S K Pottekkatt famous
Malayalam writer/ Jnanpith Award Winner in 1980 for the novel Oru Desathinte
Katha
.jpg)
Sankaran Kutty Pottekkatt (March 14, 1913 – August 6, 1982),
popularly known as S. K. Pottekkatt , was a famous Malayalam writer from Kerala
state. He is the author of nearly sixty books which include ten novels, twenty-four
collections of short stories, three anthologies of poems, eighteen travelogues,
four plays, a collection of essays and a couple of books based on personal
reminiscences. Pottekkatt won the Kerala Sahitya Academy award of 1961 for the
novel Oru Theruvinte Katha (The Story of a Street) and the Jnanpith Award in
1980 for the novel Oru Desathinte Katha (The Story of a Locale), which was made
into an award winning film. His works have been translated into English,
Italian, Russian, German and Czech, besides all major Indian languages.
S. K. Pottekkatt was born in Kozhikode as the son of Kunchiraman
Pottekkatt, an English schoolteacher. He had his early education at the Hindu
School and Zamorin's High School in Kozhikode. He graduated fromZamorin’s
College, Kozhikode in 1934. He did not find an employment for three years
following his graduation and devoted his time to the study of Indian and
Western classics. From 1937 to 1939, he worked as a teacher at Calicut Gujarati
School. He quit the job to attend the Tripura Congress in 1939. He then went to
Bombay (now Mumbai) and took up several jobs only to develop an aversion for
any white-collared jobs. He returned to Kerala in 1945. In 1952, he married Ms.
Jayavalli and settled down at Puthiyara in Calicut. Pottekkatt had four
children- two sons and two daughters. Pottekatt's wife died in 1980 after which
his condition too deteriorated. He was hospitalized in July 1982 following a
paralytic stroke. He died on August 6, 1982. He was in the works of North
Avenue, a novel describing his experiences in Delhi as a member of the Indian
Parliament (1962-1967) but the novel could not be completed.
Pottekkatt made his mark in literature with a few short stories
in the 1930s. His first story "Rajaneethi" was published in the
Zamorin's College magazine in 1928. Makane Konna Madyam (poem published in
Athmavidya Kahalam) and Hindu Muslim Maithri (story published in Deepam) were
some of his notable early works. The story "Vydyutha Shakthi" came in
the February 1934 issue of Mathrubhumi Illustrated Weekly. Many of his early
short stories were published by the weekly. By the 40s, he had established
himself as a leading writer of fiction in Malayalam. The trip to Bombay is
described in his travelogue and memoir Ente Vazhiyambalangal which also
broadened his horizons and was a turning point in his literary life. While in
Bombay, he was involved in India’s freedom struggle and worked alongside
freedom fighters like Mathai Manjooran. Here, Pottekkatt wrote his first novel
Naadanpremam (1941), a romantic short novel mainly set in Mukkam, a small
village in Kozhikode district. It was followed by Yavanikakku Pinnil (a
collection of short stories) in 1940 and by a second novel Vishakanyaka. The
latter received a prize from the Madras government in 1949. In 1945 he
travelled to Kashmir and in 1946 embarked on an eighteen-month tour to Africa
and Europe. This resulted in the publication of Kappirikalude Naattil (In the
Land of the Negroes) and Innathe Europe (Europe Today). In 1952, Pottekkatt
travelled to Ceylon, Malaysia and Indonesia. Five years later he visited
Finland, Czechoslovakia and Russia.
Pottekkatt was a writer of strong social commitmment and ideals,
possessing an individualistic vision. He was not interested in purely symbolic
or allegorical mode of writing as practiced by Franz Kafka or D. H. Lawrence.
He was adept in weaving pots of chilling suspense akin to the writings of
Alexandre Dumas, père, O. Henry etc. Pottekkatt's stories are characterised by
a plot that carries an element of surprise, a few suggestive incidences that
heighten its dramatic quality and a style that easily mediates between realism
and lyricism. The plot is characterized by an Aristotelian peripeteia (a sudden
reversal of situation) or an O. Henry twist. Love is also a dominant motif in
several of his stories. This usually takes the form of betrayal of women or the
capricious nature of man. At times it is the tragedy wrought by fate itself.
These can be seen in "Pulliman" ("The Spotted Deer"),
"Sthree" ("Woman"), "Vadhu" ("Bride")
etc.
Pottekkatt has been translated into English, Italian, Russian,
German and Czech, besides all major Indian languages. An Italian anthology of
The Best Short Stories of the World published from Milan in 1971 included his
"Braanthan Naaya" ("Mad Dog"). A collection of eleven of
his short stories in Russian had a sensational sales of one hundred thousand
copies in two weeks.
Besides his extensive travels and literary works, Pottekkatt
also dabbled in politics. In 1957, he contested the parliamentary election from
Tellicherry but lost by 1000 votes. In 1962, he won the parliamentary election
from the same constituency with a majority of 66,000 votes against his fellow
littérateur Sukumar Azhikode.
