'LOKAHA SAMASTHAHA SUKHINO BHAVANTHU' -Of Baheer, 'Aham brahmasin'& 'Anal haq'
Ratan:
In case you are interested in literary matters.
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A Legend In His Time
The Hindu, July 17, 1994
K.P.M.Basheer
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Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer entered the world through fire -- he was born in a burning thatched hut. When his mother was in advanced labour, the riverside hut had caught fire. She grabbed the blood-oozing newborn, ran out and collapsed in a nearby banana grove. The two were saved in time.
The 86-year-lond life of this legendary writer, who changed the face of Malayalam literature, was as dramatic as his birth. And his works emerged from his vast experiences. His first novel, 'Balyakaala Sakhi' (Childhood Friend, 1944), which revolutionised the way Malayalam writers wrote their stories, was hailed by a leading critic of the time as 'a page sliced off from life.' He wrote only on his experiences.
And experiences he had a truckload. Before he took to serious writing, he used to be a cook, magician, palmist, clerk, tuition master, factory hand, loom fitter, watchman, newspaper boy, fruit vendor, proof reader, restaurateur, building painter, sailor, compounder, sports goods agent, bookstall owner and editor.
After marriage at 50, Basheer moved from his riverside village near Vaikkom to the ancient coastal village of Beypore near Kozhikode. Malayalis loved to call him 'Beypore Sultan.' But he was, in fact, an 'ANUBHAVANGALUDE Sultan' (Sultan of experiences). Says literary critic, Prof. M.N.Vijayan, "Basheer brought a continent of experiences to Malayalam literature."
When he was in the ninth standard in Vaikkom School, Gandhiji came to town. Basheer took pains to touch Gandhiji's arm and this encounter soon made him leave school and home. He took a train to Kozhikode, the hotbed of anti-British struggle, took part in the Salt Satyagraha on the beach and was jailed. The next few years he was in the midst of the freedom struggle. He hopped from jail to jail and weas often brutally tortured. Later, inspired by Bhagat Singh, Basheer floated anf extremist outfit. His fiery articles caused a couple of newspapers to fold.
Years later, these activities earned him a freedom fighter's 'tamrapatra,' which once saved him from a fox. It came in handy to scare off the intruder.
Basheer wrote some of his stories behind bars, 'Mathilukal,' on which Adoor Gopalakrishnan made an award winning film, was a prison experience.
His wanderings made Basheer the man, and so Basheer the writer. For ten years, he crisscrossed the country, picking up odd jobs and living with pickpockets, male prostitutes, eunuchs, street magicians and beggars. Turning a sanyasi, he wandered in the Himalayas, and also lived among Muslim 'sufis.' Once, he lost his way in a Rajasthan desert and, tired and thirsty, collapsed. As a khalasi in a ship, he sailed to other continents.
When Majid, the hero in 'Balyakaala Sakhi,' asfter seven years of travel, realised that 'everywhere life is the same -- a grim struggle to fill the time between birth and death, 'we know that it is Basheer's own realisation.
The travels shaped Basheer's views on life. They firmed up the virtues which later made him a charismatic person loved by hun dreds of friends and admired by millions: boundless compassion, rugged humour, faith in mankind, optimism and a large heart.
His compassion and humour was reflected in all his stories. In 'Aanavaariyum Ponkurishum,' Ponkurishu Thoma, a small-time thief, is moved by the woes of the old policeman guarding his lock-up cell. The soon-to-be-retiring grand has no money, he has seven daughters to be married off and his wife is sick. That rainy night, Thoma begs out of the lock-up for a brief while and re turns with the gold Cross keplt in the local church. Handing the Cross to the poor policeman, Thoma says, "Go sell it. Marry off your daughters and buy medicines for your wife."
Later, confronted by the sub-inspector, Thoma justifies: "The Lord Jesus Christ died on a wooden Cross. Why should the church keep a gold Cross?"
Another story, another character: an illegitimate pregnancy is reported in the village. Ettukaali Mammoonj, Basheer's another unforgettable character, claims responsibility, saying 'ATHU NJAMMALAANU' (That's me). The tragi-comedy of the situation is that the entire village knows Ettukaali can never father a child. Here, Basheer squeezed the hurt and agony of an impotent young man into two classic words: "That's me." His humour is, as a critic remarked, 'laced with tears.'
One author called Basheer "the writer with most experiences." And that included a brush with insanity. He had to be kept in an asylum for several days. On Basheer's testimony, insanity is not a blissful state without any mental activity, but a hellish experience with intense mental torture and anguish. Between bouts of insanity Basheer wrote 'Paathummayude Aadu' (Fathima's Goat), which many consider as his masterpiece.
Basheer was spiritual, in his own way. In 'Shabdangal' (Voices) the character asks the author:
'Does God exist?'
'If you need one, yes.'
During his wanderings, Basheer flirted with Hindu sanyasis and Muslim sufis and realised that the Vedic 'Aham brahmasin' and the Quranic 'Anal haq' (I am the Truth) conveyed the same message. That was one of the reasons why he was never categorised as a mere 'Muslim writer.'
As an infant, the Sultan had 'drunk from the breasts of women of all castes' and as an adult, he later confessed, slept with women of all religions.
Basheer wrote only about the people he knew. In his Central Sahitya Akademi award-winning novel 'Entuppooppaak koraanendannu' (My grand dad had an elephant), the central character, who, when faced with mundane realities, harks back to past glory, saying 'My grand dad had an elephant', is his mother. The Fathima in 'Pathummayude Aadu' is his younger sister.
Basheer's language is simple rural spoken Malayalam, his style humorous and inimitable and his themes original and down-to- earth. Prof.M.N.Vijayan sees a fusion of Chekhov's and Maupas sant's craft in Basheer. He was often called a 'writer's writer' for he influenced generations of writers. He has been translated into 18 Indian languages, besides English, French, Malay, Chi nese, Japanese and Czech.
Basheer was a legend in his own time. Two decades after dfhe stopped writing, whatever he said or did appeared on the front pages. He was a 'paramacharya' for Malayalam writers. The mangostein tree under which the Sultan held his durbar, his favourite drink 'sulaimani' (lime tea), the beedi in his hand, are all part of the Malayali's collective memory.
He was great at the art of winning friends, and keeping them too. His friends were legion -- needless to say, across the bars of age, sex, ideology, profession and language.
About a decade ago, as a greenhorn journalist, this writer ap proached Basheer for an interview. He was unimpressed. 'Why sir?' He had been interviewed by innumerable journalists. In stead, he suggested we just talk and be friends. And that was what we did for over an hour. To this day, I like to believe that I was one of his thousands of friends.
One of the professional hazards of a journalist is that he cannot admire a celebrity for long. In proximity, the hero's aura fades. The man (or woman) millions rave about comes off as an ordinary mortal, sometimes less than that, as the masks fall. Basheer was a rare exception. The image never suffered. Because he was for real.
In that non-interview in the mid-Eighties, I told him I owed my name (Basheer) to him. He simply said : 'LOKAHA SAMASTHAHA SUKHINO BHAVANTHU' -- May everybody be happy. He loved this Vedic refrain and it summed up his humanism. One of the meanings of the word 'Basheer' is 'one who makes others happy.' Beypore Sultan lived up to his name.
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