After remaining cold and numb at the Medical College mortuary for five days, the body of poet A Ayyappan was on Tuesday finally brought out to the blazing hot sun, under which he had lived and died as a poet of the masses.
It remained bright throughout the day, as if the Weather God was honouring the poet who sang the song of heat and summer. The VJT Hall was filled with thousands who had close association with Ayyappan ever since his days at the ‘Navayugom’. They included his bosom friends like poet Sebastian, Odessa Sathyan and Madhu Master. Madhu Master was seen fuming over the ill-treatment meted out to Ayyappan’s body.
The hall was also filled with the memory of two persons who had been closely associated with Ayyappan - legendary communist leader R Sugathan and maverick film-maker John Abraham, who had been the poet’s dearest soulmates.
While Sugathan was associated with Ayyappan during his formative days, John was close to the poet later, as a non-conformist.
CPI leader Nemom Velayudhan Nair, who was instrumental in bringing Ayyappan to ‘Navayugom’, the ideological magazine of CPI, as a proof reader, remembered that Ayyappan was a very disciplined person during those days. Velayudhan Nair, who was the manager of ‘Navayugom’, had known Ayyappan for a long time, as both belonged to the same place. It was during the days at ‘Navayugom’ that Ayyappan became close to Sugathan. In fact, it was after the death of Sugathan that Ayyappan converted himself into an anarchist, he said.
It was during the later years that Ayyappan became a friend of John Abraham, who was also a son of the streets. Both of them wandered through the length and breadth of the State. ‘’Ayyappan was always in the middle of friends wherever he went,’’ said poet Santhan.
This strong friendship was the reason why poets from various parts of Kerala, including known names like Kureepuzha Sreekumar, assembled at VJT Hall to pay tributes to the poet by reciting his poetry throughout the time when it was kept for the public to pay tributes.
Advocate and poet Haridas Balakrishan felt satisfied for the fact that the State Human Rights Commission had sought an explanation from the Cultural Secretary on the complaint of disrespect to the departed poet. Then there were those children from Gandhi Bhavan, Pathanapuram, who had befriended the poet during his short stay there recently and a large group of residents from Chenkalchoola who came to pay homage to Ayyappan who could not hide their sorrow.
On the way to Santhi Kavadom, the body of Ayyappan was stopped for a few minutes in front of the compound wall of Secretariat, where he could be frequently spotted.
The question asked by auto driver Sreekumar, a huge Ayyappan fan, summed up the entire affair. ‘’What would have been the response of Ayyappan to all this, had he been alive?’’
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com