KOCHI: “Every day, the chiming of the temple bells at Ernakulathappan temple wakes me up. A moment of prayer that follows inspires my creative mind. For years, this has been my routine. Thanks to His blessings and the prayers of my readers, I have been able to keep myself hail and healthy,” says writer K L Mohana Varma, who is celebrating his 87th birthday today.
It has been an illustrious career for the gifted writer known for his unique storytelling style. After publishing 66 works, including two English novels, Mohana Varma stopped publishing books in 2019, as he felt that today’s generation no longer cherishes the habit of reading.
His novel ‘Ohari’, which depicted the cutthroat competition in the share market, was one of the ten best literary works selected by The Indian Express in 1993. “I had the rare opportunity to live with many generations of writers and creative artists. The literary field is at a crossroads as there are no serious readers. Only a few elderly people follow the literature. So I decided to move with the times.
Now I am concentrating on documentaries. I had planned a novel on vegetarian food culture during the centenary celebrations of BTH hotel. I was surprised to learn that we didn’t have the culture of Sadya a century ago. Later, I made a documentary with the help of actor-director Madhupal,” said Mohana Varma.
Age shall not wither a creative writer, so believes Mohana Varma, who is busy with an array of documentaries on a myriad of subjects.
“I’m working on projects like the Naxal movement in Kerala and women empowerment. I am very positive in my life and believe that anybody with talent can succeed as an entrepreneur in Kerala. We have to change with time and adapt to technology,” he says. And what is the future of Malayalam literature? “We had a generation of talented writers. But the lure of the big screen made a generation shift to the movie field. Now it is the age of social media. But around 50% of the children in Kochi write in English,” said Mohana Varma.
