What the ‘Last Benchers’ Have to Say

What the ‘Last Benchers’ Have to Say

Two school friends, Sreeshyam S and Abhijith E, joined hands to publish an anthology of their poems Last Benchile Kavithakal

Irresponsible youth and a non-reactive society stirred up the poet in Sreeshyam S, whereas it was his keen observation of the minutest of things in nature that made Abhijith E a poet. The two friends from St Joseph’s Boys Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode, came together to publish an anthology of their poems Last Benchile Kavithakal.

A shared love for nature and humanity brought the two boys together, says Sreeshyam, a class nine student. Sreeshyam’s poems are mostly a rebel’s thought towards the uncaring society. “How do we keep mum when one amongst us is attacked,” asks Sreeshyam, who penned his protest against the Delhi gang-rape through his poem Nee Thee. His first poem, written when he was a class 2 student, Rocket, is also included in the collection.

Sreeshyam’s first interest was novel and he has written three so far - Athiru, Anactoria and Manthrika Elassu.

He didn’t like the third one and tore up the manuscript after the first reading. Among his collection, Last Bench is his favourite, which fetched him first prize in the state in a competition organised by Chandrika weekly.

Abhijith’s first passion, on the other hand, is short stories, and then come drawing and acting. He puts titles before penning down a poem, but is poor at writing for competitions, a fact Sreeshyam also agrees with. “I can’t conform to the rules set by the judges and often falter at the contests. I write for myself and that arouses curiosity,” Abhijith said. He started short story writing at the age of seven.

“For competition, it is easy to fake. Writing original only gives you satisfaction,” he said. Madhu Panakkad, a poet and teacher from the same school, has edited the poems

 “I have only selected the poems, the works didn’t need any editing from my part,” he said.

The teacher introduced them to the new poets, which they said helped them write apart from the conventional style.

M T Vasudevan Nair released the book at a function held on their school premises a few days back.

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