It is with a noble intention of introducing renowned Malayalam litterateurs, and the progressive literature that they produced, to Tamil people that A Madhavan (popularly known by his pen name Aa Madhavan) started translating the short stories of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, S K Pottekkatt and Malayattoor Ramakrishnan’s novel ‘Yakshi’ into Tamil way back in the 1970s. Having completed only his school education, Madhavan started a utensil shop at Chalai Bazaar in Thiruvananthapuram, while working on literary works in Tamil and ploughed on until two years ago, when he decided to retire to a quiet life.
“I was born, brought up and educated in Thiruvananthapuram, and my family migrated from Kanyakumari to Thiruvananthapuram to do business. Although I had learnt Malayalam at school, I retained a fascination for Tamil and started writing in the language. Those days Malayalam was rich in progressive literature, whilst in Tamil a dearth of such works was felt. So I decided to translate those literary pieces into Tamil,” recalls Madhavan, now 79.
Even as his love for Tamil literature is immense, he has produced four novels and eight short story collections in the language, all the translations that he has done thus far is from Malayalam.
These include translations of P K Balakrishnan’s novel ‘Ini Njan Urangatte’ and Karoor Neelakanta Pillai’s ‘Marappavakal’, which have came out in book forms. All other translations have come as serialised forms in various magazines.
“The Tamil version of ‘Yakshi’ never appeared in print, as the publisher who had promised to publish it lost the manuscript of the translation. Tamil magazines like Kadir and Deepam have published his translations of the works of Ponkunnam Varkey, P Kesavadev and Kamala Surayya. In his Tamil works, he sought to illustrate the life and times of the people of Chalai, the busy business street where his shop was situated.
If ‘Kadaitheru Kathaikal’ was a realistic portrayal of the lives of these people, ‘Ettavathu Naal’, portrayed the hypocrisy of the people in the bazaar, as seen through the eyes of a manual labourer. Though he’s leading a retired life now, he has no plans to retire from the pleasures of being a wordsmith, and is currently busy working on his next novel ‘Ippadiyellamirukku’, which chronicles the changing dynamics of power in Thiruvananthapuram and erstwhile Travancore. “There will be history and my experiences, in the novel,” he signs off.
