Poet A Ayyappan remembered

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For somebody who led a wayward life, wandered the streets,  slept on the pavements  and disappeared for days, poet A Ayyappan was really rich.He owned a treasure trove of friends and admirers. On the first anniversary of the poet’s death, the scores of admirers, friends and young poets who met in small gatherings at various venues in the city to revive the memories of the poet were testimony to this fact.In Statue, in front of the Secretariat, under the mango tree where one could spot Ayyappan lost in thoughts and amidst young faces, some 50 people could be seen gathered reciting the poet’s writings and their own writings about the poet. Shanthan, who was the poet’s close friend and neighbour for some ten years, began the commemoration gathering by reciting the poem ‘Greeshmam thanna kireedom’.The friends had aptly named the gathering ‘kanjirapazhathinte ormaiku’ which is a poem by Ayyappan. Shanthan had rushed from Chennai to ring up friends and organise a gathering. “There is no better place than under this mango tree, for he loved to sit here,” he said.  P Y Balan, Haridas Balakrishnan, T C Rajesh, Nithin S Dev, Rajesh Madhav, B S Rajeev and many others - friends and people who have known the poet in their own ways - shared their memories.The group, however, had one big step to take on Friday.“Ayyappan has written in one of his poems that if ever a memorial is built in his name, it should be a ‘sathram’ (inn). That’s our dream now. Anywhere in this city, a place where a poet or any person could have a roof over his head at night, in the name of Ayyappan. We have started collecting signatures for our dream. We will meet Cultural Minister soon and request for the same,” Shanthan says.Everybody gathered seem to share the same opinion as everyone was well aware how Ayyappan detested busts and statues as his memorials. The words the poet had shared in jest or in serious note have now become dear for this young group, that wants to remember the man as he was. Nothing more or nothing less.