Malayalam is back with a bang

Renowned poet Edassery Govindan Nair in his poem, Pallikoodathilekku Veendum, had written years ago that Naavil Ninnepozhe Poikazhinju Naana Jaganmanoramyabhasha… (The most beautiful language in the world, Malayalam, has vanished from our tongues) lamenting how the melting pot called culture has compromised the purity of our mother tongue.
Many writers before and after him have stressed this point too.However, the Malayalam language lovers can now take heart. More and more campaigns and movements, both online and in the physical world, are on, striving to revive an interest in learning Malayalam.
One such online, crowd-sourced campaign has been started by a group of designers revolving around the Malayalam alphabet on August 1 with the hashtag #30daysofmalayalamletters. It became an instant hit, bringing out the creative side of Malayalis and Malayalam language lovers with innumerable entries every day. “We had seen a lot of campaigns done in other countries online to promote their languages so we thought why not a campaign to explore the creative possibilities of Malayalam alphabet. Usually, we experiment with typography only in film title designing or while making book covers. So our group, Kerala Designers Collaborative, which started off as an open platform for designers to discuss ideas on Facebook, tried this out,” says Anand Nair, a user experience designer and member of the team.
August was chosen for this campaign as it is the month that coincides with the first Malayalam month Chingam. The first two days saw a massive response with people posting incredible creative patterns, from non-resident Malayalis and even non-Malayalis, using books, food items to even paints. “We encourage them to post on their social media page so that the idea spreads to their friends and friends of friends. A Dutch guy named Tim who is a lover of Malayalam language came up with some awesome ideas. His instagram page titled Malayalam.Study illustrates his love for the language,” Anand points out.
Cafes in Kochi are usually where the new gen kids flaunt their clipped English accent but one coffee shop in Palarivattom brings together a group of polyglots who discuss their mother tongues including Malayalam, Hindi and Punjabi, once every month. The group has reluctant poets, aspiring writers and anyone who is in love with languages and words. “We have book reading sessions, poetry reading sessions and even workshops. Though it is not exclusively about Malayalam, members do come up with beautiful Malayalam literature. The events are an inspiration for aspiring writers,” says Shana Susan, a regular.
Satheesh Menon, the host, talks about one session when writer-filmmaker Sreebala K Menon regaled children with her stories. “The session was so interesting for adults too. Who doesn’t love to listen to stories in our mother tongue?” he asks. Transgender poet Vijayaraja Mallika also had an interesting session there.
In distant Kannur, undergraduate students who have opted for Malayalam as their main subject run a campaign named, Bhasha Bodhana Yagjnam. Assistant Professor of Nirmalagiri College, Koothuparamba, Dr Deepamol Mathew says, “Our graduation students go to English medium schools and take Malayalam language classes for those children. They narrate stories and poems and even encourage them to learn the nuances of Malayalam.
Interestingly, people have started pulling the leg of those who are not fluent in their mother tongue, unlike earlier when it was thought to be a status symbol. It is high time we understood the real thought behind the verses written by Vallathol Narayana Menon…Mattulla Bhashakal Kevalam Dhathrimaar Marthyanu Pettamma Than Bhaasha Thaan.”
In the capital, Malayalam Pallikoodam, an initiative conceptualised by poet V Madhusoodanan Nair, will soon kick off classes at Technopark for the children of IT employees. The techies invited the Pallikoodam team after they had found that their children were unfamiliar with their mother tongue and hence cut off from their roots. Meera M S, coordinator in Technopark, says the classes will begin from September 17 and that the response is huge. “Even non-Malayalis have signed up and while we envisioned a classroom of 25, the number has already crossed 40. The curriculum will include songs, poems, proverbs, plays and riddles,” she says. The art of speaking, versification, storytelling, folk songs and grammar lessons will also be dealt with at the weekly classes that will be open to kids who are five and above. The classes will be handled by eminent personalities like Madhusoodanan Nair, Sugathakumari, Prabha Varma, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Dr Achut Shankar, Kanayi Kunhiraman, and Dr Babu Paul.