V.K.N.

Vadakke Koottala Narayanankutty Nair, commonly known as V.K.N. (6 April 1932 – 25 January 2004), was a Malayalam writer, noted mainly for his high-brow satire.[1] He wrote novels, short stories and political commentaries. His works are noted for their multi-layered humour, trenchant criticism of the socio-political classes and ability to twist the meanings of words contextually and lend a touch of magic to his language. A native of Kerala in south India, V.K.N. was born on 6 April 1932 in Thiruvilwamala in Thrissur district. After completing his matriculation, he joined the Malabar Devaswom Board and worked there for 9 years. Like a number of modern Malayalam writers such as O. V. Vijayan, V.K.N. spent many years in New Delhi (from 1959 to 1969) as an English journalist. The experiences he gained during these years, which coincided with the nascent post-independent India, are reflected in his book, Pitamahan (The Great Grandfather).[2] V.K.N.'s first story Parajithan was published in the October 1953 issue of Mathrubhumi Weekly. V.K.N is married to Vedavathi Amma.They have a son Balachandran & a daughter Ranjana. VKN's entry into Malayalam literature was in 1950s. Like for many others, his first love had been poetry. Though, before long, he gave it up, he kept up this adolescent infatuation all through his life. And he could quote from the Megasandesha or the Ramayanam chambu as quickly and effortlessly as he could from a new generation poet. This textual proficiency did not confine to poetry or literature alone. It was generic. Anything from under the sun, from contemporary politics to primitive occultism, from modern astrophysics to Chanakya's Arthasastra, or from Das Kapital to Kamasutra, was a narrative device for him, which he brought into play in his stories and novels. VKN's works call for an attentive and informed reader who can recognise his allusions and follow his changes in language, where he shifts between English, Hindi, Malayalam and a distinctive variety of Tamil spoken by the Iyer community in Palakkad. In most cases, the use of language other than Malayalam is immediately followed by a translation (in parentheses), but these translations have little do with what they stand for in the original.

It was in the 1960s that VKN came to prominence as a writer. But, by then he had left Kerala for New Delhi, where he spent about 10 years as a journalist. The New Delhi of the 1960s had a defining role in modern Malayalam literature. It was the group of young writers who happened to come together on various professional engagements in the country's capital that made Malayalam literature, fiction in particular, what it is today. Prominent among whom were O.V. Vijayan, M. Mukundan, George Varghese Kakkanadan and M. P. Narayana Pillai. VKN "landed" in this circle. These writers used to meet regularly to thrash out literature, politics or whatever else was the topic of the day — a preparation that capacitated them to accomplish new heights in writing.

As might be expected, VKN became an unfailing member of that collective. Those interactions, evidently, helped him be conversant with the latest developments in literature and consummate his style that is full of vim and vigour. Also, it could be that it was from those gatherings that he picked out many of his prototypical characters, especially the quick-witted, but hard-up "hero", Payyan (The Guy) of his seminal work, Payyan Kathakal (The Stories of Payyan), who made inroads into the higher echelons of power and wealth using nothing but his sharp intelligence and winning demeanour.

The Delhi life in 1960s had significantly contributed to framing VKN's social outlook as well. The institutionalisation of unscrupulous political manipulations, power brokerage, corruption and the murky dealings in the corridors of power; all that to which he became a silent, nonetheless alert, head-on witness deepened his distrust of the entire social and political order. And, what he did was to make them materials for a laugh that begot another laugh, which finally spread across our body, mind and intellect. For that reason, he was labelled "humorist".

VKN's important works are Pithamahan (The Great Grandfather), Arohanam, which literally means "The Ascend" but "Bovine Bugles" in the author's own translation, Adhikaram (The Power), Payyan Kathakal (The Stories of Payyan), Sir Chathuleecock, Kavi (The Saffron), Chathans, and Chitrakeralam (Kerala Pictures). "Humour", in none of these works, did mean just a laugh. Certainly, he made use of all that is available in the repertoire of humour: irony, satire, parody and burlesque. But, be it about the misuse of power, the abuse of female body, the libertinism of the affluent, or about the fate of the poor of the day; his narration was historically and politically many-voiced. Nothing escaped his keen-eyed scrutiny by which he puzzled readers as to how they should take it; laugh, cry or get agitated. His humour, in substance, was a lamentation on human fallacies. And, just like that, a resistance to authoritarianism of all sorts. He dispassionately chronicled the transition of society from one phase to another. And "laughed" because, like his favourite character Payyan, "he could not cry". [4]