Kerala - Kochi   

A day for reading aloud

Is the city-bred new generation Malayali becoming less proficient in articulating his mother tongue? Is correct pronunciation of Malayalam a tough task even for the college students these days?

The doubts were caused by the Short Story Reading Competition organised by the Ernakulam Public Library on Sunday. The Public Library started conducting the competition in Malayalam and English for promoting Malayalam literature among the young generation.

A short story in English or Malayalam should be read out in ten minutes, with good pronunciation, accent and the right level of emotion and sound modulation.

The judges of the English competition expressed doubt whether these youngsters have heard of writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Borges or any of the new-generation writers.

They have reached only up to Oscar Wilde, it seems, said one of them. Chekhov was the second, and a rare, choice. There was one story from Maupassant.

Oscar Wilde's Happy Prince was repeatedly heard and even Wilde's Selfish Giant was included, though participants ranged from plus one level to B.A. students.

Among the Chekhov stories, Inspector and The Motel were preferred. Among Indian writers, R.K. Narayan was the limit.

There were 23 participants for English and 35 for Malayalam. Most of them girls with just three or four boys.

Nandini R. Nair, who has just joined Sacred Heart College, Thevara, for graduation, came first in both English and Malayalam. In English, she read a Chekhov story, while in Malayalam it was T. Padmanabhan's Mujjanmathile Shathru.

The second prize in English section was won by Jayanthi Natarajan, degree student of St. Teresa's College. She read the story by a Sri Lankan writer. Savitha Vijay came third.

In Malayalam, Meera U. Menon, Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Thripuniuthra, won the second prize by reading V.R. Sudheesh's story. Kukku Ellisabeth, plus-one student at S.H. School, Thevara, won the third prize reading S.K. Pottekkatt's Rahasyam.

The judges pointed out that except for the prizewinners, most of the others had very low standard of pronunciation. Many could not even pronounce words like `bharya' or `vidyarthi' with the correct diction.

Among Malayalam writers, T. Padmanabhan was the most popular. Ponkunnam Varkey's Shabdikkunna Kalapppa, Padmanabhan's Vanavasam, Anthyavelicham, Makan and Prakasham Parathunna Penkutty, Lalithambika Antharjjanam's Manushyaputhri and Gramabalika and Cherukadu's Chakkusanji were also read.

Interestingly, there were no takers for M.T. Vasudevan Nair. From the new generation, stories of C.V. Balakrishnan, G.R. Indugopan and K.R. Meera were read.

Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish will distribute prizes at a function at the Public Library Hall on Monday evening.

Sunil P. Elayidam will speak on the `cultural politics of reading'.

Renu Ramanath

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