M.T. Vasudevan Nair, the editor and mentor

A tribute to M.T., the enigmatic icon of Malayalam literature, highlighting his impact as an editor and mentor by Malayalam author Sethu

It is very difficult to scribble a few lines on M.T. the writer, who has remained an enigmatic icon of Malayalam literature. I would rather jot down a few words on M.T., the editor and what he meant to me at the personal level.

Here I am reminded of a young man in his early twenties struggling to coin a few words sitting alone in a barsati in New Delhi. He was not quite sure about what he was venturing into. But he had in mind the disturbing pictures of what he had seen in a remote drought-ridden village of Bihar a couple of days back. It was supposed to be the worst drought of the century, and the entire area was thirsting for water. When he finished writing, he was not sure whether it was a kind of ‘reportage’ or a story, since it was not easy to group human sufferings into a particular compartment. Anyway, he decided to take the plunge and had the gumption to mail it to the Editor of the Mathrubhumi weekly, a well-known periodical of Kerala. Of course, he was sure that it would end up in the Editor’s wastepaper basket. 

But it did catch the watchful eyes of the editor M.T. and thus was born ‘Sethu’ a storyteller in Malayalam. It was also the beginning of a close personal relationship between M.T. and me spanning more than five and half decades. Later, I was to publish a few more stories and novels – all under the watchful eyes of the editor.

It was a close association which cannot be described in a few words. Apart from being a superb writer himself, he had the rare ability to scout for talent and nurture it. I am reminded of one such incident in the mid-1970s. For some reason, M.T. had left Mathrubhumi and it was left to the management to persuade him to come back. It was then that I received an unexpected call from him one morning. I was literally shocked when he asked me whether I had any novel with me. It appeared that Agnisakshi, the well-known novel of Lalithambika Antharjanam was coming to an end and that he did not have any notable work to follow. I was taken aback at this request. Even now, I do not know what the great M.T. had seen in me which made him think that I could fill in the void left by a senior writer, since I was only a decade old in the literary world then.

When I admitted that I might not be able to do it, since I had only scribbled a few lines about a possible plot and was not sure whether I could pursue it at all. Still he persisted and asked me to take a fresh look at the plot. He promised to call me after a couple of days. That was indeed the trigger the writer wanted from a senior editor of an important publication. I did go back to my notepad and dream incessantly about the major character Devi who was to guide me through the story. Thus was born my well-known novel Pandavapuram, which has stood the test of time. Incidentally, when the weekly announced my novel with my photo, they had received only the first few chapters of the work.

I distinctly remember an occasion when he was critically ill and was lying unconscious in a hospital in Kozhikode about five decades ago. I was among a few friends who were waiting anxiously to get updates on his condition, more so, since the doctors had indicated that the next 48 hours were critical. But as a true fighter that he was, he came out of it and remained as the heartthrob of Malayali readers for the next 48 years. 

There is plenty to write about him. I can only say that we may be able to find writers better than M.T.; but we may not be able to find a literary editor of his class in any Indian language.