M. George - Best of Thakazhi S. Pillai

Edited by

K.M. GEORGE

Lotus Collection 1999

K.M. George for Introduction and selections 1999
Roli Books for translation of stories 1999
This paperback edition first published in 2012

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ISBN: 978-81-7436-869-0

C ONTENTS

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I NTRODUCTION

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T hakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, who is popularly referred to as Thakazhi, the name of his native village, is the most celebrated contemporary fictionist of Malayalam. His short novel Chemmeen received an international reception. The readers, however, find his short stories, which number over five hundred, equally captivating. These stories are now available in collections and anthologies. The present book contains a selection of fourteen stories which reflect his many-faceted genius.

Thakazhi was the recipient of many awards and honours, the more prestigious among them being the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award (1984), The Soviet Land Nehru Award (1974), The Sahitya Akademi Award (1957) and Vayalar Rama Varma Award (1980).

The National Sahitya Akademi and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi bestowed on him the highest honour, namely, the Fellowship. He was the recipient of honorary D.Litt. degrees of Kerala University, Calicut University and Mahatma Gandhi University. Thakazhi was recently honoured most enthusiastically by his countrymen at the time of his Satabhishekam, a customary celebration to mark the eighty-fourth birthday which coincided with one thousand appearances of the full moon. His participation was considered prestigious for any function of cultural importance in Kerala.

Sivasankara Pillai was born on 17 April 1912, in the village of Thakazhi in the Alleppey district of Kerala. His father, Sankara Kurup, and mother, Parvathy Amma, belonged to the Nayar community. Sivasankara was their only son, but he had an elder sister. Sankara Kurup was a trained actor in Kathakali, the traditional dance-drama of Kerala. His younger brother is Guru Kunchu Kurup, one of the greatest kathakali exponents of all time. Though Thakazhis father was interested in the dance arts of Kerala, and was a competent actor, he was a farmer by profession. For him, taking part in Kathakali was only a pastime. The son inherited both these legacies to some extent as evidenced by his important literary contributions. Not only the themes, but the vocabulary and idiom used by him testify to this background.

Thakazhi has been described as the chronicler of Kuttanad, which is a waterlogged, slushy area suitable for paddy cultivation. The village of Thakazhi is a part of Kuttanad which used to be described as the rice-bowl of Kerala. It was really so till recent times, when revolutionary changes took place not only in the attitude of the people, but even in the land itself. There was very little land above water. During the rainy season all rice fields would be under water and the excess water had to be pumped out for sowing and harvesting. The floods would now and then submerge even the land where houses and temples stood. Quite a few of Thakazhis stories can be properly understood and appreciated only if one is able to visualize this panorama. Another aspect which would aid such appreciation is the matrilineal system which was practised by the Nayars of the area till very recently.

Sivasankara Pillais formal education was not much. In his village there was only a primary school. After completing the course there, he had to join an English school at Ambalapuzha, 5 miles away from Thakazhi. To complete the high school course he had to go to Vaikom or Karuvatta. There are two autobiographical accounts written by Thakazhi, one dealing with his childhood Ente Balyakala Katha and the other Ente Vakil Jeevitam (My Life as a Pleader). In the former he admits that he was not a good student. He found the ordinary classes boring, but was interested in hearing and narrating stories. He fondly remembers a couple of teachers who encouraged his talent for storytelling, among them the well-known playwright and critic Kainikka Kumara Pillai, who was then a teacher in the N.S.S. High School at Karuvatta. An instance of his encouragement is the short story Sadhukkal (The Poor) published in the periodical Service even while Thakazhi was in school.

After completing the high school, Thakazhi did not know what to do. He frittered away nearly two years, though it was not a real waste, as he was observing and studying the life around him. Then it occurred to him to go to Trivandrum, the capital of the erstwhile Travancore State and join the Law College there to study for the pleadership examination. Life in the Law College was not as interesting as life outside in the town. His contact with the great savant and literary critic A. Balakrishna Pillai became a turning point in Thakazhis life. Balakrishna Pillai, the editor of the periodical Kesari, was the presiding genius of the Trivandrum intelligentsia. Several outstanding writers and social leaders emerged from Kesaris coterie. Thakazhi was fortunate enough to be accepted as a disciple of Balakrishna Pillai. There he was exposed to the great writers of modern Europe like Maupassant, Chekhov, Hugo, Tolstoy, Gorky, Zola, and others. Let us read Thakazhis assessment of the role of his guru: Who is Balakrishna Pillai? A power centre that stirred up the progressive thinking in all aspects of life in Kerala. The present generation perhaps does not fully grasp its significance. (Quoted from an article in Mangalodayam, translated by Dr K. Ayyappa Panikkar in his book Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai).