ONV Kurup, passed away... As everyone mourned the death of
the great Kerala Poet, I wasn’t shocked at first with the news. The poet was
aged, and had a peaceful last journey. In a way, I felt content for him that he
left his blissful worldly life in a peaceful way.
The night has a magic enchantment to draw you to your
consciousness. Memories associated with ONV Kurup started to seep into my mind
as I took a relaxing shower in the night. I am not sure if it was the hot water
or the end of a peaceful day that had eased my nerves at that time. It dawned
upon me with a shock that another leaf in my childhood memory has shed forever.
Tears started to roll down for a person, whom I have never met, never idolized
or never even followed up in the recent years. It dawned upon me that how he had his silent part to develop my
interest in the poetry in the previous years and the years to come.
My first memory of listening to ONV Kurup’s poem is of Anu
reciting "Bhoomikkoru Charamageetham" (A Elegy for Earth) in her
mellifluous and confident voice on a well lit platform.A commonly referred name
along with his contemporaries at my grandmother’s house, he was never a starlit
celebrity in my mind. ONV, Sugathakumari, Vyloppilli, G. Sankarakuruppu, they
were household names and in childhood childishness, I never really gathered
their greatness.
Amma always favoured the poems of ONV to his contemporaries.
In her arduous attempt to teach me poetry, she always enrolled Anu and me to
competitions in poetry recitations at school. Amma’s attempts to teach Anu
succeeded as she had planned while I proved to be incurable. I never really understood the meanings of
lyrics, neither did I realize how my coarse recitation troubled the audience.
The first poem I recited was ONV Kurup’s "Gothambu
Manikal" (Wheat Grains). In the following years, I recited "Muthiyum
Chozhiyum", "Muthassan", and "Amma." Among these I
never understood and felt the soul of the lyrics except for "Muthassan"
(Grandfather). The lyrics of "Muthassan was etched in my mind ever since,
since it published in Mathrubhumi Weekly-Onam edition, just weeks after the
death of my Muthassan.
I moved over to recite the poems of Prof. Madhusudanan Nair
in my later years at school and after the school years, saved others from the
trouble of listening to my coarse renderings. I enjoyed reading and dreaming
about the poems and listened to them whenever I got time.
The destiny in my life later coursed and led me to the wide
realm of English literature to where I went ravenous to guzzle up whatever came
on my way. Robert Frost, Keats, Eliot, Shelly, Coleridge, Sylvia Plath, Robert
Lowell, Ezra Pound, Khalil Gibran, Aurobindo…I still have a never ending list
to complete. In my unsatiating urge to master world of English literature, I
conveniently put my Malayalam and those who initiated me into the literature on
the back row of the shelf.
ONV Kurup’s death awakes me to the realization that another
leaf sheds forever from the many blissful childhood memories spent at my
grandmother’s house. I will never recite a poem for an audience in this life
but I pray that I will never cease to admire them.
Let me pay my humble tribute to the great poet who led me to
the world of poetry, until we meet again.
As long as my conscience
remains at least
as a drop of moonlight in my memory,
As the one who got
inspired and moulded by you,
Your memories will remain
in me
ബോധാമാം നിറനിലാവൊരു തുള്ളിയെങ്കിലും
ചേതനയിൽ ശേഷിക്കുവോളം
നിന്നിൽ നിന്നുറവായി നിന്നിൽ നിന്നുയിരാ-
-ർന്നോരെന്നിൽ നിന്നോർമകൾ മാത്രം
(Bhoomikkoru Charamageetham)
