The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : A rare collection of memoirs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 28, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

A rare collection of memoirs

Staff Reporter

ABIDING PASSION: Abraham Puthussery with his album

KOCHI: Abraham Puthussery began collecting news reports on his activities as a hobby, or as a record. But little did he realise then that he would be continuing the collection all through 57 years.

The collection, which started in 1948, has now become an album spread over 300 pages, weighing 4.5 kilograms.

"I was involved in many social works from my youth. In fact, I was the sole representative from Kerala for the Youth Congress meeting held at Osmania University in 1957. I have a news report of that with me," said Mr. Puthussery.

The first entry in the album is a short story by him, which appeared in the college magazine of Sacred Hearts College, Thevara, where he was a student in 1948.

The latest entries in his collection being the protest measures against toll collection at the Mattanchery Bridge, in his capacity as president of Janakeeya Pradhirodha Samiti.

"I lost much of the collections during four house-shifts that I had. There were materials enough to fill up two trucks. It was thus I planned to prepare an album of the material in a chronological order," he said.

Over this period, he had been involved in many social issues, as he was member of various organisations — starting with his position as president of Thiru-Kochi Merchants' Union in the late 1950s. Browsing through the album, Mr. Puthussery claims that all of the issues he had been involved could be solved, except one.

"We had been agitating to stop the toll collection at Mattanchery Bridge, which discriminates the public on the western side of the Corporation. This is yet to fulfil."

Mr. Puthussery is now planning to approach the Guinness Book of World Records for acknowledging the uniqueness of his collection.

In a letter of appreciation, former Supreme Court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer notes that this "semi-centennial marvel of collections from the printed media, which I have glimpsed briefly, has astonished me as one of the finest sources of history."

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