VAIKOM MUHAMMED BASHEER (21st January 1908 - 5th July 1995) Three photos Image (C) Abul Kalam Azad Pattanam / EtP Archives Today is Basheer’s 19th death anniversary. EtP Archives has several images related to Basheer and on this day, EtP is happy to share three unconnected photos and the story behind these images. One of the images is of his sister Pathumma and her goat. Another is a photograph of a letter from Basheer to photographer Abul Kalam Azad (AKA). Third is Sulthan’s grave. Pathumma and her goat: In the year 1985, Ramavarma Thampuran started a Malayalam newsweekly called ‘Preview’. Jamal Kochangadi was the editor in chief. The editorial team policy was to cover investigative journalism, photo-features as well. AKA was invited as a contributing photographer for these photo essays. As part of this, the team decided to do a story on Basheer’s characters of the noted autobiographical novel Pathummayude Aadu (Pathummas Goat; 1959). In this humorous novel, the characters are members of his family and the action takes place at his home in Thalayolaparambu. The goat in the story belongs to his sister Pathumma. A letter: this is a photograph of Basheer’s handwritten letter sent to AKA on 18th June 1986. AKA and Jamal Kochangadi visited Basheer in Beypore, Calicut and showed the photographs of his characters. Basheer promised AKA a signed set of his story books. Later Basheer realized that the books had gone out of print. In this letter he mentions this and says Jamal would bring a set of signed books to AKA. Sulthan’s grave: In the year 2010, AKA left Cochin and moved to Tiruvannamalai permanently. On his way to Tiruvannamnalai, AKA along with few friends visited the graveyard of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer (Calicut). EtP could not trace the portraits of Basheer taken by AKA. During those times, the tradition was to give the negatives to the agencies. Usually these negatives are neither archived nor preserved. So most of these valuable images are lost forever to the public. Due to AKA’s keen interest to preserve these images, we now have a collection of these invaluable images. These three unconnected images weave the story of this unique genius. Twenty years has passed since his demise. However, his memories and his words continue to vibrate in our heart. AKA says, “Basheer, Sulthan of words and legend, his real characters and the surrounding landscape continue to linger fresh in my mind”. Salute you Basheer Ji. Thank you.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 06:03:09 +0000
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