Chapter-3

Meanwhile father had returned from Kuwait and we had bought a house in Panayappali. We were having a fairly better life. Father decided to settle down, leaving his job in Kuwait. He started a private transport contract business. Since he did not have much experience in the field, he took a partner, Mohamed, who had experience in the business. They were transport contractors for Kerala State Electricity Board, FACT etc. The business was going well. That period was the happiest in our lives. We could have whatever we wanted, good food, and good clothes. I and Akbar were both studying in the tenth standard (SSLC), though in different schools. At that time Akbar was weaker than me in studies. We used to have combined study sessions in our house. Two of my cousins used to come to our house for combined study. Nowfel’s house was nearby, so he used to go back home after studies. But Gaffar, who was also my close friend, used to stay with us. Mother used to rear a cow at home. She gave us milk before bedtime. But she never discriminated between her sons and Gaffar. Gaffar’s parents were very poor at that time. My mother gave him also a glass of milk along with us. Gaffar was very much touched by this. He used to say “Aunty could have called both of you aside and given you the milk. Instead she considered me also as her son.” Later in life when he became a very rich business man, he always acknowledged with gratitude my mother’s affection and kindness. Incidentally, Gaffar did not study beyond pre degree. The other cousin Nowfel also did not go beyond pre degree. He also amassed a lot of money in business. Most of my childhood friends and cousins who did not have much education, did well in life, I mean they all made a lot of money. But I completed my graduation and then took my diploma in cinema. But I have never had enough money in my life.

After the SSLC exam, when results came, I passed in second class and Akbar in third class. I joined the Sacred Heart College, Thevera for my Pre-degree. But Akbar was taken to Bangalore by my uncle to educate him there. My self and my younger brother were close to each other. But his separation after the school final, cast sort formalities in our relation .We were not kids anymore. After his departure, he has rarely stayed home for long durations. He completed his pre-university and his engineering in Karnataka. I had taken biology group for Pre-degree, because my father wanted to make me a doctor. But my mental make-up was not suited to that. I even fainted seeing my own blood, when I cut my finger accidentally in the Biology dissection class.

Sacred Heart College, Thevara, was a men’s college at that time. (Later it was converted into a mixed college). After getting down at the bus stop, we had to walk about three kilometers to reach the college. The college was not on a bus route. The two years of study in that college was mostly uneventful. Only two incidents stand out in my memory. One was the massive students’ strike which later came to be known as “Murali samaram”. Murali was a frail little boy in my class. He was very weak physically. I was told he had a weak heart. The long walk to and from the college was tough for him. I had seen him panting after the long walks.

There was some student unrest, and the police had to resort to a lathi charge to disperse the unruly students. We ran helter skelter. Murali also might have run to escape the police lathis. The tragedy was that Murali died that evening after reaching home. But the student community (or their political masters) alleged that Murali died of police torture. This led to very violent state wide agitation by the students. I remember the strike was spearheaded by the Kerala students union headed by Oommen Chandy, who was a student of the Ernakulam Law College at that time. By coincidence, this time also the state was ruled by a communist ministry.

The other incident during my pre degree years was a personal one and an embarrassing one too. I used to have noon meals from the hostel mess. For that I used to buy monthly meals tickets from the college office. One day something in the meals did not agree with my stomach, and as soon as the afternoon session resumed, hectic activity seemed to be taking place inside my stomach. I felt as if a volcano is going to erupt inside my stomach. I clenched my teeth and suppressed the urge to rush to the bathroom. The botany lecturer was holding forth on the reproductive system in plants. I felt the volcano in my stomach will erupt any moment. I was straining every muscle in my body to prevent that explosion. But I failed. There was bang! All my efforts could do was subduing the sound. But it did not escape the sharp ears of my friend Sasi, who was sitting beside me. He looked at me in disbelief. I smiled weakly. He burst out laughing. The entire class turned around to look at us, backbenchers. The lecturer stopped lecturing. He asked sasi to stand up. He was still laughing uncontrollably. The lecturer said “Will you share the joke with us?” Sasi pointed at me. “Oh”, the lecturer said “so your friend, philosopher and guide, Mr. Adam Ayub is the source of your happiness”. Everybody looked at me, expecting me to entertain them too. “Will you enlighten us?” the lecturer asked sarcastically. I stood up, letting a little more gas escape. Sasi bit his lip in an effort to suppress his laugh. “Sorry sir” I said. “Oh you have disappointed the whole class” I just stood there pressing my legs tight. “Will both of you take your books and leave the class?”
“With pleasure” I said under my breath and trooped out. I left Sasi laughing his head off and rushed out of the college. I wanted to reach home as fast as I can. But it was a good one hour away. I almost ran towards the bus stop, hoping I could hold till I reached home. At least I reached the bus stop. Normally we idle away our time at the bus stop for about half an hour, without getting into any buses, because after that the buses come loaded with girls from the St.Theresa’s college, Ernakulam. Today I wanted to get away in the first bus that came. As I was desperately awaiting the bus, it happened! I could not hold back the volcano any longer. It erupted! Dirtying my pants! I was helpless. What could I do? There was a small restaurant at the bus stop. There was a narrow lane near the hotel. I didn’t know where that lane leads. I started walking backwards into the lane, because I did not want anybody to see the back of my pants. When I was safely inside the lane, I looked around. On the left side was the backyard of the hotel kitchen. It was a very dirty place. I saw a kitchen staff washing plates. I went inside. I told him I wanted to go to the lavatory. He looked at my pants. “It is loose motion…. I couldn’t control”. He pointed towards a covered area. “Go and relieve yourself there”. I went inside and hurriedly removed my clothes. Ha! The relief you get when you relieve yourself! Nothing can match that feeling. The worker brought me a bucket of water. I cleaned myself. I did not know what to do with the stinking pants. Then he brought me a mundu (Dhoti)
“Wear this”, he said.
“I will wash your clothes, you can collect them tomorrow”.
“You will..?”
“Yes.”
“How can I thank you.”
“Don’t worry, just wear this mundu and go home.”
I gratefully accepted the offer. Wearing the mundu without underwear, you feel like naked. But I had no other go. I came out to the bus stop and hid behind students waiting at the bus stop. When the bus came, I went to the back door, and got in. Since the girls occupy the front portion of the bus, normally there is a scramble for the front door. But today I wanted to make myself as inconspicuous as possible.

Next day, I brought some money and offered it to my benefactor of the previous day. He did not accept it. He had given my pants to the laundry. He took money just enough to pay the laundry bill. Next day I got my pants washed and ironed. That poor laborer was a real friend indeed! The help he rendered was timely and selfless. And he did not do it for money. In life, you rarely come across such people, whose greatness is beyond words.
After the weekend holidays, I went to meet him again on Monday. I wanted to invite him to my house. But he was not there. I realized that I had even forgotten to ask his name.
I made discreet enquiries with the hotel staff and learned that the hotel owner had fired him for being lazy. Lazy? A man who goes out of his way to help others, lazy? My friend! I do not know where you are! But how I wish if I could meet you once!

As I was very fond of music, I used to spend most of my spare time in front of the radio.
The radio was near my bed. I never used to sleep before the last song was played on radio Ceylon. My friend Ravi was also crazy about music. He had a guitar and he was learning guitar from an Anglo Indian music teacher. Ravi used to play guitar well. I was fascinated by his music. I wanted to learn guitar myself. I presented my wish before my father. He readily agreed. He bought me a guitar. I also started learning guitar from the Anglo Indian. He taught me a few hindi film tunes. But somehow my music lessons did not proceed much further. But Ravi(whom we used to call “Kunjiraman”) went on to become one of the best guitarists of Kerala. He along with a group of friends started the band group “Hijackers”. They were very popular in Ernakulam in those days. One day there was a performance by Hijackers at Sivaram sreekandath’s (I think he works in Malayalam Manorama now) house in connection with somebody’s birthday. I remember a little girl named Sujatha (Sivaram’s sister or niece) sang a Malayalam number to the accompaniment of music by hijackers. It was a wonderful performance. That girl later became the very famous playback singer –Sujatha. Ravi, by the way, is a successful lawyer in Kochi. Hari, who was a guitarist of “Hijackers” later founded the Harisree theatres and produced many Malayalam Films. He died at a young age. Incidentally, he was the younger brother of my classmate Venugopal, who was my co-singer of national anthem at SRV High School, Ernakulam.

I used to see almost every Hindi film that came to star theatre, Mattancherry. I knew almost all the Hindi songs of that period by heart. I knew their meanings too. We speak Cutchi language at home. That was because our ancestors came to kerala from Kutch in Gujarat. Though many generations over a period of more than six hundred years had passed, we still retained that language. It was only a spoken language, it has no script. But since it was very close to Hindi, It was easy for us to follow Hindi. Moreover my one year study in Urdu medium at Bangalore also helped me develop my skill over the language. I even got the highest marks in Hindi in the entire class in Bangalore. This continued in Kerala also. I always stood first in Hindi. In fact I made my literary debut in Hindi. I wrote my first story in Hindi in the College magazine of Sacred heart College, during my pre-degree years. This mastery over the Hindi language helped me later in my professional life also, as I had translated several Hindi serials and dubbed them into Malayalam for many television channels. In fact I had a fascination for languages. I liked to learn as many languages as possible. So during my film institute days, I learned all the south Indian languages, as I had classmates and room mates from all the south Indian states.

As the second year pre-degree exams drew near, I became a little jittery. I was quite at home with the languages. Biology and physics were also not very difficult. But chemistry was a big headache. I was feeling a little uneasy after the chemistry exam. The practical exam was also tough. I was anxiously waiting for the result. Father was bent on sending me to the medical college. There was no entrance test then. But he was making frantic enquiries about admission to medical college. But when the results came, I failed in my university exams for want of a few marks in chemistry. That was the first failure in my life. Thus I lost a total of two years in my academic life. Meanwhile Akbar had passed his pre-university in Karnataka, with flying colors.

The intense coaching by my uncle and aunty improved his academic standards tremendously. While he joined the engineering college at Suratkal in Karnataka, I joined the wisdom tutorial college in Ernakulam to prepare for the September exam. Kochin Haneefa who later became a film actor, was my classmate here. I passed the September exam with good marks. There were almost nine months before the next academic year begins. I had always nursed a secret dream of becoming a film director. On my request, father had bought a book titled “How to Film” for me from Kuwait. I studied this book thoroughly, which increased my fascination for films. At this time I saw the admission notification of Poona Film Institute and I applied; but after a few days I received a communication from them asking me to produce a certificate during interview to prove that Kerala’s pre degree is equivalent to the Intermediate. On enquiry I learned that it was not so and thus I lost the chance to join Poona Film Institute. But I did not loose hope. I told father that I wanted to join the film industry directly.
. Mr.M.Hussain Sait (chakradhari), who was the production controller of Kalalaya Films, had some connections in the film industry. They had produced many Malayalam films like,”Zubaida”’,”Doctor”,” Balayakalaskhi” etc. He gave me a letter of recommendation addressed to cameraman U.Rajagopal. Rajagopal was the cameraman of all Kalalaya productions. I had absolutely no contacts in Madras. My friend Mohamed Ali introduced me to his friend Pasha, who was going home to Madras by the same train. Thus at the age of 18, I entrained to Madras with celluloid dreams fluttering in my heart. I imagined that film industry is waiting for me with open arms.
(End of chapter-3)

Adam Ayub is a well-known cine artiste with multi-dimensional talents in his field. He is also a good writer. This is an extract from his autobiography. The filmography of Adam Ayub is given separately. He graduated from Ernakulam Maharajas College in 1972 and joined the film Institute in Madras. After passing his diploma, he worked in the film Industry for about 10 years, before switching over to television when doordarshan started operation. He has no other profession, but does several jobs in the media . He writes articles in English and Malayalam, and teaches cinema at various Media Institutes. He is also an actor and screenplay writer. He directs documentaries, serials and spots. He translates Films and serials from different languages into Malayalam, and vice versa. He says he is not a psychologist, but according to him, teaching is a psychological process , particularly acting, screenplay writing and direction, where you have no prescribed textbooks to follow. It is a sort of a psychological treatment, teaching the art and craft of film making. Ever since he passed out from the Film Institute in 1975, he had been working in the film industry as Associate director and in very few films as actor. When Doordarshan was first established in Kerala, he switched over to Television. Now he is very active in the media.

Read : List of Filmography by Adam Ayub