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A writer of two cities
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Perhaps no other writer has brought out the essence of two cities - Chennai and Hyderabad -- with such fervour than Ashokamitran. His innumerable works cover a gamut of emotions experienced through the influence of people and places. SUMANASPATI reports.
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NOSTALGIC TRIP: Ashokamitran visits his old neighbourhood.
IN 1952 when Tyagarajan (he had not yet assumed the pseudonym of Ashokamitran) left Secunderabad, where he was born, grew up and spent the first 20 years of his life, he thought it was going to be a clean break from the past. The last few years here had been so full of political and social turmoil and had caused him such disillusionment and anguish, he probably welcomed the shift to another city. For many years after that, Hyderabad and Secunderabad were farthest from his mind. Seventy-two years old now and many decades and writings later, he can now however, assert that the place and the people he encountered here had a shaping influence on him. In fact, he is yet to exhaust the creative possibilities they have been offering him.
After moving to Chennai, he went on to become one of the most influential figures in post-independent Tamil literature. His oeuvre includes now over 200 short stories, eight novels, some 15 novellas besides other prose writings.
SAVOURING SIGHTS: A pause at the Tank Bund.
Ashokamitran's fiction is almost exclusively focused on middle class urban life - of Chennai and Hyderabad. He is rather an unusual figure in Tamil literature by virtue of the sparse, chiselled quality of his prose, the self-effacing nature of most of his characters, his meticulous eye for detail and a subtle undercurrent of irony. Not for him the bluster of overarching idealism or grand manifestoes. And when you meet him in person, you can immediately see that this is not a mere writerly stance. But, of course, the ordinariness and the calm are deceptive. Deep down he is a troubled man puzzled by the deceptions and treacheries of men and time. Yet he never loses an opportunity to have a humorous take on them all and himself. Laurels and fame have come in ample measure to this unobtrusive writer. He has a sizeable following among discerning readers in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere.
The Eighteenth Parallel (1977) is one of the highly acclaimed novels of Ashokamitran. A kind of biographical lookback, it portrays the growth of an observant and conscientious Tamil boy called Chandrasekharan or Chandru amidst the confusing cosmopolitanism and rapidly changing political climate of Hyderabad in the late Forties. The railway colony where he lives, the roads and bylanes of the Secunderabad Cantonment and the Nawabi Hyderabad; the congestions, the huge open spaces, the cinemas, playgrounds, monuments, the Tank Bund, the Nizam college, the clash of languages, religions and social hierarchies; then, the rise of fear, mistrust, religious strife and violence as India gains freedom and Hyderabad tumbles into the anarchic reign of the Razakaars; and, at last, the Police Action and the liberation of Hyderabad - it is all memorably etched out in this short work. It is easily one of the best novels on Hyderabad available. It has been translated into all major Indian languages (published by National Book Trust).
Ashokamitran was in Hyderabad last fortnight shooting for a documentary on him commissioned by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. August 30, forenoon. With a small television crew following him, the frail old man entered the Lancer Barracks Railway Officer's Quarters off Sarojini Devi road in Secunderabad. It took him sometime locating the house in which he had lived five decades ago. Much had changed. There used to be just two rows of 12 houses each with high, tile roofed quarters (originally, military barracks) with lots of open space all around. Blocks of multi-storeyed quarters had taken their place. But to his luck, Ashokamitran found one of the rows of barracks still intact amidst the new buildings. He recognised the house from the lime-mortar lattice work enclosing its balcony and the two huge trees in the front. "Now senior officers stay in this colony. My father was just a clerk. The railways here had a small staff then. In these barracks we had, apart from two Tamil families, Anglo-Indians, Muslims, Parsis and Naidus. It was a mix," he reminiscences.
Curious neighbours and a few passers by gathered around wondering what it was all about. The shoot was quickly over and the crew boarded their van.
Ashokamitran was tired but seemed pleased with the visit. It reminded one of a vivid scene near the end of The Eighteenth Parallel in which Chandru returns home late in the night charged and excited after hearing the news on radio of the Police Action: "Chandru went round both rows of Lancer Barracks. Of the 24 houses, half were dark because they were unoccupied. The rest had adapted themselves to darkness after months of going without light. Did it mean that there was no one in these houses who needed a night lamp? No child, no sick person, no student? It was merely that the happenings in the land had seeped into its homes, insidiously altering the lives of the people."
The novel is not the only thing Ashokamitran has written with a Hyderabad backdrop. There are also more than 50 short stories. The true extent of his engagement with this city would be revealed, says Ashokamitran, if these are brought out as a collection. No other writer has probably written so many stories on Hyderabad.
How nice it would be if they are translated into Telugu and English and published as soon as possible! Any takers?
On the writer's trial
AMSHAN KUMAR came across Ashokamitran's writings when he was just 17 years old. He was devouring the likes of Balzac (in translation) and was dissatisfied to find no Tamil writer whose writings matched with his own expectations from literature. And then he found Ashokamitran. Amshan Kumar has read virtually every word written by Ashokamitran. He met him first in 1972 and was immediately won over by the man's friendliness. "He is such an easy person to work with," he says "and he has this rare ability to ridicule himself. People say he is so self-effacing, just like his characters, despite being extra-ordinary in many ways. But that is a sign of great maturity, isn't it?" He doesn't know of any other writer who has written so extensively on two cities. He would love to make a feature film based on The Eighteenth Parallel. In fact he had written the entire screenplay and applied for finance to the National Film Development Corporation but couldn't get the nod from them. He has been looking for a good producer who would be interested in the project. So when Sahitya Akademi chose him for making this documentary on Ashokamitran, he was thrilled. He is a man of many parts, but documentaries and advertising films are Amshan Kumar's forte. The latter he does to earn his living, for it is impossible to survive in India directing documentaries alone. He prefers to work on documentaries on personalities, the performing arts and developmental and women's themes. At present he is making short films highlighting the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots. A film on C.V.Raman is in the offing. His earlier films on Badal Sircar's theatre and Subrahmanya Bharati (made in 199, before a feature film was produced) were well received. By the end of the year he also plans to begin shooting a feature film. In Hyderabad, he shot at quite a few locations associated with Ashokamitran's life or works - Lancer Barracks, Monda market, the Tank Bund, Mahboobia and Nizam colleges, Sultan Bazar and Charminar. He also recorded an evening of readings done by The Little Theatre from Ashokamitran's newly published books - Sand and other stories and My Years with Boss at Gemini Studios - jointly organised by Akshara, the book shop and Orient Longman, and a few interviews. Amshan Kumar returns to Chennai to complete the film by October and hand it over to Sahitya Akademi. It is likely to be shown on Doordarshan later.
On the writer's trail
When making films on acclaimed personalities, Amshan Kumar tries to steer clear of the clichés surrounding them. He prefers to look at the person objectively based on facts and in the process discover unrevealed aspects and shades of his personality. For this film, he wants to keep it as simple as the man himself, bringing in at the same time a kind of subtlety, which characterises Ashokamitran. "If I can get that, my task would be achieved,'' he says rounding off the conversation.
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