How a city enriched a writer, and how he gave back

MT Vasudevan Nair at the inaugural session of the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on January 10, 2019 by Kavi K. Exchanging pleasantries with Satchidanandan. Photo Credit: File photo

The city of Kozhikode in the 1950s and 1960s was like Athens during the time of Socrates, writer Poonathil Kunjabadulla once said. It was in this intellectual and cultural crucible that MT Vasudevan Nair landed in 1956. homeland As weekly deputy editor.

The city already had world-trotting writer SK Potekkat. Vaikom Mohammad Bashir settled in nearby Beypore after his marriage in 1958. Other wordsmiths who made the city their home were Urub (PC Kuttikrishnan), Thikodian, NP Mohammed, Akkitham Achuthan Nambuthiri, NN Kakkad, Pattathuvila Karunakaran, and KA Kodungur. Actor MV Devan, satirist VKN, and future filmmaker G. Aravindan was also part of the group. The camaraderie with them and the literary and cultural atmosphere of Kozhikode enriched MT in no small measure to develop into a writer and filmmaker par excellence in later decades. And, MT also enriched the city over the years as he became its most famous resident in recent times.

In one of his articles, MT recalled that his first visit to Kozhikode was when he was a 12-year-old boy. His father T. Narayanan Nair took MT along when he visited a bank in the city. For the village-bred boy, the horse-drawn cart racing through the streets of Kozhikode was an interesting sight and he also tasted Jalebi for the first time at Hotel Arya Bhawan on SM Street.

After connecting homelandBefore building a house in the name of his daughter Sitaram on Kottaram Road in Nadakkavu, MT was living in rented rooms in different parts of the city. Hotel Paragon, where Aurobindo had a room, V. Abdullah’s Jambo store, Kendra Kalasamiti office, KR Menon’s bookstore on Court Road, Pattathuvila’s rental room on Kuriyal Road…MT were many favorite places.

Writers of those days loved to visit the Kozhikode beaches. The group used to stay together at places like Bombay Hotel on the beach, Modern Hotel near Radha Theatre, Wheat House on Court Road, Hotel Alkapuri, Nilgiri Lodge, Komala Vilas on Kalai Road. Cultural programs were held at Annie Hall and Town Hall. They used to frequent the Crown Theater to watch classic English films. MT wrote most of his famous short stories, novels and screen plays during this period.

When UNESCO declared Kozhikode the country’s first ‘City of Literature’ in 2023, it was also seen as a recognition of a master craftsman. When the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) was launched at the Kozhikode beach in 2016, MT was its patron. One of his last public speeches criticizing the religious worship of those in power, which provoked healthy debate, was delivered at the KLF’s inaugural event in 2024.