Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Poet and Friend, P Udayabhanu Passes

I WANTED to write this note yesterday itself. but I was too tired to do anything, after a day at the hospital and witnessing the last journey of a friend whose memory takes me back to a romantic and revolutionary time which seems to be completely lost to us.

P Udayabhanu's death was quite unexpected. He was the most unlikely candidate for a sudden demise. He was extremely careful about his health; he never smoked, never took drinks, never indulged in any of the vices of our generation. In fact his careful and frugal ways made him a success in a material way while most of his comrades who took up guns in the mid-seventies now live a wrecked and wretched life.

He was a poet of rare sensitivity, but beyond that he was a person who in his teens dared to dream big. When he joined the band of revolutionaries who went to attack the Kayanna police station, with the fond hope that they were very close to the Spring Thunder of revolution in the days of Emergency he was being led by this fire of idealism. He was only an undergraduate student those days. He spent a long time in the Kannur Central Jail and it was on his return, that he made a determined effort to rebuild his life. He was a success.

Many others were not. Yesterday, Madhu Master, who was part of the movement, was there in the hospital and at his home, and he was recalling the days when "we thought revolution was nearby." It wasn't. But still, there was something the movement left behind, its legacy: A sense of values, a glimmer of hope in the times of decadence, hopelessness.

I remember the long association I had with Udayabhanu who became a friend with me after he joined Akashvani. But I knew about him from earlier times, when one day P N Das, who used to edit Prasakthi, brought it to me in our college in those days of anxiety, excitement, hope and despair. I first came to know the power of poetry in this publication when I read KGS, Satchi daa and others there. That powerful impact left by Bengal of KGS still remains etched in my memory that never fades even after three and a half decades...!

I write this note just to say goodbye to a friend, a comrade and a person whose memory takes me back to a time when we had better dreams to dream of, better thoughts to think, and an immensely better world at least in our inner self...

How different it was from this insipid times we are going through in contemporary Kerala, where Swami Santhosh Madhavan and Baba Abdulla Faizi are leading our liberation struggles!

29.10.2008

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Neelan writes in an email:

Dear Chekkutty,

I agree with every word you wrote. It was a shock last day to hear Udayabhanoos demise. As you rightly pointed out, he never tortured his body with miner vices, as we did and still continue to do.

sadly,
Neelan

Unknown said...

Sarita Varma writes in an email:

Dear NPC,

Its gratifying that Udayabhanu gets his rightful requiem. With fellow-travellers like you, he cannot go unsung.

The touching obit you just wrote, at once introduces him ( to the less fortunate) and gives him the farewell he deserves.

regards
Sarita

Unknown said...

K Satchidanandan writes in an email:

Dear NPC,
Just to say how I was touched by your note on Udayabhanu.I knew he was ill ,Gopalakrishnan and Asokkumar had told me-and yesterday two of my friends from Calicut, OKJohny and AKRavindran, and then some media people, called me to say he had passed away.We had shared the same dreams and met many times during the Samskarikavedi days.I also wrote the introduction to his first collection of poems and was in touch with him occasionally.He was a sensitive poet and a humble and honest person who as you said had rebuilt his life after the Movement got fragmented.But he continued to cherish those values and did not 'decay' as some others did.I was so sad to hear of his passing away which was no less than a brother's loss.I grieve with you.

Satchida

Unknown said...

C S Venkiteswaran writes in an email:

dear chekkutty

thanks for remembering udayabanu..
it was a touching one..

especially in times like these..

sharing the grief
and also wondering how do we keep such memories live...

venkity

Unknown said...

Joy Mathew writes in an email:

Dear Chekkutty

felt the warmth of old good days and dreams of our youth
while reading your lines on our unforgettable friend,Udhayabhanu.

love
Joy

N A SHIHAB said...

Its gratifying that Udayabhanu gets his rightful requiem. With fellow-travellers like you.

I dont agree with every word you wrote. your words : 'How different it was from this insipid times we are going through in contemporary Kerala, where Swami Santhosh Madhavan and Baba Abdulla Faizi are leading our liberation struggles!'
have not meet the truth. sO called revelutionary ideologies are based nt on Swami Santhosh Madhavan and Baba Abdulla Faizi but holy verses bhagavath geetha and quran and words of prophet muhammad.

 
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