VAIKOM MUHAMMAD BASHEER

Among Kerala’s writers Basheer holds an important place. Marked by  utter simplicity  his stories revealed his profound observations on life and living, laced with satire and humour. He is quite an unique figure in the Kerala literary scene.

Basheer, born in Thalayolaparambu (near Vaikom) Kottayam District, was the eldest child of his parents. His father was in the timber business. After beginning his education at the local Malayalam medium school, he was sent to the English medium school in Vaikom, five miles away. While at school he fell under the spell of Mahatma Gandhi. He started wearing Khaddar, inspired by the swadeshi ideals. When Gandhi came to Vaikom to participate in the Vaikom Satyagraha  Basheer—then 16-- went to see him. He managed to climb on to the car in which Gandhi travelled and touch his hand, a fond memory Basheer later mentioned in many of his writings. He used to visit Gandhi's Satyagraha Ashram at Vaikom every day.

He resolved to join the fight for an independent India, leaving school to do so while he was in the fifth form. Basheer was known for his perfectly secular attitude, and he treated all religions with respect.

Since there was no active independence movement in Travancore or Kochi – being princely states– he went to Malabar to take part in the Salt Satyagraha . His group was arrested before they could participate in the satyagraha. Basheer was sentenced to three months imprisonment and sent to Kannur prison. He became inspired by stories of heroism by revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, who were executed while he was in Kannur jail. He and about 600 political prisoners then at Kannur were released after the Gandhi-Irwin pact . Freed from prison, he organised an anti-British movement and edited a revolutionary journal, Ujjivanam ('Uprising').

Having left Kerala, he embarked upon a long journey that took him across the length and breadth of India and to many places in Asia and Africa for seven years, doing whatever work that seemed likely to keep him from starvation. His occupations ranged from that of a loom fitter, fortune teller, cook, newspaper seller, fruit seller, sports goods agent, accountant, watchman, shepherd, hotel manager to living as an ascetic with Hindu saints and Sufi mystics in their hermitages in Himalayas and in the Ganges basin, following their customs and practices, for more than five years. There were times when, with no water to drink, without any food to eat, he came face to face with death.

While trying his hands at various jobs, like washing vessels in hotels, he met a manufacturer of sports goods from Sialkot who offered him an agency in Kerala. He started working as an agent for the Sialkot sports company at Ernakulam. But he lost the agency when a bicycle accident incapacitated him temporarily. On recovering, he resumed his endless hunt for jobs. He walked into the office of a newspaper Jayakesari whose editor was also its sole employee. He did not have a position to offer, but offered to pay money if Basheer wrote a story for the paper. Thus Basheer found himself writing stories for Jayakesari and it was in this paper that his first story "Ente Thankam" (My Darling) was published in the year 1937. A path-breaker in Malayalam romantic fiction, it had its heroine a dark-complexioned hunchback. His early stories were published between 1937 and 1941 in Navajeevan, a weekly published in Trivandrum in those days.

At Kottayam (1941–42), he was arrested and put in a police station lock-up, and later shifted to another lock up in Kollam Kasba police station. The stories he heard from policemen and prisoners there appeared in later works, and he wrote a few stories while at the lock-up itself. He spent a long time in lock-up awaiting trial, and after trial was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment. He was sent to Trivandrum central jail. He wrote Premalekhanam while serving his term and published it on his release. Baalyakaalasakhi was published in 1944 .He then made a career as a writer, initially publishing the works himself and carrying them to homes to sell them. He ran two bookstalls in Ernakulam, Circle Bookhouse and later, Basheer's Bookstall.

Well into his forties, he  married a woman much younger than him (Fabi Basheer) and settling down to a life of quiet domesticity with his wife and two children, Anees and Shahina, in Beypore, on the southern edge of Kozhikode.

During this period he also had to suffer from mental illness and was twice admitted to mental sanatoriums. He wrote one of his most famous works, Pathummayude Aadu (Pathumma's Goat), while undergoing treatment in a mental hospital in Thrissur. The second spell of paranoia occurred after his marriage when he had settled down at Beypore. He recovered both times, and continued his writings.

Basheer won several awards---Padma Shri ,Kerala State Film Award for Best Story – Mathilukal,Lalithambika Antharjanam Award,Muttathu Varkey Award and Vallathol Award.

His story “ Mathilukal” has been transformed into a beautiful movie with Mammooty and  great voice-over by KPAC Lalitha. The film directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan bagged several awards—national and international.

P.P.Ramachandran.

2 / 8 / 2016

Note—I was inspired to write this after watching yesterday on D D Malyalam a documentary on Basheer.