KOLLAM: Yahiya, 80, who had become famous for his unique ways of protesting against issues like police brutality to demonetisation and wished to see the Narendra Modi government’s fall, died due to age-related ailments on Sunday. At Kadakkal in Kollam, his native place, he is known as ‘Maxi Maman’ for wearing a nightie as a protest against police brutality.
Yahiya used to run a mobile ‘thattukada’ (eatery) in Kadakkal. He had been wearing nighties for the past 15 years. It all started after a policeman who passed by got enraged after seeing Yahiya with his lungi tucked in and pushing his mobile eatery. The policeman felt Yahiya disrespected him by keeping the lungi tucked in even after seeing him and slapped the latter. Following this, he decided to wear only nighties, as these need not to be tied around the abdomen or untuck them no matter how big a person came before him. Though local residents initially made fun of him, they later accepted him and his unique way of protest.
Yahiya was from a poor family and had 12 siblings. He had to drop out of school in first grade itself and did odd jobs to make a living. He was finally offered a servant’s job in a big house in Kollam where, in return, he got food to eat. He had worked in the house for 13 years and later he switched to climbing coconut trees.
He got married to Suhara when he was around 25. After the couple, who has two daughters, had their first child, he left for the Gulf to make some money. There, he had to go through a lot of misery and earned very little as a goatherd. He got his two daughters married off with the money he earned from there.
Finally, he decided to return home, but as he had switched many jobs, he lost his original passport. Though he managed to reach Mumbai using a fake passport, he was caught by police and had to spend several months in a Pune jail. After returning from there, he started a small ‘thattukada’. His wife died one-and-a-half years ago and he had been living alone since then, but died.
‘Maxi Maman’ had a philosophy in life -- earn only what is required, said local resident Arun Kumar, who ate from Yahiya’s ‘thattukada’ regularly. “His eatery became famous as he used to make delicious food using only natural powdered spices instead of packets of masala powders bought from shops. Also, his pricing was different. Every meal cost just Rs 10 and if you wasted food, you’d be fined `25,” Arun Kumar said.
While everything was going well, one night, two men who came to eat at the shop robbed him of all money, following which he started burying whatever he earned in small pits dug on the ground. That was when demonetisation was announced in 2016 and he had Rs 23,000 in his pits. He stood in long queues before the bank for two days to exchange the demonetised notes and on the second day, he fainted as he was old and unwell.
Feeling disheartened, he burnt all his currency notes by throwing them in the stove of his ‘thattukada’. He also tonsured half the head and announced that he would grow hair there only after the Narendra Modi government fell. During the Modi government’s first anniversary, he shaved half of his moustache too.
“He protested against these injustices alone and lived his way. He had not been running the eatery for two years as he became unwell. Some well-minded local persons had been running it and helping him financially from the earnings for his treatment. Today, he is gone,” said social worker in the area Sajeer M.
He lived as he wanted
Feeling disheartened, he burnt all his currency notes by throwing them in the stove of his ‘thattukada’. He also tonsured half the head and announced that he would grow hair there only after the Modi government fell. During the Modi government’s first anniversary, he shaved half of his moustache too.