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Thunchan fete gets under way

Literary fete: Linguist Ronald E. Asher speaking after inaugurating the Thunchan Festival at Thunchanparambu in Tirur on Saturday.

TIRUR: Thunchan Festival, one of the mega literary events in the State, began at Thunchanparambu here on Saturday. Noted linguist from Edinburgh Ronald E. Asher lit the inaugural lamp. Prof. Asher has translated Vaikom Mohammed Basheer’s works into English.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Asher said translating the work of such an acclaimed writer as Vaikom Mohammed Basheer was no child’s play. He said he faced many a problem when translating Basheer’s works into English. The toughest part was to find equivalent expressions for Basheer’s colloquialism, he said. Prof. Asher said he had to invent a phrase like ‘elephant ant’ to substitute Basheer’s own expression ‘Kuzhiyana.’

Prof. Asher began his speech in Malayalam and soon switched over to English. Writer M.N. Karassery gave a Malayalam gist of Prof. Asher’s speech.

The five-day Thunchan Festival coincided with the centenary celebrations of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer. The Thunchan Memorial Trust, Kendra Sahitya Akademi and the South Zone Cultural Centre, Thanjavoor, are jointly organising the festival.

Presiding over the function, writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair said Basheer was the first writer in the world to show how to smile with pain. “That’s perhaps why Basheer has admirers all over the world,” he said.

Orator-critic Sukumar Azhikode delivered the Basheer Centenary Lecture. Poet Akkitham released M.N. Karassery’s book ‘Basheer – Life and Works’ published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

Mr. Akkitham said like Thunchathu Ezhuthachan, Basheer too does not need his name in his works. “Basheer’s works need no title page. With a language that has no parallel in Malayalam, Basheer has climbed the pinnacle of fame in Malayalam literature,” he said.

A.J. Thomas, editor of the Indian Literature series by the Sahitya Akademi, said Basheer and Madhavikutty in Malayalam used very limited number of words to express vast oceans of thoughts.

Welcoming the gathering on the occasion, Agrahara Krishnamurthy, secretary of the Sahitya Akademi, delineated the intensity of human feelings in Basheer’s works.

Writer C.R. Parameswaran delivered the Thunchan Memorial Lecture on ‘Autonomy of the letters’. Writer V. Sukumaran and documentary-maker M.A. Rahman presented papers at a session on ‘Basheer the man, Basheer the writer,’ as part of a national seminar on ‘Reality and Narration: the Indian context.’

A competition in instant poetry composition was held for college students on the theme of ‘Puzhamanalinte Varthamanam.’

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