THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Padavilottakku Njan, ente koottinaay
Puzhayival, ennumenteyaanippuzha,” - V Madhusoodhanan Nair scrawls about his childhood companion ‘Neyyar’ recalling those indelible moments he had spent on her sandy shores. The poet, who was born and brought up in Neyyattinkara, was only too happy to be a part of ‘Dyuthi’, a literary group formed by around fifty writers, hailing from the shores of Neyyar.
The rich literary culture that was alive in Thiruvithamcore during its heydays has lost its fervour somewhere on the way. The literature on the Western parts of Kerala thus never hit the proverbial tipping point. Rather, it was struggling to stand on its own, when a group of literature aficionados from the capital city such as C V Suresh, R V Ajayaghosh and Girish Paruthimadam got together in an attempt to bring back the foregone era.
“Neyyattinkara always kept a serious approach towards literature. The only issue was that for the past few decades we couldn’t make the right sounds. Even though, we had legends like C V Raman Pillai, Kumaranasan and Ulloor S Parameswaran Nair to our credit, some how we never could come to the forefront. But that doesn’t mean that we have no good writers here. People like SV Venugopan Nair who spent all his lifetime in Neyyattinkara, never received the recognition he deserves,” says Madhusoodhanan Nair.
He says if they put the right effort and passion in their works, ‘Dyuthi’ would be something to look forward to.
By conducting their monthly get-togethers on the shores of this spellbinding river, ‘Dyuthi’ stays far away from the city’s humdrum. C V Suresh, who serves as the co-ordinator of the team has been conducting myriad cultural programmes for creatively uplifting the local writers.
“We realised that there is a need of revisiting our lost tradition. Hence, on January 27, 2013 we formed ‘Dyuthi’ with fifty or so wanna be writers who share a history with Neyyar river. On February 24, we kick-started our activities with a debate conducted at the house of renowned writer SV Venugopan Nair. Since then we have been conducting a monthly meeting at Rachana Language study centre at Neyyattinkara on the last Sunday of every month,” says Suresh.
Recently, Dyuthi had published ‘Adayalam’, a book of poems by 54 selected poets. The book released by Malayalam poet Kureeppuzha Sreekumar has brought forward an array of young poets who were unknown to the literary world out there.
“There was not much happening in Neyyattinkara until Dyuthi was formed. There was a library which was very active a long ago but it became old and ignored after a while.
Today it is up and running thanks to Dyuthi members. There were many talented writers like V K Krishna Menon and Pavoor Madhavan Pillai who had contributed much to Malayalam literature. However none of them are remembered today. So hopefully, this initiative by young writers may change the literary climate of Thiruvananthapuram,” says SV Venugopan Nair.
As part of the seventieth birthday celebrations of Venugopan Nair, Dyuthi in association with Swadeshabhimani cultural Forum has conducted ‘Venunadam’, a cultural programme with much fanfare at Vyloppilly Sanskrithi Bhavan in June 2014. They also released ‘SVYude Ezhuthuvazhikal’, a book written by CV Suresh about Venugopan Nair, in the presence of Sugathakumari and Perumbadavam Sreedharan.
“We also have a bimonthly publication called ‘Dyuthi’, which has written works of our members.
‘Dyuthi’ has members from all walks of life, hence, out meetings are alive with discussions on various subjects,” says Suresh.
The members are confident that with the activities of their small group, the literature in Western parts of Kerala will soon see a significant growth.