
Neerasam bhaavich nee poyithenkilum... Kunje neeyithu nukarnnale ammakk sughamavu... — Lines from Mambazham by Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon
The simple, yet powerful image in Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon’s pensive poem Mambazham (1936) of a mother offering a mango to her son, where he had been buried, months after she had reprimanded him for plucking its flower buds and him, in a seemingly prophetic uttering, saying that he won’t be there to pluck the fruits, is one that continues to pull at the reader’s heartstrings even nearly a century after it was penned.
While Mambazham is well known, not many are aware of its connection to a school in Mulanthuruthy, a southeastern suburb of Kochi, which boasts an equally storied legacy — St Thomas School (now called the Government Higher Secondary School).
History of the school
The construction of St Thomas School began following the directive of Geevarghese Mar Gregorios, the metropolitan of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, to empower girls in the region through education. In 1886, a two-storey building was completed and Kochukora Chaly was appointed as the school’s manager, reads a line from a Church souvenir.
Later, in 1914, when F S Davis was the director of education in Kochi, the school, which had by then expanded to several buildings, was brought under the wing of the government. Today, it is managed by the education department.
Vyloppilli’s link
Vyloppilli stepped into the role of educator at Mulanthuruthy GHSS in 1936. It was also the same year that he wrote the poem, following an invitation from a Malayalam daily to contribute to its Onam edition. Today, a striking bust of the school’s educator-poet and a sculpture of a mother and her son (signifying the poem) adorn the yard there, next to a mango tree.
The latter has many connecting the dots and presuming that Vyloppilli, then 25, was inspired to write Mambazham because of it. C M Thomas, an old student at the school, points out that there are “numerous such theories surrounding the mango tree”.
“It’s been in the schoolyard for nearly as long as the poem was penned. So naturally, people make the connection. But that is not the case,” he says.
Indeed, it has now become a fact well-known that Vyloppilli wrote Mambazham as a tribute to his brother, Krishnankutty, who passed away when the writer was young.
Also, in his autobiography, Kavya Loka Smaranakal, the poet mentions that he weaved the lines of the poem whilst walking back and forth on the north veranda of the school.
Cherishing a legacy
While the sculptures on the schoolyard, elaborately carved by Sivadas Edakkattuvayal, are a fitting tribute to the master poet, perhaps none is more felicitous than a writers’ space, soon to be set up at the school. “In addition, a reference library will also be set up as a memorial to the poet,” says Ullas G, the school’s principal. According to him, Rs 10 lakh was recently allocated for this.
Earlier, Ullas and a clutch of teachers had, with the help of the district panchayat, ‘enshrined the poem’ under the shade of the mango tree. “Now, visitors to the school can also experience Mambazham,” he adds.