Thiruvananthapuram: Dalit writer Ayyappan gets his due long after death
Thiruvananthapuram: Four short stories of the late Dalit writer C. Ayyappan, whose relevance has been re-discovered lately, are ready for publication.
These short stories had not been included in any of his earlier anthologies of the stories. They included one short story recovered from his notebook.
Ayyappan who died in 2011 was one of the leading Dalit writers in Malayalam. Uchayurakkathile Swapnangal (Sahitya Prasadhaka Cooperative Society, 1986), Njandukal (DC Books, 2003), and a compilation of his stories titled C. Ayyappante Kathakal (Penguin-Manorama, 2008) were his published books.
These stories would form part of the new anthology being published by Ami Books, apart from two notes sourced from his notebooks.
Shafeek Subaida Hakkim of Ami Books said one of the notes was on Dalit literature and the second his reply to the criticism on his interview appeared in Mathrubhumi weekly.
In the interview by Dileep Raj, he had spoken about some comments on Sree Narayana Guru and the present stand of the family members of Ayyankali, which had not gone well with many who wrote letters criticising him. "The note which was dictated to his wife while he was not keeping good health, however, was not published," Mr Hakkim told DC.
Two stories published in 2008 and 2009 appeared in Manorama Varshika Pathippu and Janashakthi apart from the one found in his notebook. There was another unpublished story from 1974.
"It was from the memories of Satheesh Chelatt that I came to know about two of the stories not included in any of the anthologies. One of them, Agnimithran enna pravachakan was published in Katha 74 of Kantha Samithi in 1974," said Mr Hakkim.
It was former Kerala Sahitya Akademi secretary Paipra Radhakrishnan who send the scanned copies of these stories within one hour after we had contacted him."
Mr Radhakrishnan said Ayyappan and he belonged to the same place and were classmates during pre-degree and degree. It was in 1974, a group of friends came up with anthology stories of that year named Katha 74.
"We had come out with such anthologies in the subsequent two or three years. We stopped the publication as some others made better anthologies with the same topic," said Mr Radhakrishnan.
He said Ayyappan's story was included in the anthology at a time when his stories had not been published in any of the periodicals. During his student days he had to face poverty, rejection and was in a state of depression and was an introvert.
Though, he had sent stories to many periodicals, they were rejected, said Mr Radhakrishnan.
He got the job of a college lecturer, at a later stage. It was only after that the periodicals began to publish his stories. In fact, it was only after his death his stories received the recognition it deserved, he said.
