THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is a saga that is exactly 26 years long. At a Gandhian camp, Lal Salam A, a school boy, highly inspired by a reply given by Sree Narayana Guru to Gandhiji, decides to follow the principles of the great saint. The secular Islamic family in Murukkumpuzha, to which he was born, never restricted the wish of the boy who chose to follow the preachings of Guru. The more than quarter-of-a-century old avocation of Lal is on display at the Government Sanskrit College here on the sidelines of the Thiruvananthapuram International Book Fair in the form of books related to Sree Narayana Guru. 600 books displayed under the title ‘Gurumulkazhcha’ add splendour to the devotion and dedication put in by Lal.Effort or money do not matter when it comes to Lal’s insatiable quest to plumb the depths of the principles of Guru. He has even made travels to various places just for the sake of grabbing anything related to the exemplar of many virtues. “Once I heard that a book on him is available in Kannada, I did not think twice about reaching Mangalapuram to get hold of the copy,” he says. His collection thus comprises works written in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi, English and Malayalam. One such distinguishable collection is Sree Narayana Guru’s ‘Daivadasakam’ in eight languages, which appears in Arabic alphabets also. He says that as people came to know about his hobby, many would approach him with available materials on Guru. His devotion does not end here. Inspired by Guru’s views on inter-caste marriage, he chose K R Maya, a girl born to a Hindu family, as his better half. Their children Sagar L and Brehethe L, students of sixth and fifth standards, too are ‘non-religious’ and ‘castle-less’ in all records and in practice. “Though the kids are brought up without belief in any faith, we will not restrict them adhering to any belief once they grow up,” says Maya. Lal does not stop his adventures here. He has mediated close to forty inter-caste marriages so far. Whenever his friends approach him for help with an affair, no matter what religion they are, Lal willingly takes the stewardship in conducting the marriage.The huge reservoir of books are also fact finders for those who conduct research on Sree Narayana Guru. “Whenever researchers express their wish to refer books in my collection, they are welcomed home. If necessary, photocopies can be taken; but not the books,” he says. An ardent leftist, he runs a publishing house, Mythri Books, at Statue Junction that publishes books in progressive literature category. Lal Salam’s collection spreads across a variety of genres comprising biography, poetry, children’s literature, screenplay, souvenir, travelogues, comics, manuscripts and lots more on Sree Narayana Guru. Though he has showcased only 600 works, fully focused on Sree Narayana Guru, the total collection comes around 1000 pieces starting from the 40 paise worth ‘Sree Narayana Sidhanthangal’ to ‘Sreenarayana Directory’ that costs Rs 1200. While ‘Nireeswaranaya Narayana Guru’ by Edamaruku shows Guru as an atheist, ‘Hindumathavum Sreenarayanaguruvum’ by Sathyan Moriyakkadu looks upon him as a man belonging to Hindu religion and M K Pavithran questions Guru’s religious leanings in ‘Sree Narayana Guru Hinduvo?’ Now Lal is fully engrossed on the completion of two books on Guru; one a biography and the other a collection of his letters and speeches. “I expect to publish them by January next year,” Lal said.
Comments
0 comment