MN Vijayan Master died speaking. The same day died my younger brother, too. The day was a shock to me. While we were preparing for the burial of my brother who was only 47, a phone came from Purushan Kadalundi that Prof. Vijayan had died. He died while attending a Press conference on his acquittal by a court of law in the defamation case filed by Prof. Papputty of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad.

It was on 3rd October and October claimed one more genius into its cellar. Vayalar, Cherukad, Montessory etc. had died in October, too.

Vijayan master was addressing the journalists while he went to his last. He always has been speaking. He was an excellent teacher of students and mankind. While he was uttering his last words , he was trying to say some thing about the language we must have to speak powerfully; it is reported that he was quoting Bernard Shaw.

He had evolved a new style of rhetoric. His rhetoric had a cuteness of its own, but often it was an inaccessible cave. The man was speaking from inside, we would not follow him, but his voice and intonation would stop us from moving. The style of his speech was that it could start anywhere and end anywhere. He did not have much introductory paraphernalia; he would straight delve into the topic of his speech. And every word he spoke was sincere, whether we feel it right or wrong.

More than writing, he was interested in rhetoric, in words spoken than in words written. Most of his books are compilations of his speech. The first important writing of Vijayan master was his study of Kannikkoyth of Vyloppilly. The poet wanted to meet the “Scholar” who had written the great essay on his poem; while the poet saw the very young man, he still entrusted him with the task of writing an introduction to his best ever work, “Onappattukaar”. This introduction was the first great writing of Vijayan master. It is in this introduction he styles Vyloppilly’s poetry as “poetry solidified through boiling”. He convinced the reader that Vyloppilly as poet was taking mankind from their lost springs to the prosperity of future springs.

He worked under the govt of Madras and then Govt of Kerala till he retired. Till then, his organizational activity was confined to Kerala Sahitya Samithy. He took up the impossible mission of fusing Marx and Freud. It was a self-imposed assignment. Geniuses very often try the impossible.

After Retirement, he worked in cooperation with Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham and then CPI(M). This widened the scope of his activities. He remained the President of the PKS for about ten years. A person who was not ready to be a member of his class organization as a teacher was ready to be President of a progressive writers’ out fit for about a decade. As president he was active to the core and contributed a great dimension to the PKS. It is undebatable fact. Still, he did not and could not become a member of the Communist Party. That explains the man. Yet, he was appointed editor of Deshabhimani weekly, the cultural organ of the CPI (M).

The rest is history. On a fine morning, Master was called upon by some to “lead” the CPI(M). Or did he take up the task himself? We do not know. He was a sheer individualist. The contradiction between himself and the CPI(M) was explicit. He couldn’t cope with the collective leadership of the party; he thought that like him, CPI(M) was an outfit of individuals. Communist leadership is a different phenomenon, which most of our social scientists have not so far resolved to understand. The companions he got in his indefatigable feat of a war with party leadership gave him slogans. It is here , perhaps he failed. He did not fight with a slogan he coined. The left chiefly carries on struggle against imperialist hegemony in India. So, he fought for the slogan of others. He left Deshabhimani on his own. He was editing a diametrically opposite Pathom while he was still editor of Deshabhimani. This dialectics was resolved by his resignation. One of his companions said after his death; Vijayan master was a cross I was carrying; and the cross bent on my shoulders while he died. It is not metaphorical meaninglessness; it is ingratitude par excellence.

MN Vijayan was special in his death, too. The channels virtually celebrated his death.

A person who had great reverence for the Master writes this note; but the same person opposed a number of his contentions.

I bow my head in all reverence to his greatness and in all sorrow in his departure, on behalf of myself and on behalf of www.thanalonline.com.