ALAPPUZHA: The AVP Typewriter Museum in Alappuzha is home to a rare exhibit – a typewriter that was used to inscribe Mahatma Gandhi’s words. The around 100-year-old Royal-brand typewriter used by the Mahatma’s secretary R P Parasuram, of Rappalmadom in Thrissur, reached the museum recently.
Parasuram was also Gandhi’s typist and stenographer for more than 12 years, from 1930 to 1942. Historic agitations like the Salt Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement took place during the period. A majority of Gandhi’s speeches were shorthanded and typed by Parasuram. After discontinuing his job in Delhi, he reached Thrissur.
Later, he started a textile shop ‘Sreeram and Parasuram Textile Shop’ which functioned at Marar Road, in Thrissur round. The typewriter has been donated to the museum by S Ramakrishnan, who is the son of Sreeram, the textile business partner.
AVP Museum, the only such museum in the state, was established in 2021 at Thondankulangara by P Venkitarama Iyer in memory of his father V Parameswara Iyer, who had set up the AVP Institute of Commerce in Alappuzha in 1946.
Iyer said he came to know about Parasuram through a vernacular daily report on the Gandhi Jayanti Day on October 2. “The report said that Parasuram was the secretary of Gandhiji and I assumed he had typewriters. After I contacted the Thrissur unit of the Kerala Brahmana Sabha (KBS), they told me Ramakrishnan has preserved the typewriter. He was ready to donate it to the museum,” Iyer, president of KBS Alappuzha unit, told TNIE.
Ramakrishnan recalled Parasuram was a family friend who reached Kerala in the 1960s after working with many national leaders and freedom fighters including Jayaprakash Narayan.
“He used the typewriter in the textile shop. After he died in 1982, it reached my hands as he was a bachelor,” said Ramakrishnan, who retired as a regional manager with the Indian Overseas Bank.
The AVP Institute had around 25 typewriters, including a Remington used by Parameswara Iyer. Venkitarama started collecting more machines. The museum now displays 66 typewriters, including models of Royal, Adler, Smith Corona, Oilvetti, Kovac, Hermes, Olympia, ALL, Godrej, Facit, Hald, and Honee-du. It includes electric-electronic typewriters that date back to different periods in the 20th century with English, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi, Arabi and Swiss characters.