THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “It was through a changing turbulent time that I journeyed through the burning sands of the seashore. Falling down, getting up again, exhausted and worn out, trembling, taking baby steps, struggling to keep my foot down, somehow I moved ahead. These are the footprints from that adventurous journey. In fact, whenever I look back to ponder and search, more than my own footsteps, I feel more moved to look for the footprints left behind by that bygone era,” reminisced Puthussery in his forward to Thilacha Mannil Kalnadayayi (Journeying Through Burning Sands), his autobiography published in 2017.
Veteran poet and Malayalam scholar Puthussery Ramachandran, who passed away in the state capital on Saturday evening, was a leading face of revolutionary literature in Kerala. Puthussery had won many prestigious awards including the 2015 Ezhuthachchan Puraskaaram, the highest literary award by the state government, among others. In fact, it was due to Puthussery’s tireless efforts that Malayalam was finally recognised as a Classical Language by the Union Government in 2013.
Puthussery undoubtedly led an eventful life through his varied roles as a teacher, poet, writer, even doubling as a political activist at one point of time. Having lived just a decade short of a century, Puthussery, needless to say, did manage to carve out his very own niche in Malayalam. He had an active political life during his student days.
With his appealing, heart-warming poetry, he earned the sobriquet of a poet during the country’s freedom struggle to break free from its colonial masters. He can easily be termed a writer who chose to live on his own terms. Never one to hanker after the limelight, Puthussery chose to delineate his own path, in both life and literature. To quote his own words, he has always lived by his own set of principles, beliefs and ideologies.
His first poem Onnanthyakkuttam was published in 1944. Making his mark in Malayalam poetry by the end of 60s, Puthussery devoted a major portion of his time and effort to conduct an in-depth study of the early and medieval Malayalam language, as well as the early history of Kerala. His poems have been translated into Hindi, English and Tamil and published in various journals. Puthussery ki Kavitha, a Hindi translation of his works, was published in 2001.