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Korason Varghese - Holding a mirror to society (A.J. Philip)

Published on 15 February, 2021
Korason Varghese - Holding a mirror to society (A.J. Philip)
Two days ago, I received a call from an acquaintance in Chicago, USA. He has written about 100 poems in English and wanted my help to publish them. He also wanted me to edit the poems. He was ready to pay my fees, if any.

We had a long discussion on the subject. He will get back to me once he is able to give a finishing touch to some of his poems.

While we were on the phone, I remembered the book Valkannadi (Mirror), written by Korason Varghese and published by the Community Leadership Foundation, Kottayam, Kerala, that has been sitting on the bookshelf.


The author had gifted me the book while I was attending a conference organised by the Indo-American Press Club Inc. at Atlanta, USA, about three years ago.

Later, I learnt to my pleasant surprise that he ran a YouTube-based television channel and specialised in interviewing well-known persons.

His programme is also titled Valkannadi. I watched two interviews and he came across as a very able and pleasing interviewer. In both cases, he had done his homework. His questions were quite probing but not intimidating.

In fact, I wished that television anchors in India were like Korason. He is also a good speaker. I got one significant point from his speech at the IAPC conference.

There were many guests like me from India and they all referred to Indians in America as Pravasis (Non-resident Indians). He said they were not Pravasis but American citizens whose children could hold any office in the USA, including that of the President.

The Americans were there of their own volition and few aspired to return to India. I am sure the guests from India would have taken note of his point and refrained from addressing the Americans of Indian origin as NRIs.

The book Valkannadi is an anthology of 31 short essays on a variety of subjects. It has an Introduction by writer Benyamin and a study by Thomas Neelarmadam.

Needless to say, Korason has all the qualities of an essayist — a good command of the language, observational skills which are outstanding and clarity in thought and expression. It is easy to write if you are sure of what you want to write.

He is not like a famous writer who once told me a little proudly, “I have written the concluding paragraph in such a way that nobody knows what I have in my mind”. If asked, Korason would say, “I will write in such a way that even a child would be able to understand what I want to say”.

In these essays, he provides the pen portraits of some great persons like Bishop Paulos Mar Paulos, Metropolitan Paulos Mar Gregorios and Prof Ninan Koshy and exposes the silliness of the church in not allowing the grandmother of actor Priyanka Chopra to be buried in her ancestral church cemetery in Kerala.

He is a critical observer of American life, especially those of Indian immigrants. So he finds funny, busybodies attending funerals and delivering eulogies without knowing anything about the deceased. He also describes how the families and friends back home want nothing but to fleece their “American” relatives.

His description of the role played by Abraham Lincoln in American history is heart-touching. He is bold enough to provide a caricature of the devout praying soon after raping an innocent girl, who is still in pains.

He also writes about the genocides that happened in Syria and Turkey down the centuries with as much equanimity as he pays handsome tributes to an Orthodox priest who masters Eastern and Western music to praise the Lord.

The most touching is his account of how a relative had cheated him of the royalty of his father’s book. Korason Varghese is a simple, straightforward writer who keeps watching the American scene with as much interest as he follows the gutter politics of Kerala. Valkannadi is yet another feather on his cap.
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