On the first day of Kerala Literature Festival the audience at Aksharam venue witnessed an interactive session between Sreekala Mulassery and T. Padmanabhan.
T. Padhmanabhan is considered one of the greatest sort fiction writers in Malayalam.
The session was about his strong female characters possessed in his stories.
Padmanabhan is credited with bringing modern Malayalam literature nearer to the subjective intensity of the lyric. Moderator began by asking a question to Mr. Padmanabhan- “Why was his canvas restricted only in short stories? Was is because it resembled the cherishing music? ” to which he replied quite simply-“ My interest in short stories. I only read short stories.”
The woman characters’ in his stories had a particular character i.e ‘girls’ and not ‘female’. It resembles a lot of his childhood experiences around his mother and his elder sister.
He respected the female characters and addressed them as ‘they’.
When asked about why he did not react to Madhavikutty’s topic he still stuck to keeping mum about it and said it’s ones personal choice and interest whether to react to it or not and nothing else. Then he responded about why he did not receive any awards for ‘Gauri’ to which he said he is fed up of seeing wars on this issue and a person like him who wish to increase the intensity of short stories, receiving an award on behalf of it would be no less than the public that evoke such issues.
He also commented that modern music doesn’t possess a feel of experience and thus all music is one.
He also said that his favorite author is Virginia Wolf and he liked her novel ‘Waves’ where she uses the style ‘ stream of consciousness’ and a slight reflection of the same is in his stories too.
The musical pattern of his words in his stories is highlighted and much appreciated. He answered most of the question briefly and to the point. He neglected controversial question smoothly and answered few of them without evoking an issue.
The session ended with an active interactive session between the audiences at the panel.
Third edition of Kerala Literature Festival organised by DC Kizhakemuri foundation is partnered with Incredible India, Kerala Tourism and Cultural Department of State Government.