The rare Non- Keralite readers of this blog are going to find it uninteresting to read about. But this is about a person who influenced me profoundly. He was the sounding board of the thinking Mallu's conscience ( as against the average liquor swilling, sexually frustrated type). He inspired many generations with his speeches and writings. Prof Sukumar Azheekode passed away last month. It was just last year that he finished writing his autobiography. He was proud of his good health and wrote about his many simple formulae to good health. After completing his autobiography, he was diagnosed with cancer and was ailing for sometime.
When I was a school boy, I went walking some distance to hear him speak at a function held to unveil the statue of a living celebrity ( a freedom fighter from the nearby village). I found the whole thing about building statues to living celebrities thoroughly amusing. Out of curiosity, I went to see this silly farce. The place was jam packed with people who had come to listen to the speech of Prof Azheekode, who was the chief guest. I hadn’t heard much about him until then.It was so crowded that I couldn’t enter the hall. I heard the speech from the road through the loudspeakers. I stood spell bound, enthralled by the talk. It was like listening to a great piece of Classical music. Starting with whispers almost difficult to hear, building up the tempo and reaching crescendo. Words flowed uninterruptedly. Although I read his articles off and on, I never forgot that speech. Words are, he said, my soldiers...
Years later when I heard that his book ‘Tat vamasi’ won several awards, I made an insincere attempt to read it. It was a distilled commentary on the Upanishads. I found it too erudite and left it half way. But it was a senior IAS Officer (one of those rare bureaucrats who reads) who told me about his book “Bharatiyata” (loosely translated as Indianness, a series of speeches given by Prof Azheekode in Thrissur town, in the aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition) I was totally hooked on to the book. For many years I kept it near my bed and read a few pages before I went to sleep. The missus (who can’t read Malayalam) often wonders why this small book is always around. I tell her that I wish every Indian would read it. It would help an Indian truly understand his identity and his heritage. The speeches reveal a sense of pain and anger- At politicians who do not understand the idea of India. When I lose hope in politicians and bureaucrats I scan through the pages of this small book and derive comfort.
He had an opinion about everything. Mostly very intuitive and driven by public perception. As the retired Pro-Vice Chancellor of Calicut University he could express them freely. Without the backing of any political party, he could draw huge crowds. He once contested elections as a Congress candidate and lost. He harshly criticized the mainstream political parties of Kerala. Sometimes he came down heavily on movie actors. He stood by the the weak and dispossessed. His faith in secularism was deep and unshaken. But his interventions in affairs in which he had no business often invited ridicule.
And he died a bachelor. He proudly claimed that he never had physical relations with a woman. But there is a poignant love story in his past. He loved a woman, wanted to marry her and wrote her many letters. He backed out of marriage for reasons not very clear. She waited for him. When she heard him say something dismissive about the whole affair in public, she went ahead and published those letters. (After reading those letters in a periodical, Kamala Das was supposed to have called him up to say that she wish she had a lover who could write love letters like that !!!) Instead of maintaining a dignified silence at this rather distasteful pubic exposure, he viciously criticized the scorned lover. She, nevertheless met him a few days before he died. And said that she is still waiting for him. It is the kind of story that would bring anyone to tears; but he emerged a much diminished man from the entire sordid episode.
This thin, frail man traveled the length and breadth of Kerala to give 16000 odd speeches in his life time. I have heard only one. He published many books. I have read only three. He was considered a giant at literary criticism and knowledgeable in Hindu philosophy. He had written somewhere that he was influenced by two people. Gandhiji and Swami Vagbhatananda (try googling that name; you’d get very few results). He remains a great influence on those who heard him or read him.
His death is not merely a loss, but the passing of an age.
