THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The English translation of Vadayar Sasi’s ‘Cochin Shipyardinte Katha; Kochiyudeyum’ has just been released. Vadayar Sasi retired as Senior Manager (Civil Engineering), after a 36-year career. But he had always wanted to write about the shipyard. “I was doing day-and-night supervision at various construction sites,” he says. Sasi had a pocket diary where he jotted down points linked to his supervisory work, but also made notes on whatever he saw, from a literary point of view.
One reason for the literary mind-set is because Sasi is a short-story writer also. One of his collections, ‘Abhilash Nagarile Ayalkar’ won the SK Pottekkat award.
In the end, the book, ‘Cochin Shipyardinte Katha; Kochiyudeyum’ (The Story of the Cochin Shipyard and Kochi), priced at Rs 100, was published in 2012. And now the English translation has just come out.
The 168-page book has several black and white photographs of events that have taken place in the shipyard. Sasi had focused on the history, ships (from wood to steel), employees, quays, and the changing face of Kochi. It was released at the Cochin Shipyard Recreation Club recently. P Vinayakumar, Director (Technical) handed over a copy to the writer Sreekumari Ramachandran.