It is all yellow. Banana chips scattered, on a surface. But in an order — it looks like a design to an outsider, but a Malayali recognises it as the letter 'ka' and the Malayalam for banana chips is kayavaruthathu. Navmi Krishna has made the design and posted it with a caption "Ka for Kayavaruthathu" and a hash tag #30daysofmalayalamletters. A campaign that has taken off on the social media on August 1. Originally begun as a campaign for designers to bring out creative Malayalam letters, it soon caught up and every layman appeared to have something new to give to the 52 letters of the alphabet.
Malayalam letters
"It came out after a few discussions in a Facebook group called Kerala Designers Collaborative (KDCo)," says Orion Champadiyil, a Kochi-based designer. "It is Onam and we wanted to celebrate Malayalam," he adds. They asked everyone to post their ideas on Instagram using the hashtag. The idea was that the designers will get a space. But then we didn't want to limit it to just designers. It is true we create with pen and pencil. But there were so many others using so many different media to bring out innovative designs. At the end of it all, we hope to do an exhibition,” Orion adds.
They have collected about 1600 to 1700 designs so far, and carefully curated and chosen 600 to put in their website. "We have tried to be inclusive and only repetitions were avoided," says Anand Nair, a user-experience consultant based in Chennai, and part of KDCo. There have been many unique designs, Anand says. "There is one guy who used old numerals that are not used anymore, through animation. Another person used a 7x7 Rubik's Cube, and yet another knits! Then there is a Dutch guy taking part in the campaign. He has a Malayali partner and has fallen in love with the language. He writes better Malayalam than a lot of Malayalis!" Anand says.
“I just loved the idea, so did it to be a part of the community. Particularly at this time when there is a lot of politics and disrespect towards regional language. So thought it's a good idea to celebrate the beauty of it,” says Navami, the ‘kayavaruthathu’ creator. Safety pins turning into the letter 'la', coins into 'va', telephone wires into 'ya' are all part of the campaign, and also proof of how Malayalis continue to love their language, despite being labelled a generation going away from the mothertongue. For these are mostly young participants taking part in the campaign. "It would also promote the language, that's true," says Hiran Venugopalan, another designer, based in Bengaluru.
"The idea with which it was begun was to show that designers are available and accessible, as opposed to the general perception that they are not. Everyone from veteran calligrapher Narayana Bhattathiri, to poster designer Gayathri Ashokan, type designer and language computing expert Santosh Thottingal, is ready to mentor those who wish to come into the field. We will have workshops, offline too, to make this possible. Everyone can participate, get their work reviewed." It is only day nine today but the entries keep coming. "We don't wish to give it the flavour of a competition, but want to cultivate a creative habit, where Malayalis from all walks of life come forward every August to celebrate our letterforms." Anand says.
