THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As it completes ten years, the Nedumangad-based literary forum, Malayalam Samithi, is left with no place to hold its monthly meetings.
Nedumangad Town LP School, which had been the venue for the meetings, has virtually shut its doors on the organisation. The reason: Some of the members of the Samithi had questioned certain decisions of the school authorities.
The samithi is celebrating its tenth anniversary on January 30 and 31. Poet Kureepuzha Sreekumar, the man who inaugurated the samithi ten years ago, will be the chief guest at the 10th anniversary function also. The function will be held at Nedumangad Boys UP School on January 30. But, the availability of a permanent venue for the monthly programmes is still in question.
The samithi had petitioned the Nedumangad Municipality against the ‘negative attitude’ of the authorities. On behalf of the samithi, the Municipal authorities had requested the Town LP School authorities to allow the samithi to conduct the monthly programme in the school. But, the request fell on deaf years.
The samithi is no ordinary organisation; it is a brotherhood of over 35 poets in and around Nedumangad. ``We don’t have a president or a secretary or funds. Our only wealth is a collection of addresses of members who attend our meetings without fail,’’ said B.S. Rajeev, a poet and one of the guiding forces behind the organisation.
``In fact, Nedumangad and its surrounding areas have at least 35 poets. Of them, 15 poets are regular contributors to Malayalam periodicals. Then there are other poets who have left Nedumangad for various jobs. They too come and attend the programme when they are in town,’’ said Chayam Dharamarajan, poet and a Malayalam lecturer at University College here.
The samithi, in fact, had been organising monthly meetings at the Town LP School till the authorities there asked them to clear off.
``We were planning to hold a discussion on the novel ‘Chavoli’ by P.A. Uthaman, who was also a long-serving member of the samithi. Then, the school authorities refused to allot us the school. Eventually, we had to change the venue,’’ said samithi member Vijayan. The programme was shifted to ATC, a nearby tutorial college, where Vijayan teaches.
Uthaman, who at that time was terminally ill, died soon after. A few months after his death, ‘Chavoli’ received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for the best novel for the year 2008.
Rajiv said that though the Municipality had promised to provide an alternative venue, nothing had happened. The renovated Municipal Town Hall would have been an ideal venue. However, the ownership of the Town Hall has since got tangled in a dispute. The Town LP School authorities have claimed that the property is actually under their ownership.
Over the years, the Municipality has been making allocations in its budgets for a venue for cultural events, including the establishment of a ‘Kuttikalude Kottaram’. But this has remained on paper.
Poet Kalathara Gopan, who is also a member of the samithi, said that even after repeated pleas, no firm decision had evolved. Fellow poet P.S. Unnikrishnan also shared a similar view.
The importance of the samithi could be gauged by the very fact that many important writers and cultural and social leaders, including Balachandran Chullikad, Civic Chandran, Ashokan Cheruvil, Shihabudeen Poithumkadavil, T.P. Rajeevan, Raghavan Payyanad, Panniyan Raveendran, S. Sudheesh, Sreeni Pattathanam and R.V.G. Menon have attended the programmes of the samithi.
In fact, most of them attended the meetings spending money from their own pockets. Some of them came from so faraway places like Kasargod with their own money, said Chayam Dharmarajan.