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Ajay Sekher

Dr Ajay S Sekher is an Associate Professor of English at SSUS Kalady, Kerala. He is a research supervisor and has successfully guided and produced six PhDs, nine M Phils and numerous MA Dissertations so far. He is also the founder-coordinator of the Centre for Buddhist Studies (CBS) at SSUS Kalady functioning from early 2020. He is a Governing Board Member of the Kerala State Encyclopaedia Institutie Trivandrum. Also a member of the Board of Studies in English at MA College Kotamangalam.
Ajay S Sekher (1976) has an M A and Ph D (2007) in English from M G University, Kottayam, Kerala. His doctoral research deals wih the representation of caste and gender margins in postcolonial Indian fiction in various modern Indian languages and in English. He has published articles and translations on literature and culture in English and Malayalam in leading journals including The Economic and Political Weekly (2003 & 2006) and Indian Literature. He has also taught at S S University, Kalady (2004-08) and School of Letters, M G University (2008-09) as a guest lecturer. He has been teaching at PG level for the last 20 years altogether. Dr Ajay S Sekher is currently Associate Professor of English at S S University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala. He has also served formerly as Assistant Professor of English at Government College, Thrissur (2011-12) and Govt College Kasaragod (2010-11).

Ajay S Sekher's recent published titles include:
Representing the Margin: Caste and Gender in Indian Fiction. Delhi: Kalpaz/Gyan, 2008.
Writing in the Dark: A Collection of Malayalam Dalit Poetry. Mumbay: Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, 2008. (Translation)
Unknown Subjects: Songs of Poykayil Appachan. Kottayam: PRDS, 2007. (Translation)
Samskaram, Prathinidhanam, Prathirodham: Samskara Rashtreeyathilekkulla Kuripukal. Mavelikara: Fabian, 2009.
Irutile Kali. Pathanamthitta: Prasakti, 2007. (Trans. of Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark)
Neelimayeriya Kannukal. Kottayam: D C Books, 2009. (Tans. of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye)
Sahodaran Ayyappan: Towards a Democratic Future. Calicut: Other Books, 2012.
Dr B R Ambedkar. Kottayam: SPCS/NBS, 2015.
Putan Keralam: Kerala Samskaratinte Baudha Atithara. Trivandrum: Kerala Bhasha Institute, 2018.
Kerala Navodhanam: Putu Vayanakal. Edited with SR Chandramohanan. Tvm: Raven Books, 2017.
Buddhism and Kerala. Sankaracharya University Press, 2021 and 2023.

Ajay Sekher is also interested in Photography and Painting. He has done group and solo shows of painting in Kochi, Kalady, Calicut, Trichur, Kottayam and Chennai.

Email: ajaysekher@gmail.com
website: www.ajaysekher.net
Mobile: +91 9895797798
Supervisors: Ajay S Sekher did his PhD under the supervision of Prof Dr P P Raveendran at School of Letters MGU Kottayam.
Phone: +919895797798
Address: Dr. Ajay S. Sekher
Assistant Professor of English
S S University Kalady, Kerala 683 574
Tirunavaya P O
Kerala, India, Pin 676 301

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Books by Ajay Sekher

Matrubhumi Weekly, 2012

The 2012 essay in Matrubhumi Weekly explores the recovered idols of the Buddha in stone from vari... more The 2012 essay in Matrubhumi Weekly explores the recovered idols of the Buddha in stone from various parts of Kerala. The iconography, aesthetics, archaeological and cultural aspects are critically and closely analysed in inter-disciplinary ways. The need for more convergent trans-disciplinary studies involving languages, literatues, humanities and cultural studies methodology is implied. The potential of comparative and critical Tamil and Pali studies and critical toponymy, cultural ecology and cultural archaeology are also suggested for the recovery of erased and modified links and vital clues of the cultural foundations of Kerala, that are significant in the present in multiple ways and essential for the future advancement in knowledge, social imaginary and academic practices in Kerala and outside.

SPCS/NBS Kottayam, 2015

A short critical biography and contemporary evaluation of the life and works of the architect of ... more A short critical biography and contemporary evaluation of the life and works of the architect of Indian Constitution in Malayalam. The second edition is awaited. The enlightened and ethical ideology and democratic praxis of Ambedkarism and its current relevance when the democratic republic and its base the ethical contract of the people the Constitution is suspended and sabotaged by the violent forces of cultural Nationalism and caste Hindu hegemony in India and even in Kerala. When the Brahmanical and Sudra riots against democracy and its doctrine of law and justice are increasing and undoing the idea of a free India a book to be read and reread. The reader may Request SPCS Kottayam to bring out the second reprint.

Kerala Bhasha Institute, Trivandrum. ISBN 978 81 200 4444 9, 2018

The book is a critical exposure and analysis of the Buddhist foundations of Kerala culture. The c... more The book is a critical exposure and analysis of the Buddhist foundations of Kerala culture. The cultures of literacy, universal education, healthcare, martial arts, arts, architecture, music and performance, sculpture and painting along with a lot of folklore and popular cultural practices are contextualized in the long Buddhist period of Kerala that was part of the ancient Tamilakam from Asokan times to the middle ages. The global linkages of Kerala and the greater Sangam or Changam legacy of Kerala are also explored in the light of new Dhamma script discoveries from Pattanam and Keezhadi. Photographs and exclusive details are provided with an index of keywords and more than twenty detailed chapters of various facets of Kerala culture and history. It is also a pioneering work in trans disciplinary and multi disciplinary studies in Kerala culture and history. It is also part of a multi cultural and democratic new cultural historiography in Kerala coming up from the bottom.

Other Books, Calicut, 2012

The book is a critical biography and select translation of Sahodaran Ayyappan one of the lead dis... more The book is a critical biography and select translation of Sahodaran Ayyappan one of the lead disciples of Narayanaguru and a pioneer of letters, journalism, democracy and human rights in Kerala. He was a champion of the dalit rights and the down trodden in Kerala renaissance struggles who is also called Pulayan Ayyappan. He was an editor, anti caste crusader, a poet, orator, legislator and public figure. He is one of the founders of modernity and rationalism in Kerala. Sahodaran also initiated the neo Buddhist movement along with Mitavadi and C V Kunjiraman in the 1920s. The book features many of his works in verse and prose including editorials and speeches. Published by Other Books Calicut in 2012. Available online on amazon.in and other sites. To read the review and buy online visit amazon.in site by using the link below: (copy paste if needed)

https://www.amazon.in/Sahodaran-Ayyappan-Towards-Democratic-Future/dp/9380081189

Kalpaz/Gyan New Delhi, 2008

The work explores the representation of socio cultural margins of caste and gender in Indian cont... more The work explores the representation of socio cultural margins of caste and gender in Indian contexts in works of fiction written in various Indian languages in the twentieth century, taking representative samples from Hindi/Urdu, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam and English. The focus of enquiry is the narrativization of these important cultural and political questions in representative texts of fiction. What are the socio political and cultural implications and underpinnings of the representation of marginalization in the medium and genre of fiction, what could be the politics, ethics and aesthetics of such narrating, how far such representations are subversive or consensual/complicit, what are the limitations and pitfalls of such intervening radicalism in fictional narration - all these questions are taken up in detail in the analyses. In the greater sense this study is also a critique of modernity and its discontents as it analyses the dialectics of modernity, its radical as well as reactionary aspects. A problematic premise of contextualizing the text and textualizing the context would also be prominent in the attempt. Fictional texts from five Indian languages including English (two texts from each language ) are incorporated in the study to ensure regional and linguistic representation within the limits of the availability of works in translation. Questions of class analytical perspectives in the context of Brahmanic patriarchy are explicated and critiqued. The need for a subaltern hermeneutics and the urgency of epistemological democratization are also discussed as a political and emancipatory outcome of the study. Both the formal as well as thematic concerns of the novel in the Indian languages are found to be shaped and determined by the material realities and associated attitudes and worldviews of caste and gender hierarchy emanating from internal imperialism. Though the ten texts chosen attempt intense critique of the gender question, the more profound and specific cultural question of caste evades comprehension and critical understanding. Caste often escapes as the un-representable in narration as it is in conversion.
For buying and reading online preview visit google reads or use the link info:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35333486-representing-the-margin

There are a few books on cultural studies and cultural criticism in Malayalam but there is hardly... more There are a few books on cultural studies and cultural criticism in Malayalam but there is hardly any title dealing directly with contesting sights of culture. There is a broad notion that cultural studies is cultural politics itself. But the real locations of struggle and fight within the realm of culture/s are always invisible and intangible in the 'balanced' academic analyses. The ethical and political questions of exclusion and democracy are often sidelined as something that are outside literature and culture. So even cultural studies is exclusionary, elitist and hegemonic in Malayalam literary culture.

The counter hegemonic and radical subversive acts against dominant and elitist culture are carried forward by little but deviant epistemological practices. Challenging and continuously destabilizing and rewriting existing notions of culture, polity and society are part of the democratic cultural politics. Expressing and marking the difference of historical and social experience and the politics of subject formation are also part of this practice in a society where slavery and extreme forms of brutal marginalization were practiced for many millenniums.

Cultural elitist discourses, transcendental mysticism or dogmas, hegemonic notions or practices of culture are rejected and critiqued. The themes varies from literature to film and music to pop culture. The work is a collection of critical essays and notes written and published in leading journals in Malayalam like Bhashaposhini, Mathrubhumy, Madhyamam, Kalakaumudi, Pachakuthira, Suchakam etc in the last decade. It is divided into two parts. The first part includes essays on literature and the second part includes essays dealing with pop film, music, art and visual culture. The book also contains a foreword by Prof. P P Raveendran. It is published by Fabian Books, Mavelikara.

http://www.puzha.com/e-arcade/dcb/cgi-bin/book-detail.cgi?code=7021

Vikas Adhyayan Kendara, 2008

The first comprehensive anthology of Malayalam Dalit Poetry from Kerala. Published by Vikas Adhya... more The first comprehensive anthology of Malayalam Dalit Poetry from Kerala. Published by Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, Mumbai. Edited by M B Manoj and George K Alex and Translated into English by Ajay Sekher. Foreword by K M Sherrif and illustrated by Shashi Memury. Mumbai 2008. A few pages are given as highlights here.
vak@bom3@vsnl.net.in www.vakindian.org

IPRDS Eraviperur, Tiruvalla, Kerala, 2008

English translation of the songs and spirituals of Poykayil Appachan the early 20th century dalit... more English translation of the songs and spirituals of Poykayil Appachan the early 20th century dalit leader of Kerala who organized the excluded under his 1910 movement called PRDS. Edited by V V Swamy and E V Anil and translated by Ajay Sekher. Published by Institute of PRDS Studies, Eraviperur, Tiruvalla, Kerala in 2008. Important song are given as preview here. Write to PRDS, Eravipueru, Tiruvalla, Kerala for the free book.

Papers by Ajay Sekher

Sahitya Lokam 53, 1. Journal of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 2024

The paper unravels the poetry and prose written in and for the Vaikom struggles in Kerala during ... more The paper unravels the poetry and prose written in and for the Vaikom struggles in Kerala during 1924-25 period in which Gandhi was also involved and afterward mostly by the anti caste crusaders of Kerala modernity. It explores the erased and carefully excluded writings of Mooloor, Asan, Karupan, Sahodaran and other writers who are also disciples of Narayana Guru who was the visionary and philosopher of the anti caste movement in Kerala for modernity and democracy. The struggles from Nangeli's sacrifice against the infamous breast-tax of Travancore in 1803 to the Dalavakulam struggle for freedom of movement and speech at Vaikom shrine in 1806 and the related struggles of Avarna people having Buddhist legacies are elaborated as a critique of Brahmanical patriarchy and its Sudra sexual and militia colonies established in Kerala during the middle ages through Manipravala liaisons and Sambandham alliance in the Nampoori-Nair power axis of evil. The recent sabotage of democracy and the Constitution in 2018 Savarimala Sudra riots through establishing EWS reservations for the overrepresented or forward social sections claiming caste superiority and the subsequent caste abuses at the CM of Kerala, the minister of Devasam and other public figures in public and social media as part of the growing monopolization, hegemonization and Hinduisation of Kerala society are also critically deconstructed and pondered in ethical spirit and greater good and welfare of the people.

Malayalam Research Journal 48. 17, 1, 2024

The study explores the cultural and civilizational foundations and distinguished cultural identit... more The study explores the cultural and civilizational foundations and distinguished cultural identity of South India and Kerala renowned as Chera land in ancient times, recovering the ancient Asokan legacies of Buddhism in India. It incorporates a multidisciplinary approach and holistic epistemological vision in involving local cultural histories, oral narratives, critical toponymy, social linguistics, etymological excavations, and archaeological and genealogical studies in addition to cultural and historiographic critical analyses. It addresses the cultural struggles and politics of the people incorporating interdisciplinary and intersectional methodological and theoretical perspectives in ethical and contemporary ways. It is also part of self-reflexive and self-critical knowledge endeavors based on democracy, representation, and multicultural realities of India and Kerala contributing towards a new inclusive Kerala studies paradigm in the larger contexts of South India and its historic counter hegemonic struggles. The paper also probes the new liberating possibilities of South Indian and Kerala cultural studies and cultural historiography.

Page 1. Page 2. The work explores the representation of socio cultural margins of caste and gende... more Page 1. Page 2. The work explores the representation of socio cultural margins of caste and gender in Indian contexts in works of fiction written in various Indian languages in the twentieth century, taking representative samples ...

Sahityalokam, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 2022

2022 study in the poetry and music of Binu M Pallypadu the dalit poet and musician who passed awa... more 2022 study in the poetry and music of Binu M Pallypadu the dalit poet and musician who passed away in early 2022. It was published in Kerala Sahitya Akademi official journal Sahityalokam in Volume 51, Issue 5 in Sept-Oct 2022. The rootedness of the dalit poet in the soil of mid-Travancore in the Kuttanad region in Pallypadu near ancient Aripadu or now Haripadu and in Kumaly on the Western Ghats or Meku Tudarchi Malai are explored in the cultural and historical contexts of Tinai aesthetics and ecological and cultural legacies of the Sangam legacies of South Indian or ancient Tamilakam. The study's uniqueness is the esoteric Sangam or enlightened and compassionate Baudha or Mleccha reading in his poetry and politics.

Madhyamam Weekly, 2022

The 2022 Sept 26 essay in Madhyamam Weekly is a critical appraisal of Pa Ranjith film Nachatiram ... more The 2022 Sept 26 essay in Madhyamam Weekly is a critical appraisal of Pa Ranjith film Nachatiram Nagargirutu. The film depicts "honour killings" in present Tamil Nadu and other parts of the country that are actually gruesome caste killing defying humanity and the law. Through a critical representation of the caste question and the lead female character of Rene/ Tamizh the ace filmmaker Pa is creating a new emancipatory filmic discourse of the excluded from the social margins of Tamilakam that is illuminating and enlightening for the whole world. The linkages between the philosophy of Ayyothee Thasar, Guru, Sahodaran, Amedkar and the Buddha are critically pondered and explored by the essay in connection with the film and its recovery of the image of the Buddha in Tamil cosmopolitan cinema forming a cinema of justice, compassion and truth in the present. The rise of dalit cinema in Tamil after Marathi and Hindi are also implied. This paper also includes a contextually ethical and historicizing reading of Pa films.

Keli the Official Journal of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi, 2022

The 2022 essay in Keli: the official journal of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi explores the hidde... more The 2022 essay in Keli: the official journal of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi explores the hidden, disguised and hegemonically erased or banished histories and esoteric genealogies of the visual cultures of Kerala into the Buddhist past that forms the foundation of Kerala culture at least from the Asokan times of Mahinda and Sanghamita in South India and Ceylon or Elamka. The spectacles, performances, platforms, iconography, art, architecture, literature, language and cultures were completely and profoundly shaped, set and defined by the enlightened discourse of Asokan monks and nuns who propagated the light of letters and ethics in South India and Tamilakam of which the Chera land or Kerala was a part till the early middle ages, when Chaturvarna and the Brahmanical caste Hindu system divided and demarcated society and polity. Still the traces sustain and relics are found that are culturally excavated and critically, contextualized, politicized and textualized by the study for posterity.

Matrubhumi Weekly, 2012

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working paper, 2020

The working paper ponders on the historical modification of the ancient practice of monsoon rain ... more The working paper ponders on the historical modification of the ancient practice of monsoon rain retreat or Varsha Vasa or Barsa into the Ramayana Masa or the ritualistic recitals of Adhyatma Ramayana in Kerala. The Pali words Panja or Pania (Prajna in Sanskrit) are used along with the monsoon rainy month of Karkidakam in Kerala as in Panja Karkidakam exposing its origin in the Pali-based Buddhist basic cultures of South India or ancient Tamilakam. The hegemonic politics of Rama-fication of ancient Savarimala or Chavarimala and Kuravaiur are also discussed in the contexts of the Constitutional sabotages related to the 2018 Sudra riots or Viswasi Lahala of Kerala against the Supreme Court verdict for gender justice in accordance with the Constitution of India.

In most of her works, Mahasweta Devi has tried to tackle and address the turbulence of caste/clas... more In most of her works, Mahasweta Devi has tried to tackle and address the turbulence of caste/class/gender in the historic context of the brahmanic caste patriarchy. Even after assuming an occupational class status, the 'rudalis' transform themselves into a gendered caste, specifically a low caste of "whores". This could be identified as the central tension or contradiction in the social practice of Mahasweta's fiction and her narrative praxis.

Matrubhumi Weekly, 2012

SPCS/NBS Kottayam, 2015

Kerala Bhasha Institute, Trivandrum. ISBN 978 81 200 4444 9, 2018

Other Books, Calicut, 2012

https://www.amazon.in/Sahodaran-Ayyappan-Towards-Democratic-Future/dp/9380081189

Kalpaz/Gyan New Delhi, 2008

http://www.puzha.com/e-arcade/dcb/cgi-bin/book-detail.cgi?code=7021

Vikas Adhyayan Kendara, 2008

IPRDS Eraviperur, Tiruvalla, Kerala, 2008

Sahitya Lokam 53, 1. Journal of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 2024

Malayalam Research Journal 48. 17, 1, 2024

Sahityalokam, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, 2022

Madhyamam Weekly, 2022

Keli the Official Journal of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi, 2022

Matrubhumi Weekly, 2012

working paper, 2020

Practical Spirituality and Human Development, 2019

The paper explores the unique spiritual and political struggles and journeys of Poykayil Kumara G... more The paper explores the unique spiritual and political struggles and journeys of Poykayil Kumara Guru or Poykayil Appachan, a dalit reformer of the early twentieth century Kerala. He was using the benefits and openings of modernity in the colonial context and created his own sect called Pratyaksha Raksha Daiva Sabha or PRDS in the early twentieth century for the mobility of the dalits in Kerala. His unique songs and spirituals proclaim the liberation of the excluded and are greater attempts to textualize the memories of the marginalized. He is contextualized in the greater terrain of Kerala renaissance.

Economic and Political Weekly, Oct 21, 2006

Economic and Political Weekly, Aug 16, 2003

Former short version appeared in web portal wtp.live, 2020

The essay is on the new critical rereadings and de-readings of Basheer, one of the leading lights... more The essay is on the new critical rereadings and de-readings of Basheer, one of the leading lights of Kerala fiction in the 20th century. His work is representative of the enlightened democratic legacy of Kerala in modern times that emerged from the common people at the bottom. Basheer's new and old adaptations and the need for a renewed fresh perspective on Basheer are probed and critically contextualized in the current milieu.

Bhashaposhini, 2020

The paper in Bhashaposhini May 2020 rereads and contextualizes the literary and cultural politic... more The paper in Bhashaposhini May 2020 rereads and contextualizes the literary and cultural politics and early democratic contributions of Muloor S Padmanabha Panicker and his pioneering battles that democratized culture and literary institution in Kerala in early 20th century as the first Avarna poet who fought caste exclusions and inequalities through his poems and prose. He paved the way for Asan, Karupan and Sahodaran to follow. The detailed analysis of his poetry and literary wars with caste feudal system are explained, historicized and textualized with an accent on resisting and surviving all consuming totalitarian hegemonic discourses in the present, especially in Kerala where the regression into the pre-modern primitive state of affairs is imminent post Sudra Lahala or Kshudra mutity 2018. Muloor's defense of the modern values of democracy through his salutations to the English language and education eagerly situated in the contemporary context where modernity is in peril in India and Kerala.

Pachakutira , 2021

A comprehensive cultural and political analysis of Kim Ki Duk films contextualizing them in Keral... more A comprehensive cultural and political analysis of Kim Ki Duk films contextualizing them in Kerala and India in the present, especially at the wake of violent othering and genocidal violence, both material and symbolic booming in various media and dominant representations. The paper published in Pachakutira January 2021 explores the cultural and historical dimensions interwoven into the filmic texts and contexts by the artful young master who passed away due to covid in late 2020.

Matrubhumi Weekly, 2016

The Malayalam essay written in late January 2016 and published in Matrubhumi Weekly soon after th... more The Malayalam essay written in late January 2016 and published in Matrubhumi Weekly soon after the incident of Rohit Vemula a dalit research scholar at Hyderabad Central University, committing suicide following the institutional caste exclusions and humiliations targeting him. The article probes and exposes the genealogies of caste and caste as an extreme form of socio political violence, othering and religious persecution in India under the hegemonic contexts of Varnasramadharma and Brahmanical patriarchy and its dominant religious formations. The detailed analysis provides the importance of the academic and critical studies on caste and marginality. Edited shorter versions are also anthologized later in many commemorative volumes and periodicals subsequently.

Sabarimala: Charitravum Varthamanavum. Ed. V U Surendran. Green Books Thrissur, 2019

The paper in Malayalam published in 2019 in the Green Books volume edited by V U Surendran titled... more The paper in Malayalam published in 2019 in the Green Books volume edited by V U Surendran titled Sabarimala: Charitravum Samskaravum, unravels the enlightened and egalitarian legacy of Buddhism in Kerala that is enshrined in this mountain shrine on the Western Ghats that was appropriated as a Hindu Brahmanical one in recent times post 1903. The Hindutva "Sudra riots" led by RSS and NSS in winter 2018 that subverted the Hon. Supreme Court verdict to create the entry of young women into the shrine are also contextualized in the large scale communalisation and caste Hindu mobilizations in Kerala at the wake of cultural nationalism at the centrre. The appropriations and modifications of Buddhist centres into Brahmanical fold as in the case of Tirupati or Palani are also critically explored in the essay.

Putan Keralam: Kerala Samskaratinte Baudha Atithara, കേരള ഭാഷാ ഇന്‍സ്റ്റിറ്റ്യൂട്ട്, 2018

The paper published in Malayalam Weekly in 2016 (Sept 26) and later in Putan Keralam by the autho... more The paper published in Malayalam Weekly in 2016 (Sept 26) and later in Putan Keralam by the author in 2018 reveals the genealogies of gradual modification of the shrine at Vaikom into the Brahmanical fold as late as 16th century as elaborated by art historian and archaeologist Stella Kramrisch and local historian N K Jose in their books on the Hindu temple at Vaikom. The collective struggles for the freedom and rights of movement and worship as articulated in the historic 1806 agitation and the gruesome killing of the young Avaran Ezhava agitators by the militia of Travancore Dalava Velu Tampy that became infamous as Dalavakulam massacre 1806 are also contextualized and the struggles in early 20th century led by T K Madhavan the lead-disciple of Narayanaguru under the banner of the Congress known as the Vaikom Satyagraham of 1924-25 are also evaluated in hindsight. The 1923 Vadayar speech of Asan on the martyrs of Dalavakulam is invoked and the need for a decent memorial for this first major agitation of the Avarna people in Kerala against caste untouchability and freedom of movement and worship soon after the sacrifice of Nangeli in 1803 and even before the missionary intervention in Travancore in early 1810s are also analysed in critical light and from an ethical vantage.

The essay is an autobiographical journey into the poetic subjectivity and speech acts of poet and... more The essay is an autobiographical journey into the poetic subjectivity and speech acts of poet and teacher D Vinayachandran who was a versatile writer and human being. The diversity and difference in his articulations and cultural interventions are contextualized in hindsight as a student, fellow being and critical reader of his verse and versatile life struggles.

National Seminar by Kendra Sahitya Akademi New Delhi at Kochi: Rereading Romanticism, 2011

The 2011 paper in Malayalam presented in the National seminar on Rereading Romanticism by Kendra ... more The 2011 paper in Malayalam presented in the National seminar on Rereading Romanticism by Kendra Sahitya Akademi in Edapally Changampuzha park critiques the metaphysics of pure beauty and creativity in the poem "Yavanika" by one of the leading popular poets of mid twentieth century Kerala, Changampuzha Krishnapillai.