I grew active in Youth Festivals while studying at St. Joseph's High School in Thiruvananthapuram. The picture below was taken when I came second in Poetry Writing at the District level youth festival in 1984. I am receiving the certificate from dance legend and founder of the Keralanatanam dance style, Guru Gopinath. The very next year, 1985, I came first in the district and received a rolling trophy from Her Highness Karthika Thirunal Thampuratti (sister of the last king of Travancore) at the school named after her in Manacaud. Unfortunately, no photo was taken. I thus earned a berth in the district team participating in the state youth festival at Ernakulam.
The students and teachers from various schools set out in two buses. My Malayalam teacher Shri M.S. Dany was one of the organizers. Neena Prasad came for Mohiniyattam from my first school Holy Angels' Convent, Viswanathan came for the dances from Model School. He was the kid brother of actress/ dubbing artist Kukkoo Parameswaran and had himself played parts in a couple of Adoor Gopalakrishnan's movies. Years later he was to play the adult hero, in Adoor's Kathapurushan. Chief Secretary R. Ramachandran Nair's son Ajay came from Vidhyadhiraja school for the Kathakali sangeetham event. Those were magnificent days at the Ernakulam Durbar Hall ground.
The day of my poetry writing contest came. In fact, it is called as versification. The contestant is required to do three things - write a poem on a given topic in Malayalam, convert a piece of English prose into Malayalam poem and also convert Malayalam prose into Malayalam poem, and all these within an hour. The three judges came into the room to give us the topic. They were Vyloppilli Sreedharan Nair, Pala Narayanan Nair, and Chemmenem Chacko. I did not win any prize. Later Dany sir approached Vyloppilli with my poem and learned that I had deviated from the topic and went behind in the points. While that was unfortunate, I will honestly say that I never had any regret then or do I have now for losing the prize. The very fact of being in the presence of the legendary Vyloppilli who wrote such poems as Mampazham and Panthangal and having my work assessed by him itself was a reward unmatched by anything. But the 5 points I earned did contribute to Thiruvananthapuram eventually emerging overall winner and all of us holding aloft the golden rolling trophy given away by the Education Minister T. M. Jacob.
The Kalaprathibha or overall male champion of the festival was Vineeth from Talassery and the Kalathilakam or overall female champion was Ponnambili. Vineeth stood first in Bharathanatyam and Mohiniyattam. Shankaran Nambuthiri won the Classical music first prize went on to become a reputed singer holding thousands of concerts. Vineeth's guru was Kalamandalam Saraswathi, wife of the great writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair. During the summer holidays after our SSLC (school leaving exam) Vineeth was cast in a movie called Nakhakshathangal (Nail Marks) by M.T and he went on to act in several movies. However, he is best remembered for roles that involve dancing. I cannot say that he excelled in both dance and cinema acting like his cousin sister Shobhana did. Ponnambili sang many a playback. Neena Prasad became a professional dancer and took post-doctoral degrees in Mohiniyattam.
Memories going back three decades......
(2015)
The students and teachers from various schools set out in two buses. My Malayalam teacher Shri M.S. Dany was one of the organizers. Neena Prasad came for Mohiniyattam from my first school Holy Angels' Convent, Viswanathan came for the dances from Model School. He was the kid brother of actress/ dubbing artist Kukkoo Parameswaran and had himself played parts in a couple of Adoor Gopalakrishnan's movies. Years later he was to play the adult hero, in Adoor's Kathapurushan. Chief Secretary R. Ramachandran Nair's son Ajay came from Vidhyadhiraja school for the Kathakali sangeetham event. Those were magnificent days at the Ernakulam Durbar Hall ground.
The day of my poetry writing contest came. In fact, it is called as versification. The contestant is required to do three things - write a poem on a given topic in Malayalam, convert a piece of English prose into Malayalam poem and also convert Malayalam prose into Malayalam poem, and all these within an hour. The three judges came into the room to give us the topic. They were Vyloppilli Sreedharan Nair, Pala Narayanan Nair, and Chemmenem Chacko. I did not win any prize. Later Dany sir approached Vyloppilli with my poem and learned that I had deviated from the topic and went behind in the points. While that was unfortunate, I will honestly say that I never had any regret then or do I have now for losing the prize. The very fact of being in the presence of the legendary Vyloppilli who wrote such poems as Mampazham and Panthangal and having my work assessed by him itself was a reward unmatched by anything. But the 5 points I earned did contribute to Thiruvananthapuram eventually emerging overall winner and all of us holding aloft the golden rolling trophy given away by the Education Minister T. M. Jacob.
The Kalaprathibha or overall male champion of the festival was Vineeth from Talassery and the Kalathilakam or overall female champion was Ponnambili. Vineeth stood first in Bharathanatyam and Mohiniyattam. Shankaran Nambuthiri won the Classical music first prize went on to become a reputed singer holding thousands of concerts. Vineeth's guru was Kalamandalam Saraswathi, wife of the great writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair. During the summer holidays after our SSLC (school leaving exam) Vineeth was cast in a movie called Nakhakshathangal (Nail Marks) by M.T and he went on to act in several movies. However, he is best remembered for roles that involve dancing. I cannot say that he excelled in both dance and cinema acting like his cousin sister Shobhana did. Ponnambili sang many a playback. Neena Prasad became a professional dancer and took post-doctoral degrees in Mohiniyattam.
Memories going back three decades......
(2015)
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