33 PVK Blog Post ‘Exposing Kanayi Kunhiraman’. Letter mailed to the Editor ‘The New Indian Express’ Trivandrum on 5/Oct/2011.
Note: Kanayi Kunhiraman is said to be a great sculptor. I do not know. I am unable to appreciate art, other than the art that goes into literature or music, or rarely, painting.
But Kanayi could mould lies as easily as he could mould clay. He was a crook and stooped to the lowest levels possible to get his way. His ego was enormous and he had no compunctions about licking anyone’s bottom provided he got his way.
He was first brought to the Asan Memorial by that slick socialite C V Trivikraman. C V T, as most people knew him, was a culture vulture. He was very generous, funny, was a great mimic and raconteur and always great company. He could stoop to conquer but as time went by, he became more and more snobbish. He had a weakness (or is it strength?) for wine and women. He sowed his wild oats until his wife, my beloved aunt, Dr K Lalitha, was diagnosed with cancer. Thereafter, he was sober.
Kanayi was a frequent guest at his home. They used each other. C V T had Kanayi, glamorous and popular, design the ‘Valayar Award’, which he created and nurtured better than he looked after his own daughters. Kanayi designed the grills of his inconvenient but stylish home.
At Thonnakkal, I saw Kanayi’s worst side. He enabled corrupt politicians like M A Wahid and Kadakampally Surendran to amass wealth from the “developmental” works at the Asan Memorial. The quid pro quo was that he got to do what he wanted. Which, needless to say, was to fill the Asan Memorial’s compound with steel and cement. Funds flowed like water because the “developers” used Kanayi’s name and presence at meetings with ministers and other officials to keep the money flowing. This went on until there was no more land to “develop”.
This letter, largely self –explanatory, was written to the Editor of the New Indian Express, Trivandrum in October 2011.
Letter to the Editor mailed on 5/10/2011
From
P. Vijaya Kumar
Kamalalayam 2
Kunnukuzhy P O
Thiruvananthapuram
To
The Editor
The New Indian Express
Sasthamangalam
Thiruvananthapuram 10.
Dear Indian Express,
This is with reference to the piece in “City Express” dated 5/Oct/2011 titled “Blame Game Over Memorial to Poet of Love” by Mr N V Ravindranathan Nair.
In this piece Mr Kanayi Kunhiraman is quoted as saying that when the poet’s son Shri K Prabhakaran invited him in 1998 “to make the place worth attracting attention” he accepted the invitation.
There are three untruths in this statement. One is that when the tree-slaughter and house-alteration started in 1998 he had my father’s blessings. The fact is that in 1998 my father, Shri Prabhakaran had been dead for nearly a decade.
They did meet in the early 1980s. My father invited Mr Kunhiraman over to ask him where the trees that were mentioned in Asan’s poems should be planted in the memorial compound. Mr Kunhiraman’s response so alarmed him he never invited him again to the Memorial. “That fellow has other ideas”, was my father’s comment on why Mr Kunhiraman was not re-invited. Therefore the second falsehood is that he was following my father’s suggestions in making the alterations. (My father wanted to plant more trees; Mr Kunhiraman wanted to cut trees and erect statues.)
A third falsehood is embedded in this statement. Shri Prabhakaran never thought that the Memorial was not a place worth visiting.
Mr Kanayi’s fervent imagination seems to have misled him into making these assertions. He also forgets that his remuneration is not an issue here. I must however thank Mr Kunhiraman for supporting my view that the statue is about his own mind and not about Asan’s. Kanayi considers “the female body as a veena”. Asan did not. So this statue has to be removed from the memorial premises.
Sincerely yours,
P. Vijaya Kumar
(Son of the late Shri K Prabhakaran.)
P. Vijaya Kumar / PVK
profpvk@gmail.com
Thank you. Nandri. Namaskaram.
PVK 14/June/2026.
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