80-year-old teacher's global classroom for Malayalam poetry

Sarasamma Teacher, 80, is neither a poet nor an author, but something perhaps more vital -- a devoted conduit for Malayalam poems, ensuring they flow to a new generation.

In her retirement, she has defied her age, turning to YouTube and other online platforms to bring this rich literary tradition to a modern, global audience.

Her popular YouTube account, 'Kavitharamam' with around 1,30,000 subscribers, is one of her new classrooms for sharing the language's poetry with lovers of verse from all walks of life.

The teacher is already a well-known figure among the children who compete in the State School Kalolsavam in Malayalam poem recitation; she says most of the participants render the poems they have learnt from her YouTube channel.

"More than 75 singers have recited poems on my YouTube channel as it is growing in popularity. Both children and adults recite the poems for my viewers," Sarasamma Teacher said.

Her YouTube channel features recitations of close to 500 poems drawn from the works of famous Malayalam poets. She was honoured by the Kerala chief minister for her contributions in encouraging the Malayalam language during the Official Language Week celebrations in the State Secretariat on November 1, Kerala's 69th birthday.

Hailing from Elanji in Ernakulam district, her passion for Malayalam poetry started during her school days.

After she became a teacher, she continued teaching children Malayalam poems, introducing the great Malayalam poets to the younger generation.

"After retirement, I started having poetry classes at my house. I had a good number of children coming to me for help with reciting poems for competitions. But the classes had to be discontinued when COVID-19 struck," the teacher said.

She said it was then her children came to her aid, teaching her how to launch online classes and start a YouTube channel.

"I only knew how to take calls and speak on the smartphone. But then my children taught me the wide possibilities of the smartphone, and I started conducting my classes online," the Teacher said.

Now, Sarasamma Teacher has a committee that selects poems to be presented on the YouTube channel, as many new writers want their poems to be featured.

"Our committee goes through the poems in detail and selects only those that are of high quality and have literary merit," she said.

The government identified her contributions in popularising Malayalam poems, both old and new, at a time when poetry is slowly being sidelined by readers of literature.

She was honoured at a ceremony in the famous Darbar Hall of the Kerala Secretariat, alongside Dr M M Basheer, a noted linguist, critic, and writer.

In his speech, Chief Minister Vijayan said Sarasamma teacher has been training children and interested adults across generations in art forms such as Aksharaslokam, Kavyakeli, and Kavyalapanam.

Supported by her husband P N Kesavan Nair, who is also a Malayalam teacher and writer, Sarasamma Teacher vows to continue her good work as she feels poetry is the most important and beautiful form of literature available, rating it higher than novels and short stories.

She also teaches children 'Aksharaslokam', a form of poetry that features tongue-twisting words in both Malayalam and Sanskrit.