O.V.Vijayan
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Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (July 2, 1930-March 30, 2005) was an Indian author and cartoonist, an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature.
Born in the Palakkad district of Kerala, India, he graduated from Victoria College in Palakkad and got his masters degree in English literature from Presidency College in Madras. As a child, he was largely home-schooled.
Vijayan brought about a sea-change in Malayalam literature: so much so that it can be divided into pre-Khasak and post-Khasak eras, named after Vijayan's pioneering first novel. The former era was romantic and formal; the latter is modernist, post-modernist and post-post-modernist, with tremendous experimentation in style and content. In a way, Vijayan released Malayalam fiction writing from the shackles of tradition.
Vijayan wrote his first short story, "Tell Father Gonsalves", in 1953. He went on to write five novels and translated most of his own work into English. His first and most famous novel, Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak, 1969) tells the story of a teacher named Ravi dispatched to a newly created school in remote Khasak. He wrote many other novels, short stories, essays and satire. He was also a cartoonist. The famous malayalam poet OV Usha is his sister.
O V Vijayan was almost certainly India's foremost fabulist in the recent past. An extraordinary writer with enormous range, he wrote everything from a semi-fictional history of his feudal-landlord family, 'Generations' to the scatological 'The Saga of Dharmapuri'. The sweep of his writing is evocative of such giants as William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. See an interview with him at http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/mar/31intera.htm
While Khasak continues to be his best-known work as an angry young man, his later works, The Eternity of Grace, The Path of the Prophet and Generations bespeak a mature transcendentalist.
While he lived outside Kerala for most of his adult life, spending time in Delhi and in Hyderabad (where his wife Teresa was from), he never forgot his beloved Palakkad, where the 'wind whistles through the passes and the clattering black palms'. He created a magical Malabar in his works, one where the mundane and the inspired lived side-by-side. His Vijayan-land, a state of mind, is portrayed vividly in his work.
O V Vijayan was unlucky not to win India's principal literary prize, the Jnanpith, possibly because he did not endear himself to the political powers-that-be through his trenchant cartoons. Vijayan's fans were also perennially hopeful that the Nobel Prize would finally recognize him.
Vijayan struggled with Parkinson's Disease for many years -- an irony for a gifted cartoonist -- and died from organ failure in a Hyderabad hospital at age 75.
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Novels
- Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak)- 1969
- Dharmapuranam (The Saga of Dharmapuri)- 1985
- Gurusagaram (Eternity of Grace)- 1987
- Madhuram Gayathi - 1990
- Pravachakante Vazhi (The Path of the Prophet)- 1992
- Thalamurakal (Generations)- 1997. See a review at [1] (http://www.rediff.com/news/1998/apr/30rajeev.htm)
Other Creations
He has written many volumes of short stories, the first volume of which was published in 1957 - Three Wars. He has also written many essays, and also published one book of cartoons - Ithiri neramboke, Ithiri Darshanam (A Little Pastime, A little Vision)- 1990.
O V Vijayan's best known collection in English is 'After the Hanging and other stories' which contains several jewel-like masterpieces, in particular the title story about a poor, semi-literate peasant going to the jail to receive the body of his son who has been hanged; 'The Wart' and 'The Foetus' about the trauma of the fascist Emergency; the transcendental 'The Aiport', 'The Little Ones', and several others.
An incisive writer in English as well, Vijayan translated most of his own works from Malayalam to English. His 'Selected Fiction' has been published as an omnibus volume by Viking Penguin India.
Awards
- 1970- Odakkuzhal Award, for Khasakinte Itihasam
- 1990-State and Central Academy awards of Gurusagaram
- 1991-Vayalar Award for Gurusagaram
- 1992-Muttathu Varkey Award for Khasakinte Itihasam
External links
- Vijayan interview (http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/mar/31intera.htm)
- BBC obituary (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4394419.stm)