MALAPPURAM: Malayalam literary world mourned novelist and short story writer E Harikumar and said it has lost one of its sensible writers.Writer and poet Alankode Leelakrishnan said the state did not rightly acknowledge Harikumar and his works.
“Harikumar worked towards popularising the works of his father Edasseri Govindan Nair, but never used latter’s name to hog limelight,” said Leelakrishnan.“Dinosarinte Kutti is a collection of brilliant stories which won him Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. His style was different from that of his contemporaries Kakkanadan, M Mukundan, O V Vijayan, Pattathuvila and M P Narayana Pillai. Yet his works didn’t get much attention,” he said.Leelakrishnan said Harikumar and his works would get more attention in the coming years.
“Edasseri said his works would be celebrated only after his death. It was proved right. The works of Harikumar will also evoke the interest of more readers in the years to come. Like the children of all famous personalities, Harikumar too suffered. Don’t forget that N Mohanan, son of Lalithambika Antharjanam, too had gone through a similar issue,” said Leelakrishnan.
Poet P P Ramachandran, who won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of poems Kanekkane, said critics often overlooked Harikumar’s works. “More reviews would have made Harikumar popular. But many did not pay attention to his works. It’s good on his part to have published his books online in a move to reach out to the readers,” he said.
He was well aware of the opportunities offered by digital platforms. He had published Kindle versions of his books. He also took efforts to publish Edasseri’s works online.