Kozhikode: MT Vasudevan Nair is, undoubtedly, the most awarded writer in Malayalam. He had pocketed everything that was prestigious in the world of literature, up to the Jnanapith. He is also the Malayali writer who has been the subject of most literary studies. Forget the fact that he also sold the most books.

Yet many believe that MT, the editor, should be placed a notch above MT, the writer. As editor of the influential Mathrubhumi Weekly, MT is said to have been the father of the modernist movement in Malayalam.

“As a publisher, Writer MT was the godfather of the modernist phase of Malayalam literature,” said Paul Zachariah, one of the leading figures of modernism in Malayalam.

“He opened the doors to modernist writing that was introspective and experimental, as opposed to the social and political aims of progressive literature. The seeds of such a modernist outlook had already appeared in MT’s works like ‘Naalukettu’ and “Asuravithu”. But the writings that MT embraced with open arms had a modernism stylistically and structurally far removed from his own,” Zachariah said.

He said it was a gigantic cultural responsibility that MT had taken on. “He carried out this task with the heart of a level-headed rebel, with the determination of a humanist, with the purity of uncompromising secularism and absolutely intoxicated by new voices,” Zachariah said.

Sethu, another practitioner of modernism, can still only wonder how MT’s brain worked as an editor. “At a time when Malayalam literature was steeped in

romanticism, what made him choose “George Aaramante Kodathi” (The Court of George VI) by MP Narayana Pillai among the countless written drafts presented to him? How did this crazy story which by any standard should have ended up in the editor’s dustbin reach the pages of the magazine,” he said. Sethu had once commented that he was shocked to see the huge amount of handwritten drafts on MT’s journal.

“George Aaraman” had violently upset all the literary conventions and beliefs that had existed until then. Sethu finds only one reason for MT’s rebellion as an editor. “If he had set aside his own tastes and continued to discover new voices, it was only because he wanted the evolving winds of global literary sensibilities to adorn his own language,” he said.

According to M Mukundan, another discovery of MT and perhaps the most popular modernist voice in Malayalam, MT had the intelligence and aesthetic sensitivity to recognize changes. “He wanted such changes to happen in our language too. This is what made him choose the stories of MP Narayana Pillai and Kakkanadan,” Mukundan said. “He could have either returned or discarded stories like ‘Murugan Enna Pambatty’ (Narayana Pillai). Instead, he published them with great importance,” he said.

And when MT sends back drafts, which he has often been forced to do, he does so with honest compassion. Writer Vysakhan remembers the first story he sent to the weekly Mathrubhumi in 1963. He was sure of the value of his story and wanted it to be published by his idol MT himself. The story was titled “Seethanweshanam” (In Search of Sita) and was about a widow who ran a tea shop. Her husband appears in the story as a ghost and she has a cow named Seetha.

Two weeks later, MT received a response in his own hands. “Read ‘Seethanweshanam’. I liked the way you wrote the story. The characters stood out. However, this story will not be published. Why? The reader in me who felt satisfied while reading the “The story was disappointed at the end. Someone got a fever after mistaking a real person for a ghost, this is not new. We have read so many fake ghost stories,” the letter said. .

And in the last line of the final paragraph, MT casually gave advice. “Try. Try harder. I’m sure your next story will be better than this one. Create them from familiar circumstances.”

MT published the second story sent by Vaisakhan. The story “Chekuthan Urangunnilla” (The Devil Never Sleeps) takes place, as MT had advised him, in a setting that is familiar to him: trains and stations. By then, MP Gopinathan alias Vysakhan had joined the group as station master.

Mukundan had once sent an experimental story to MT: “Indriyangalil Shaithyam” (Winter of the Senses). It was an attempt to blend Carnatic ragas with the Malayalam language. Months passed with no response. Just when he had trained himself to ignore his disappointment, Mukundan came across an advertisement for the special edition of the magazine.

The special edition was an annual event and featured stories by young writers from across India. One would be from Malayalam. And this time it was ‘Indriyangalil Shaithyam’, the story that Mukundan had almost learned to forget thinking that MT had not liked it. “It was unbelievable. And MT never told me about it,” Mukundan said.

MT’s silence has often been interpreted as arrogance. It was actually humility. He had never, even with a gesture, claimed to have introduced or discovered a writer.

MT was accessible to young and new writers even after putting down his publishing pen. TD Ramakrishan had not even published a single article before writing his first novel ‘Alpha’. He still remembered to send a copy to MT.

He didn’t expect it, but Ramakrishnan got a response: five sentences in English. “He didn’t say I had done anything brilliant. He said the theme was unique (it was about a scientist returning to a primitive life). He said writings like that were relevant and wanted me to continue writing,” Ramakrishnan “I still keep the letter as a treasure,” he said.