A Madhavan; From Trading in Pots and Pans to a Man of Letters

A Madhavan aka Aa Madhavan is at his age’s best. Reading and writing shape the routine of this 82-year-old Sahitya Akademi award winner.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Madhavan aka Aa Madhavan is at his age’s best. Reading and writing shape the routine of this 82-year-old Kendra Sahitya Akademi award winner. The latest addition to his library is R N Joe D’Cruz’s Korkei, yet another Sahitya Akademi award winner in 2013. ‘’It took less than a month to finish it,” he said on the reading of Korkei running into 1,600 pages.

An award at this age might be called a late recognition, but Madhavan takes this as an opportunity. He neither wants to play the blame game nor open up the baggage of woes. ‘’Happy to have this award,” he said. Nothing else. The award-winning work, Ilakkiya Chuvadukal in Tamil is a collection of 50 essays on literary criticism (2013), which is his latest.

Madhavan’s life can be traced to where he was written about: The B Jeyamohan-penned Kadaitheruvin Kalaignan (story-teller of the trader street), a critical piece that came out in 2010. The title summarises what he is. Until four years ago, his face greeted everyone at the utensils shop ‘Selvi Stores’ inside the busy Chalai market. In fact, he owes much to this place, its daily faces, sights and sounds that made him the litterateur Aa Madhavan we see today.

The scribbles on pieces of papers grew from strength to strength culminating in 10 short stories, four novels and several translations and becoming a name to reckon with in post-modern Tamil literature.

In the 1970s, he translated the short stories of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai and S K Pottekkatt into Tamil.

Malayattoor’s Yakshi, P K Balakrishnan’s Ini Njan Urangatte and Karoor Neelakanta Pillai’s Marapavakal are some more names in his kitty. The most strenuous work, according to him, was his indulgence with Ini Njan Urangatte. He’s disappointed that Yakshi never went into print as a publisher failed to keep the promise.

Despite having strong roots at Sengottai in Tamil Nadu, in terms of birth, education and upbringing, Madhavan is the capital’s own son - born to parents who migrated to the city.  What’s strange is he never received formal grounding in Tamil and, in school, the language he learnt was Malayalam. Unfortunately, he had to leave school while in Class X.  “Thiruvananthapuram is no different from Tamil Nadu as here people speak a blend of Malayalam and Tamil in styles specific to the regions. Like the writings of O V Vijayan and Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, I’ve brought dialectical variations into my works,” says Madhavan.