Prof Asher - Friend of Malayalam.

Professor Asher, who took Basheer across the seas, passes away at 96.

"Me Grandad 'ad an Elephant"! That's how Asher chose to translate Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's brilliant short novel Ntuppuppakkoraanendaarnnu, taking the 'Sultan of Beypore' across the seas.

Prof Ronald E Asher, who passed away late last month, aged 96, was a Britisher by birth but he was often mistaken for a Scot, given that he chose to settle in Edinburgh. His association with Kerala started in 1964, when he came to meet Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. He returned the very next year to interat with Basheer. As a linguist who specialised in Dravidian languages, he had deep-seated love for Malayalam literature and culture.

Prof Asher's intense admiration for Basheer's works was well known. Whenever he visited Kerala, he made it a point to visit Beypore and Thakazhi to meet the family members of his favourite authors. In an interview in London, Asher recounted his first meeting with Basheer. "I shared biryani with Basheer and it was really fun. We had some very relaxed conversations, which were also very informal. He was a good conversationalist. It was like reading a story, sharing his anecdotes in a very interesting way. I conversed with him in English but I could understand Malayalam".

Professor Asher never missed an opportunity to visit Kerala. When the Basheer Trust informed him about his winning the Basheer Award in 2010, he beamed like a child. "I couldn't quite believe it when they send me the email. I looked up at the Basheer Trust's website for the previous award winners. I just couldn't believe that I belong to that great group of artists, writers and sculptors", he had quipped.

"Thakazhi was a different personality altogether, who gave quite a different introduction to the literary world with his writings. It was a really good experience meeting these two writers. I got very close to both of them. It somehow makes the stories more real".

- Cynthia Chandran in the NIE.

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a quarter past 9. Washing machinex of bed linen. The interim maid, Aswathy does her work well and volunteers to take on additional ones without being prompted.

A quiet, relaxed day. .