The reason why ‘Curiocity’ features veteran singer K P Udayabhanu is anybody’s guess. He is always seen wearing caps, that too of many varieties.
Rows and rows of awards, mementos and citations welcomed us in as we entered his apartment at Choice Heights, Museum Bains Compound. So too the photographs which said volumes about the illustrious career of the man. And there lay a sample from his collection - a brocade cap attached with a lock of fake braided hair.
He was excited to talk about that cap. “I got it from Singapore recently...see, doesn’t it look nice with the hair?,” he quipped and immediately put it on with a child-like innocence. And as our lensman got ready to freeze the frame, the singer, who wore a T-shirt and shorts and sported a funky earring, quickly went into his room and came out with a jacket over his T-shirt. “This jacket too was bought along with the cap from Singapore. The picture will look good with this jacket on,” said the music legend with a glitter in his ageing eyes.
Well, caps have made it to ‘Curiocity’ for the second time, the first time with their poet-collector D Vinayachandran. If Vinayachandran had always nursed a liking for caps, Udayabhanu would never have thought about wearing one, let alone having a cap collection, till a few years back. Due to an infection of the skin, he was forced to start using caps, especially when he attended a function. “Actually, I never liked wearing anything on my head. But, now I have no other go but use a cap. Once I started wearing them, somehow, I took a liking for caps and now I have so many of them,” says the 77-year-old veteran taking out the collection from a plastic cover.
He had bought most of them from a shop in Chalai market. “They get it from Mumbai,” he says. Some of them look new with the price tag intact. “See these black ones, I use them for formal functions,” he adds. There are ordinary ones, but which look really unique owing to their make.
The special ones in the list include the one from Nepal which his son Rajeev bought for him. A favourite is the one he got from Dubai. “I had bought this cap and the traditional Arab robe when I went there. I walked around in that dress wearing this cap and even dined at a place without any problem. It was quite a memorable outing,” says Udayabhanu, breaking into a smile. Caps from Himachal Pradesh, a two-piece cap from Delhi and the traditional Gandhi cap figure in his collection. He has also got a handful of soft caps, usually worn by the Muslim community.
A cap with the picture of Sonia Gandhi on it caught our attention. “I had gone to Kochi when Sonia Gandhi had come there and had got this cap then.” Well, the cap is no surprise as he is known to be close to the Congress party, being the nephew of K P Kesava Menon and having worked as PRO to K Karunakaran.
m_athira@newindianexpress.com
(This column, which appears once in two weeks, features unique hobbies of a few well-known faces around)