THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A yesteryear charm lingers on the stretch by the Old Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram where elderly trees lining the roadside and past peeping out from some buildings evoke a hint of days of the yore.
The scene would have had more of the bygone, had the ‘Anakkodathi’, a Travancore-era administrative office, been intact in the space where now stands a branch of a PSU bank.
“It was pulled down much before I was born,” says history enthusiast Advocate K V Vineesh, who wrote on the ‘Anakodathi’ on a Facebook community page on the heritage of Thiruvananthapuram.
Time erases several such chapters in history. The Facebook community ‘Oru Nagarathinte Katha’, launched by Aswin Suresh four years ago when he was just 21, claims to be a counter to this.
“It brings together people who want the story of Thiruvananthapuram alive,” he says. The community has now become a landmark in virtual space, with over a lakh members.
More popular is its YouTube channel, with 1.66 lakh subscribers. “Titled ‘Synandoorakathakal’ (an old name of the capital city), the channel has documentaries on Travancore, little-known places where history takes a nap, and on people whose names remain etched in the chronicles. We research with help from palace archives and state archives and persons who know the region’s history,” says Aswin.
Some resource persons include Mohan Nair, a businessman whose love for history translated into a bestseller ‘Ente Mohana Nagaram’, professor Nalin Ganesh, an academician, and Uma Maheshwari whose book series ‘Mathilakam Rekhakal’ decodes the colossal records of the Travancore era.
The community was initially created to promote Aswin’s Visual Communications UG project on Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple. As he worked on the project, he found his passion for the topic growing.
“My interest led me on, and soon, I was handling the page. Many who had tucked away all they knew about the city, congregated here. The FB group gave them a voice, and in three months, we grew 30,000 strong,” he says.
The YouTube channel was launched shortly after and now has over 400 video stories. Aswin handles the camera, and his brother Arjun helps with thumbnails and other promo stuff.
“It was surprising to find that at least 60% of our subscribers are between the 24 to 35 years of age.” The response prompts Aswin to keep recording history for posterity’s sake alongside his career plans to launch a digital marketing firm.
“A lot of the city’s legacy was lost because it was not being preserved. Our effort is to digitise the information. Now, more groups are being formed with the same theme. This shows there are many who want to keep Thiruvananthapuram’s stories alive,” he says.