PALAKKAD: People depend on writers and their works for light and energy to get on with living and therefore the future should incorporate the values left behind by eminent authors, Education Minister M A Baby has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the cultural koottayma styled ‘Khazakilikku Veendum’ held at the ‘njattupura’ in Thazrak village in Kodumbu, near here, on Friday.
The minister said there was a tendency among parents to teach children English while not making any effort to teach them their mother tongue.
He said the works of O V Vijayan, both as a writer and as a cartoonist, needed to be read over and over again.
Though Joseph Mundassery, as education minister, brought in many reforms in the education sector, he is not remembered as a minister but as a literary critic, Baby said.
Sukumar Azhikode, who was the chief guest, said King Vikramaditya was known to the outside world through the writings of Kalidasa.
He said it was a fact that the works of Aasan, Vallathol and Changampuzha gave our society more satisfaction than the works of Shelley and Shakespeare. The Malayali society is greatly influenced by the works of these writers, he added.
President of the Kerala Sahithya Akademi P Vatsala, who delivered the
presidential address, said the palm trees, the ponds and, the naturality of Thazrak village had greatly influenced O V Vijayan in his writings.
K K Divakaran accepted the document handed
over by the owners of the ‘Arabikulam’, which is mentioned in Khazakkinte Ithihasam.
The minister also laid the foundation stone for the arch, being set up in Thazrak village at a cost of `15 lakh.
District Collector K V Mohan Kumar welcomed the gathering and O V Vijayan
Memorial Committee secretary T R Ajayan proposed a vote of thanks.