Majeed was four at the time, a stripling wandering about in Thasarak, a village south east of Palakkad, which would become famous in the years to come. It was the end of the 1950s and a young man with long hair and a pair of spectacles would spend 21 days there, to later write an iconic novel based on the characters he met there. Majeed didn’t know it at the time but many years later, he realised that Khasakkinte Ithihasam (The Legends of Khasak), released in several different languages, was based out of his village, Thasarak. And the young man would become a renowned writer, the late OV Vijayan.
Today, Majeed is an old man, but his memory hasn’t faded in the decades that passed. He stands at the corner building of a compound that’s now a memorial for OV Vijayan, the beloved writer and cartoonist who Kerala can’t stop talking about.
OV Vijayan / Credit - KR Vinayan
“Over there was the school that you read about in the book, where Ravi (the protagonist) comes to teach. In real life, it was OV Vijayan’s elder sister who came to teach. There were about 12 students in that single-room school. The teacher was given a room to stay at a farm house, like in the book. One day, Vijayan maash (master) came to visit his sister, and fascinated by the village, he stayed on for 21 days. He drew cartoons of the characters that interested him – Mymoona, Appukili, Allah-Picha and others. Ten years later he would write his novel, adapting the characters into his book,” Majeed says. He is now the security guard of the memorial.
Majeed
He admits he hasn’t read the novel, but appears to know all of it by heart. He points at the mosque next to the school and the tailor shop on the other side, all of which feature in the book. He talks about Mymoona, the only real life character from the book who remains alive today. “She is in Coimbatore, but not so well anymore. They call her whenever there is a function to commemorate maash,” Majeed says.
The corner building he stands at is made of mud walls, gelling into the surroundings that Vijayan had once adored. It has a room of his photos with other renowned people, writer Madhavikutty among them. Another room contains his cartoons. But this is only the outer building, the bulk stock of Vijayan’s works is in the main building, a large hall of it exhibiting photos, cartoons and letters written by the writer. He hasn’t spared anyone in his cartoons, a staff member says. During the Emergency, even with all the restrictions on the press, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi remained wary of Vijayan and what his next cartoon would be, the staff says.
OV Vijayan with Madhavikutty / Credit - AK BijuRaj
In one of his letters, Vijayan mentions planning to stay away from drawing during the Emergency and sticking to just writing. But he continued to take on all major political parties, even in the later stages of his life. In a later cartoon, Vijayan made a reference to the Gujarat riots of 2002, which happened three years before his death in 2005.
More interesting are the letters he had written to his friends and critics. There is a touch of humour in most of them, and in some, the pain of ill health towards his last years. The staff says that the first time critic Asha Menon wrote a letter to Vijayan, with a review of Khasakkinte Ithihasam, the writer had initially not paid attention to it and had thrown it on the floor. Later, the letter would gleam in the sunlight that fell over it and Vijayan would read it again and love what he read. He then wrote to Asha Menon, telling him that the critic was able to read so much more into the book than what even the writer had intended.
A letter OV Vijayan wrote in 1997
Soon after that, the novel got picked up, many more rave reviews following Asha Menon’s. Khasakkinte Ithihasam became an iconic work that any serious reader of Malayalam fiction just had to read.
An old cutting announcing serialisation of Vijayan's Dharamapuranam
Outside the hall of Vijayan’s memorabilia is an exhibition in calligraphy of his novel, the work of the renowned artist Narayana Bhattathiri. And outside the building is a small path, beautifully maintained with green coverings, that leads to the pond, mentioned in the book.
Calligraphy of Khasakinte Ithihasam by Narayana Bhattathiri
Path to the pond
From the windows of the main building, you can spot an acre of land that the government plans to convert into a writer’s village by next year.