Vaikom Muhammed Basheer

“I am the one both laughs and cries the most reading my works because all those are my experiences”

                                                                                                                                 - Vaikom Muhammed Basheer

Basheer gets crazy, do we?

I had heard some writers lament like this. Do they have trouble with it? No,  But, Some of them have the feeling of living in their works themselves!

Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, known as the Beypore Sulthan had led the revolution and spread love through his well-known literary works from his observations and ideas. For the tribute to this revolutionary, July 5  is celebrated as Basheer day. Sri Vaikom Muhammed Basheer was born on January 21, 1908, in the village of Talayolaparambu in Vaikom Taluk in Travancore.

He was a writer, humanist, freedom fighter,  known far and wide for his unique and gripping style of writing. Although he has a short quantity of works, his literature earned him a worldwide appearance being a new facet of Malayalam literature. It came alive when he began to tell the stories of marginalized humans of society as most characters were prisoners, beggars, prostitutes, and homosexuals where there had no place for such characters.

Basheer wrote, facing the criticisms, with his jokes and humor. His caustic style of writing stood against all the immoralities, that had existed in the community, especially, portraying the Muslim characters as villains in fiction and novels.

For most of his characters were about the downtrodden, Basheer’s works captivated worldwide attention throughout his lifespan.