Birthday centenary greetings to that unknown and well-known

# Sajay K.V

SaI grew up reading Hityavaraphala. The habit started at the age of ten and continued until the column was gone. My favorite reading materials are the weekly in book form and now available online. The face of the genius who was printed weekly with the column is well known but never seen in person.

M. Krishnan Nair’s was a poetic, clear prose; Unique in the art of similes and metaphors. For example, look at the following passage-
‘When the storyteller skillfully analyzes the thoughts and feelings of the characters, we see the truth that we have not seen before. It is similar to what we see when we go into a dark house for the first time and shine a torch light. Or imagine that we have arrived at night in a completely strange house. We are sleeping in one room. It is like when we open the window in the morning and the land that we have not seen till then comes into our eyes.

Varaphalakar’s method is to get to the point by combining a story, anecdote or metaphor, not directly. The way is sweeter and more beautiful than the goal. When Krishnan Nair writes that NV Krishna Warrier was a genius who gilds everything he touched, it goes like this-
‘Go east. The fragrance of sandalwood, cardamom and wild flowers will caress you. Are you interested in going to South Africa? Peethakanti of gold, the king of metals, will dazzle. From there, travel north. Cross the Sahara Desert and reach Egypt and turn northeast again. You are standing in Lebanon. Don’t stay in town. Rivers of blood are flowing here. Walk west. A forest of cedars is seen. Even Solomon was intrigued by those trees. Those trees even have divine consciousness. Their fragrance will delight you. Travel all over Europe, all over England, all over America. What miracles. How about going to Latin America? A miracle of miracles. In Malayalam literature, there is someone who can easily travel to all these countries and make us feel their fragrance and beauty. NV Krishna Warrier. Like Maidas the Phrygian king turns everything he touches into gold’.

Please read the sentence immediately preceding the last one, replacing it with the name of M. Krishnan Nair. You will see one who has crossed the cedars and deserts of world literature and clothed his soul in their fragrance, beauty, and gold.

Krishnan Nair used to translate poems and beautiful prose pieces in his columns and articles. It is also a type of Maidas work. That is what happened when Neruda’s ‘fire-crested gold’ became ‘fire-crested gold’ by the pen of the weekly (the article of the same name in the book ‘In the Presence of Beauty’).

I was a boy when M. Krishnan Nair received the Goenka Award. A childhood experience he recounted in an interview at the time became an excellent, unbiased guide to my later teaching career. That question and answer can be written here.

Question – Who is your mentor?
Answer – Venkateswara Iyer taught in 4th form. He was wearing a Turkish hat. First came a day without the teacher who was teaching the class. Venkateswarayyar asked whom he taught. The children said that you did not teach anything sir. He hummed and opened the book. The sun slept upon the bosom of Ganga. Silence for two minutes.

Again, The sun slept upon the bosom of Ganga…. Silence for two minutes. Children were absorbed in that personality. Again and again he began: Yes, the sun was traveling a weary way, he was very much tired. He slept upon the bosom of Ganga, like a child falling asleep on the breast of its mother… One image instead of another. And so it went.’

When I read this, I had the experience of sitting in Venkateswara Iyer’s class. Later in the teaching of poetry, unconsciously, I followed the method. A teaching method that expands the meaning of the poem with each verse. For this method I am indebted to Krishna Nair, the invisible teacher known to me. Because I am still sitting in that class of his; I learned the first lessons of teaching from him!

Another question and answer that reveals this fearless critic.
Q- How do you see Sukumar Azhikode, who is full of literature?
Answer – I am not impressed. Anyone can write like he does. Speech, on the other hand, is simply the creation of soundscapes’.

Birthday greetings to the unknown and familiar. You are the longest chapter in my ‘Remembrance of Things Past’!