https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Ente_ThankamEnte Thankam - Revision history2026-10-25T22:28:50ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.6https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ente_Thankam&diff=201705&oldid=prev>Fadesga: /* References */2021-04-24T14:39:09Z<p><span class="autocomment">References</span></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}<br />
"'''Ente Thankam'''" (My Darling) is a short story written by [[Vaikom Muhammad Basheer]]. It is his first published work. Originally published in the now-defunct newspaper ''Jayakesari'' in 1937, it was later published in the collection ''[[Vishappu]]'' (''Hunger'', 1954, Current Books) under the name "'''Thankam'''". A path-breaker in Malayalam romantic fiction, it had its heroine a dark-complexioned hunchback.<ref>{{cite book|title=Basheer fictions|author=M. N. Vijayan|author-link=M. N. Vijayan|editor=M. N. Vijayan|editor-link=M. N. Vijayan|publisher=Katha|year=1996|page=21}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.hindu.com/fline/fl2502/stories/20080201501110100.htm |title=Sultan of story: A birth centenary tribute to Vaikom Mohammed Basheer who picked up his tales from life's poetry |author=K. Satchidanandan |author-link=K. Satchidanandan |journal=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] |date=February 2008 |volume= 25 |issue= 2|access-date=3 June 2013}}</ref><br />
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==Background==<br />
After doing menial jobs in cities such as [[Ajmer]], [[Peshawar]], [[Kashmir]] and [[Calcutta]], Basheer returned to [[Ernakulam]] some time in the mid-1930s. While trying his hands at various jobs, like washing vessels in hotels, he met a manufacturer of sports goods from Sialkot who offered him an agency in Kerala. And Basheer finally returned home to find his father's business bankrupt and the family impoverished. He started working as an agent for the Sialkot sports company at Ernakulam. But he lost the agency when a bicycle accident incapacitated him temporarily. On recovering, he resumed his endless hunt for jobs. He walked into the office of a newspaper ''Jayakesari'' whose editor was also its sole employee. He did not have a position to offer, but offered to pay money if Basheer wrote a story for the paper.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia of South Indian literature, Volume 3|author=Madhubālā Sinhā|year=2009|publisher=Anmol Publications|page=240}}</ref> Thus Basheer found himself writing stories for ''Jayakesari'' and it was in this paper that "Ente Thankam" (My Darling) was published in the year 1937.<ref>{{cite book|title=Vushappu (Hunger)|author=Vaikom Muhammad Basheer|year=1954|publisher=Current Books|chapter=Foreword|quote=It is years since I have started writing stories. When did I start? I think it was from 1937. I have been living in Ernakulam since then. I was a writer by profession. I wrote a great deal. I would get my writing published in newspapers and journals. No one paid me for it. The stories were published between 1937 and 1941 in ''Navajeevan'', a weekly published in Trivandrum in those days.}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
{{Basheer}}<br />
{{Malayalam Literature |state=collapsed}}<br />
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[[Category:1937 short stories]]<br />
[[Category:Short stories by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer]]<br />
[[Category:Malayalam short stories]]<br />
[[Category:Works originally published in Indian newspapers]]<br />
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