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Expose children to books, exhorts Azhikode

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR DEC. 11. Books are the gateway that open to the unfathomable expanse of the universe. Certainly no book can contain or unravel the entire rich treasure of knowledge and experience that the nature stores in its diverse dimensions. But books are the simplest, effective, sustainable and cheapest medium that can invoke the curiosity of the young minds to the enigmatic treasure-house of nature. So children should be reared in an ambience where books are their daily co-habitants, says the noted social and literary critic, Sukumar Azhikode.

Inaugurating the national book festival organised by the Kerala Sahithya Academy here today, Prof. Azhikode said the insights and inquisitiveness that books invoked in the minds of the children would leave a lasting impression on them, both in their character formation and intellectual pursuits.

A child who has been initiated to the world of letters and books from the early period itself would not become a sinister being in the later part. At least he or she would not aggravate further the cruelty in society, if not contribute to the clearing of the mess, Prof. Azhikode said. For example, `Karuna' authored by Kumaranasan begins with the sublime expression, `Anupama Karunanidhi' wherein the author was invoking the possibility of a being that possesses compassion in levels that are hitherto unknown to the world.

A child who is exposed to this poem in its full richness would certainly be left with some traces of that compassion. Similarly, in Ramayana there is an occasion when Lakshmana tells Rama that he will be able to identify only the anklet from among the jewelleries of Sita because he had been seeing that regularly when he was bowing before her feet every day, and had never looked at her face. On another occasion Sita who was abandoned in the forest in the forest by Lakshmana as per Rama's order wanted him (Lakshmana) to look at her face and explain something. But he politely told her that he had not looked at her face so far and will not do that in the forest when nobody else was present. These incidents are narrated in Ramayana to impart the need for strictly adhering to certain values which a society was following at a particular point of time. These should not be interpreted to mean that no man should look at the face of his elder brother's wife or of another woman. Such interpretations are the results of our inability to appreciate literature in its artistic dimensions. It is this inability that rakes up the controversy over the writings of Kamala Suraiyya. But those incidents in our mythical literature point to the need for earnest adherence to the norms that each society sets for itself in a particular period of time, he said.

Quoting from the experiences of the renowned writer Helen Keller, Dr. Azhikode said when this remarkable woman was trying to learn language breaking the barriers created by her deafness, dumbness and blindness, she used to say that each word was a discovery to her.

She had said that she felt the serene experience of a cool flow in her inner world when she learnt the word `water'.

This is true of children also who experience the joy and excitement of a new discovery whenever they learn a new word.

Books at one stroke can take the reader to the deepest layers of sea, or to the broad expanse of the sky or to the hitherto undocumented complex experiential world of human mind. Neglecting the books will certainly be detrimental to culture. ``We in the present times are deeply disturbed at the loss of certain values, and the books can inspire us to begin the search for compensating those severe losses,'' he said.

About 50 publishers and distributors from various parts of the State and outside are participating in the book festival. Seminars, talks, exhibition of literary artefacts, literary quiz contests, and release of the cultural diary also form part of the 10-day-long festival.

Therambil Ramakrishnan, MLA, presided over the inaugural function.

P. P. George, MLA, M. R. Chandrasekaharan, K. K. Rahulan, U. K. Kumaran, the Mayor, Jose Kattukkaran, the district panchayat president, M.V. Visalakshy, and V. P. Johns were among those who spoke on the occasion.

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