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Sounds of silence
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As a poet, he changed the face of Malayalam poetry. But his contribution goes beyond his repertoire. In conversation with Anand Haridas, Kadamanitta Ramakrishnan explains the social context of his career.
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KADAMANITTA RAMAKRISHNAN has not been writing poetry for quite some time now. That, however, does not mean that he is removed from contemporary realities. He is still part of the crowd, as he always had been.
"I have always been in the company of people. My poems were first presented before a group of friends and through their reactions, I used to gauge the work. For, I could see society through them". As a poet, Kadamanitta Ramakrishnan demonstrated that creative process could not be distanced from the writer's social milieu.
He, however, is pained at the direction modern poetry is taking. "Many of the new generation poets have told me that their poetry is not about social commitments and changes. They are handling poetry as they play with coloured stones in their palms."
"My generation started writing as part of the social renaissance and an urge to break away from the romantic ideals set by predecessors." Starting off from the softer realms of romantic poetry as set by those like Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, Kadamanitta Ramakrishnan soon found a voice of his own; a voice that rocked the foundation of Malayalam poetry.
Padayani
He brought into his poetry the raw energy of the downtrodden resisting the forces of invasion — the energy of Padayani. "This art form was not an expression of the downtrodden, in its strictest sense. But, it was handled by tribals who were always the first casualty of any invasion. In that way, Padayani could be treated as a resistance to an attack on our traditional values".
This link to tradition set the tone for Kadamanitta. "Reading out puranas had been a practice at my home. That, along with songs of Padayani, taught me that poetry should be heard." That was his way of demonstrating that poetry, so far treated as a personalised mode of expression, could become a movement where author and society interacted in close quarters. "I was only taking off from the theatre of expression introduced in Malayalam poetry by Kunchan Nambiar. It was he who started visualising the sound."
Presenting the 10th Basheer Puraskaram to him, M.T. Vasudevan Nair, writer, said that silences become part of a writer's creativity, just as they accentuate moods in a symphony. For Kadamanitta, the silences have more shades of meaning. "Writing is a physically demanding process for me," he says. Despite concerns about his health, Kadamanitta moved on to fulfil his social commitment, this time as head of the State Library Council.
"The library movement lost its democratic values in the Seventies. Then onwards, a Government-nominated committee with little resources and freedom took the movement down the path of destruction. After assuming office in 1994, we could give it a breath of life after much struggle." Even then, results are hard to come, as "priorities have changed. There is no space for reading in the current market-driven society."
When the mainstream resisted efforts by the Council to impart the message of reading, the team led by Kadamanitta turned to other routes. Like taking up Balakairali, the children's corner in every library and entrusting to women in the locality the job of taking books to houses. For Kadamanitta, the revolution never ends. Even in his silence, Kadamanitta Ramakrishnan stands as a reminder of our ethnic prowess.
Photo: Mahesh Harilal
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
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