THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Madhavan aka Aa Madhavan is at his age’s best. Reading and writing shape the routine of this 82-year-old Kendra Sahitya Akademi award winner. The latest addition to his library is R N Joe D’Cruz ‘Korkei,’ yet another Sahitya Akademi award winner in 2013. ‘’It took less than a month to finish it,” he said on the marathon read of Korkei running into 1,600 pages.
An award at this age might be called a late recognition, but Madhavan takes this as an opportunity neither for playing blame games nor opening up the baggage of woes. ‘’Happy to have this award,” he said. Nothing else. The award-winning work, ‘Ilakkiya Chuvadukal’ in Tamil is a collection of 50 essays on literary criticism (2013), to be called his latest.
Madhavan’s life can be traced to where he was written about: The B Jeyamohan-penned ‘Kadaitheruvin Kalaignan’ (story teller of the trader street), a critical piece that came out in 2010. The title summarises what he is. Until four years ago, his face greeted everyone at the utensils shop ‘Selvi Stores’ inside the busy Chalai market. In fact, he owes much to this place, its daily faces, sights and sounds that made him the litterateur Aa Madhavan we see today.
The scribbles on pieces of papers grew from strength to strength culminating in 10 short stories, four novels and several translations and becoming a name to reckon with in post-modern Tamil literature.